how can i tell if i already bought

[Cath]

any setting some where, that i could enable, to show if a item been purchased by me. i been away 4 years, joined in 2010

[justpattyanne]

When you go to your cart, it will tell you at the top what products you have already bought and give you the option to remove those from your basket. It has saved me many a time!

[SweetChar]

I've, numerous times, added something to my cart just so that I could see if I already bought it. lol Like PattyAnne said, when you look at your cart, it will show at the top if something in the cart was already purchased. I almost always buy the full bundle so that's what I look for. Otherwise, I look through my computer files.

[tjscraps]

What they said - but beware if you bought it as a bundle and now just have the kit in there it won't recognize it as the same product (done that a time or two ....) I keep my store emails now and quickly search the name of the product in gmail to see if it comes up in a 'download links' one.

[HavaDrPepper]

I looked at all my past invoices to see what I had bought. They can be downloaded as pdf files as well. I ended up pulling up a month at a time, saving the pdf and going through those to get the info I was looking for.

[Karen_]

I really wish I could force the store to say I've purchased something since I have SO much of Mirjam's and Val's stuff already. Lol. I'll just have to be sure to check my stash on my own before I buy anything of theirs moving forward.

I also worry that I'll buy a kit when I already bought the bundle or vice versa. It's something I would totally do. Lol.

[bienejen]

I guess when in doubt you could put both the bundle and the single kit in your cart to verify if you'd purchased either already and then remove one of them? I finally ended up making a Google sheet with all my kits organized by designer and then I have columns to indicate if they've been used yet or not, frequently used, some keywords and I recently added a new column to indicate if it's retired.

[Karen_]

Originally Posted by bienejen

I guess when in doubt you could put both the bundle and the single kit in your cart to verify if you'd purchased either already and then remove one of them? I finally ended up making a Google sheet with all my kits organized by designer and then I have columns to indicate if they've been used yet or not, frequently used, some keywords and I recently added a new column to indicate if it's retired.

I love the idea of a spreadsheet! I might have to start something like that. I wonder how long it would take to list 16 years of supplies. Lol! I have a system of keeping track of everything I've purchased that I started a LONG time ago with thumbnails in a Word Doc of everything, but I should have left a description of each item too so I could search by words. I recently started adding that, but I would love to go back and add those in for all my older stuff too.

I also see that you're in Western Michigan... I live in SW Michigan! I wonder how close we are?

[HavaDrPepper]

Originally Posted by bienejen

I guess when in doubt you could put both the bundle and the single kit in your cart to verify if you'd purchased either already and then remove one of them? I finally ended up making a Google sheet with all my kits organized by designer and then I have columns to indicate if they've been used yet or not, frequently used, some keywords and I recently added a new column to indicate if it's retired.

Yep, I have the spreadsheet as well. That's why I pulled invoices so I could find out when I bought something. My columns include Kit name, Designer name, Store, Theme, Purchase Date, Used and Retired.

The Store column is for where I bought it even if the designer moved stores and have the kit for sale in the current store.

I also have tabs for the 2 stores I shop at and a master tab. So all my SSD kits are on one tab and I only have to search on it when I'm looking for something.

Also, something that happened when I pulled my invoices... I found a kit listed at TLP that I couldn't find on my computer or EHD's. Not even the zip file could be found. Luckily, the kit is still in the store and I was able to get the links reset. I had purchased it over 15 months earlier!

[HavaDrPepper]

Originally Posted by Karen_

I love the idea of a spreadsheet! I might have to start something like that. I wonder how long it would take to list 16 years of supplies. Lol! I have a system of keeping track of everything I've purchased that I started a LONG time ago with thumbnails in a Word Doc of everything, but I should have left a description of each item too so I could search by words. I recently started adding that, but I would love to go back and add those in for all my older stuff too.

Honestly, it is worth the time it takes to do it. I started by listing the kits in the folders on my hard drive. That took me a couple of days since I also have old kits on EHD's. I tried to note if it had been used or not by searching on my credits spreadsheet. I worked on that when I felt like it. Overall it took me about a month to get where I was satisfied with the spreadsheet.

Now I pull it up every time I scrap. I filter out any kits I've already used and try to choose a kit from what is left to scrap with. I've been able to use quite a few. This spreadsheet also shows me what kind of kits I might be lacking or what I have too many of!

[Tree City]

This is for everyone reading my post: MAKE A SPREADSHEET.

Cath, if you start a spreadsheet now, as you unzip and organize files, then you will have that information going forward. Good news: you haven't purchased anything for years, correct? So if you arrange the store by DATE (newest first), then you should be pretty golden for the first...let's say 20 pages of each designer's products (if they release at least one item per month). That's what I did after taking a little "maternity leave" awhile ago. That way I saw new-to-me products without getting bogged down in "Do I already have this???"-itis lol. ETA: I have a DATE column so I can quickly see the last time I bought something (and since I can arrange by designer, I can see the last time I bought something by a specific designer). And yup, it's easy to search. I know people who love Google Sheets, but I'm an Excel gal. I only shop on my desktop, so it works for me.

[cherrygutz]

This is what I used to do here too before, because there was a time when I bought the kit only (without the journal cards), and then I saw it in bundle and bought it without knowing that I already have the kit.

Originally Posted by bienejen

I guess when in doubt you could put both the bundle and the single kit in your cart to verify if you'd purchased either already and then remove one of them? ...

[Cath]

Thank you for the ideas. I do have a spreadsheet of purchases from 2015 to middle 2017. and all my zips are on a drive. Purchases prior to 2015 are on a external somewhere, as i my hp corrupted a drive, then the puter died. I have 6413 zips from past 4 years to unzip. Guess a new order of things should be planned, as new puters don't have 2 mechanical drives inside like this one does.

Mind just lost on how to proceed from here

[tjscraps]

I'm a spreadsheet girl, 100% ... but cataloging my supplies seems like a huge undertaking lol

[Tree City]

Originally Posted by tjscraps

I'm a spreadsheet girl, 100% ... but cataloging my supplies seems like a huge undertaking lol

lol, you're right it is a huge undertaking. When I started my spreadsheet, I didn't catalog previous purchases: I started by only including new purchases/CT kits as I got them. Then, whenever I searched my Kits folder (for a specific kit or a specific item--or to make sure I hadn't already bought a kit I was looking at in the store lol), I'd add the kits that I browsed to the spreadsheet. That made it more manageable of a task AND it helped me get to know my stash.

Now I don't buy anything unless I have the time to unzip and catalog the same day I purchase stuff. Nothing sits in my Downloads folder*. It helps me use what I buy and it's just fun to see all my goodies! I also have a PREVIEWS folder so that's another step: tagging the preview and adding a copy to my PREVIEWS folder.

*Sometimes big sales or events, like DSD, mean purchases sit for a day or two cuz I'm busy scrapping and chatting etc. But I try to get organized asap after all the fun!

[JennNtheBoys]

Like others have said here, if I am unsure of something, I will add it to my cart, and it will let me know. If the item(s) has a bundle available, I typically throw the bundle, and the kit in my cart just to make sure I didn't already purchase it in any of the offered forms.