Using Claude to track my Pokémon TCG collection

A new Pokémon TCG shop opened up in my town a few weeks ago, so naturally, I popped in. And like a kid in a sweet shop with a pocket full of adult money, I bought a bunch of cards. I got especially excited about the amount of vintage cards they had in stock, so I wracked my brain to try and remember which gaps I had in my childhood sets, to see if I could fill them in.

I did pretty well, but I did grab a couple of duplicates. This is a recurring theme; I’ve done the same thing recently with comic books too. I needed a solution that I could deploy right before the moment of purchase, to confirm that I wasn’t about to buy a duplicate.

I got Claude to create a series of CSV files; one for each of the sets in the Original Series, with columns for Number, Name, Rarity, Owned (tickbox) and Childhood set (tickbox). I filled out all the tickboxes and exported the sheets again as CSVs.

I set up a Claude project for Pokémon TCG and added the folder of files into the context. Now when I’m in the shop and I see a card that I want to buy, I can just ask Claude if it’s already in my collection. I can check whether it’s the holo or non-holo version that I’ve got, or ask which set I’m closest to completing.

Each time I add a new card to the collection, I update the spreadsheet, export and re-upload to Claude

On my second trip to the shop, I came away without a single duplicate, so I’d say that’s a success