If you already have your miniature collection stored in a file, you may upload it directly to Miniature Trading. You only need to format the file in the way shown below. Then, you access on the site the list of miniatures you have or you want for a specific game and click on the link that appears at the bottom, in the 'Add miniature list from file' box.
You will get a form with the following fields:
- File: you should enter here the file to upload. Press the button and search and select on your computer the file with your miniatures.
- Collection: you may upload a file that only contains the miniatures you have or that only contains those you want. In these cases you should select 'Haves' or 'Wants'. But you can also upload files where you list both the miniatures you have and the miniatures you want. In this case you should select 'Both'.
- remove first the existing miniatures: select this option if you want to replace the miniatures already in your collections in Miniature Trading with those in the file you are uploading. Be aware that the miniatures will be deleted even if errors occur that prevent the list in your file to be uploaded.
- ignore errors: if you select this option the miniatures in your file will be uploaded even if errors are detected in some of the records. We recommend not to check this option the first times you try to upload a file. This option allows for lines in the file with incorrect format, which will be simply ignored (although the corresponding errors will be shown nevertheless).
Once the file you provided gets processed you will see a page with the result obtained. If there were errors they will be listed with the line they occurred in and a description (only the first 20 errors will be shown). If no errors were detected (or if you chose the option to ignore them), the number of miniatures added to your lists will be shown.
The errors that may occur are the following:
- The name of the expansion set indicated for the miniature does not match any of the expansions included in the game. You must check the first field in the affected line and make sure it matches exactly with the name of one of the expansion sets in that game as the appear on the sets list for that game in the 'search for a miniature' section.
- The number of the miniature does not exist in the indicated expansion set. You must check the second field in the affected line and make sure that it is the number assigned to the miniature as it appears in the miniature list of the corresponding expansion set in the 'search for a miniature' section.
- The number and the name of the miniature do not match each other, i.e. the name corresponding to the miniature with that number is not the same than the one in your file. You must check that the third field in the affected line contains the name of the miniature as it appears in the miniature list of the corresponding expansion set in the 'search for a miniature' section for the corresponding number.
- The name indicated for the miniature does not match any of the miniatures included in the indicated expansion set. You must check that the third field in the affected line contains the name of a miniature as it appears in the miniature list of the corresponding expansion set in the 'search for a miniature' section.
- The indicated amount is not a number. You must check that the fourth field in the affected line contains a number (positive for miniatures you have, and negative, that is, with an initial negative sign, for miniatures you want), or a couple of numbers separated by a slash ("/").
Format of the files to upload
The file to be uploaded must have a very specific format so that it can be processed without problems. It must be a text file in which each line contains the data for an element of the collection. You can see examples of correctly formatted lines here.
The data for each element are to be separated by tabs (the character you get by pressing the 'Tab' key of your computer keyboard) and should not be delimited by quotes. Most spreadsheet and database programs let you export their contents to text files delimited by tabs. You can also use a text editor to adapt your list to our format.
The data for each miniature have to be the following, and in the indicated order:
- 1) Expansion set: name or abbreviation of the expansion set in which the miniature belongs.
- 2) Number: number of the miniature in its expansion set. It must be exactly the number that corresponds to the miniature in our listings. You may leave this field empty if you don't know the exact value for each miniature, and if you provide its exact name (see next field).
- 3) Name: name of the miniature as it appears on this web site. It must exactly match to allow the system to identify the miniature without ambiguity. It may differ in the use of uppercase letters and accents. You may leave this blank if you provide the number of the miniature (see previous field).
- 4) Amount: number of identical copies of the miniature that you have or want. In the first case it must be a positive number, in the second case you must use a negative value. For the miniatures you have you may indicate both the number of them you are offering for trade and those you are keeping in your collection. You need to separate them with a slash, being the first figure the number of miniatures you are trading, and the second figure the number of them you have in your collection. For example:
- 2/1 means that you offer two copies of the miniature and you keep one for your private collection
- 2 means that you offer both copies that you have for trade
- /1 or 0/1 means that you don't offer any copies of the miniature but you have one copy in your private collection
- 5) Comments: any comments you want to include with that miniature in your lists at Miniature Trading.
Examples of correct lines in the files to upload
The following are lines that are formatted correctly to be uploaded to Miniature Trading. Real values have been chosen for some of the existing games. You must replace the arrows (->) with tabs:
For the game 'HeroClix: DC':
Hypertime ->99 ->Joker (Veteran) ->-2 ->for sale
This line indicates that you want (because the amount value is negative) 2 copies of the miniature 'Joker (Veteran)' which is number '99' from expansion set 'Hypertime'. It also includes a comment ('for sale') which will show in your lists next to the miniature.
Sinister (Marvel) ->24 ->Beetle (Veteran) ->2/1 ->
This line indicates that you offer 2 copies and keep 1 in your collection of the miniature 'Beetle (Veteran)' which is number '24' from expansion set 'Sinister (Marvel)'. You don't include any comments.
For the game 'Pirates CSG':
Pirates of the Mysterious Islands ->MI-015 ->Bashaw Folly ->2 ->for sale
This line indicates that you have 2 copies of the miniature 'Bashaw Folly' which is number 'MI-015' from expansion set 'Pirates of the Mysterious Islands'. It also includes a comment ('for sale') which will show in your lists next to the miniature.
Pirates of the Barbary Coast ->067 ->Alonso de Orozco ->2/1 ->
This line indicates that you offer 2 copies and keep 1 in your collection of the miniature 'Alonso de Orozco' which is number '067' from expansion set 'Pirates of the Barbary Coast'. You don't include any comments.
For the game 'Lord of the Rings TMG':
Base Set ->104 ->Elrond (Red) ->-1 ->
This line means that you want (because the amount value is negative) 1 copy of the miniature 'Elrond (Red)', which is number '104' in the expansion set 'Base Set'.
