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Connect Your Free Accounts

My Collection Ledger doesn't run its own servers for identifying and enriching your items — instead, it connects directly to free services using accounts you create and control yourself. That means no subscription fees for this feature, ever, but it does mean a little setup. This guide walks through every service, in order, so you can have it all connected in about 30 minutes.

Tip: use the same email address for every sign-up below. It makes it much easier to find and manage all these accounts later, and most of them only need an email to get started — no separate password manager entry required if you don't want one.
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Marketplace Pricing

eBay

Longer setup~10 min

Used for: active asking-price lookups on eBay for your items. Optional — the app works fully without this, it just won't show live pricing. eBay's own naming is a little confusing, so a heads-up: what they call your App ID is your Client ID, and what they call your Cert ID is your Client Secret.

  1. Sign up for the eBay Developers Program and verify your email.
  2. Go to My Account → Application Keys.
  3. Enter an application name, then click Create a keyset under Production (not Sandbox — Sandbox is only for testing with fake data).
  4. Confirm your contact info when asked, then continue to create the keys.
  5. Copy the App ID (Client ID) and Cert ID (Client Secret) shown.

Paste into: Settings → Marketplace → eBay Client ID / Client Secret — and make sure the Environment switch on that same screen is set to Production too, matching the keyset you just created. A Sandbox key paired with the Production switch (or vice versa) won't work.

AI Photo Identification — pick at least one

Added more than one? Head to Settings → AI Settings → Primary provider and pick which one actually gets used. The others just sit ready as backups you can switch to anytime — nothing extra to configure for that.

Google Gemini

Free~2 min

Used for: identifying items from a photo. Has a genuinely free daily quota — no card required.

  1. Go to Google AI Studio and sign in with any Google account.
  2. Click Get API key, then Create API key.
  3. Copy the key shown.

Paste into: Settings → AI Settings → Gemini API Key

Anthropic Claude

Paid~2 min

Used for: identifying items from a photo. No free tier — you'll need to add a small credit balance, but photo identification typically costs a fraction of a cent each.

  1. Go to the Anthropic Console and sign up.
  2. Go to API Keys, click Create Key.
  3. Add a small amount of credit under Billing before your first request.

Paste into: Settings → AI Settings → Claude API Key

OpenAI

Paid~2 min

Used for: identifying items from a photo. Same idea as Claude — no free tier, but a small credit balance covers a very large number of photos.

  1. Go to the OpenAI Platform and sign up.
  2. Go to API keys, click Create new secret key.
  3. Add a small amount of credit under Billing before your first request.

Paste into: Settings → AI Settings → OpenAI API Key

OpenRouter

Free models available~2 min

Used for: identifying items from a photo, via a rotating selection of free-tier vision models. Good fallback if Gemini's daily quota runs out.

  1. Go to OpenRouter and sign up (email or Google).
  2. Go to Keys in your account settings.
  3. Click Create Key, name it anything, copy it.

Paste into: Settings → AI Settings → OpenRouter API Key

DeepSeek (Experimental)

Paid — Cheapest~3 min

Used for: identifying items from a photo. Unlike Gemini/OpenRouter, this is not free — you get a one-time starter credit, then it's pay-per-use (typically well under a cent per photo). Only add this if you specifically want it; Gemini or OpenRouter alone are enough to use the app.

  1. Go to the DeepSeek Platform and sign up.
  2. Go to API Keys, click Create new key.
  3. You'll need to add a payment method once your free starter credit runs out.

Paste into: Settings → AI Settings → DeepSeek API Key

Ollama (Local)

Free — no account~10 min

Used for: identifying items from a photo, entirely on your own Mac — no internet connection needed once set up, nothing ever leaves your computer. The trade-off: it needs real software installed, and photo identification runs slower than the cloud options above.

  1. Install Ollama from its official site (a real, one-time app install — not a website sign-up).
  2. Open Terminal and pull a vision-capable model, e.g. ollama pull llava.
  3. Leave Ollama running in the background while using My Collection Ledger.

Set in: Settings → AI Settings → Ollama Base URL (defaults to http://localhost:11434, correct for most setups) and Model (whatever you pulled, e.g. llava)

Comics

Comic Vine

Free~1 min — the easiest one

Used for: issue/volume matching, creators, characters, covers, and more.

  1. Go to the Comic Vine API page and log in or sign up.
  2. Your key is shown immediately on that same page — no waiting, no form to fill out.

Paste into: Settings → Enrichment Sources → Comic Vine API Key

Video Games

IGDB

Longer setup~8 min

Used for: game matching, platforms, cover art, and release info. This is the most involved sign-up in this whole list — it's free, but it goes through Twitch's developer system rather than a simple form.

  1. You'll need a Twitch account with a phone number added for verification — if you don't have one, create it first.
  2. Go to the Twitch Developer Console and register a new application.
  3. Name it anything unique (like my-collection-ledger-yourname), set Redirect URL to localhost, Category to Application Integration.
  4. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret it gives you.

Paste into: Settings → Enrichment Sources → IGDB Client ID / Client Secret

Trading Cards

Books

Google Books (optional)

Works without this~5 min if added

Used for: book matching, publisher, and cover art. Books actually works out of the box with zero setup — Google Books' public data and Open Library both work without any key at all. The catch: that free access shares one global quota across everyone in the world who hasn't added a key, so it can occasionally hit a limit even with light, normal use. Adding your own free key gives you your own personal daily allowance instead.

  1. Go to the Google Cloud Console and sign in with any Google account.
  2. Create a new project (any name works).
  3. Search for Books API in the library and click Enable.
  4. Go to APIs & Services → Credentials → Create Credentials → API key.
  5. Copy the key. (Optional: click "Restrict key" and limit it to the Books API specifically.)

Paste into: Settings → Enrichment Sources → Google Books API Key

Movies

TMDB

Free~5 min

Used for: movie matching, studio, and cover art. Note: TMDB's sign-up page works better on a desktop browser than on mobile.

  1. Sign up for a TMDB account and verify your email.
  2. Go to Settings → API in your account.
  3. Click to request an API key, choose Developer as the type.
  4. Fill in an application name and URL — anything works here, even a placeholder like your GitHub profile, if you don't have a real project URL.
  5. Submit — the key is usually issued immediately.

Paste into: Settings → Enrichment Sources → TMDB API Key

Music

Discogs

Free~1 min

Used for: artist, label, format, and pressing information for physical media.

  1. Sign up for a Discogs account.
  2. Go to your Developer Settings page.
  3. Click Generate new token — that's it, no application form needed.

Paste into: Settings → Enrichment Sources → Discogs Token

Toys