soooooo I Just paid off my 4th characters house so I am no longer in debt so I am using 2 of my characters to fill my museum with the bugs and fish, one to work on gracies sets and the 4th I want to build up their catalog so it is complete. Does it only count if you buy the item or can another buy it give it to you and you sell it for it to go in the catalog?
Thanks!

All you need to do to get an item show up in your catalog, is to pick it up. You don't need to buy it or to sell it. This is what makes cataloging sessions so effective, the host has all these items all over the ground, and visitors (or other players in that same town) pick them up and drop them again. This way, they fill their catalog and it doesn't cost the host anything. Except when some visitors forget to drop the items.

Wearing a wetsuit when cataloging clothes helps.  You wouldn't have the option to put it on so it goes faster.

In my 2nd town one player bought all the items and than dropped them at the train station.  The rest of the players picked the items up and them dropped them.   Picked up the items before I ended for the night.

All 4 players in that town have a full catalog.

Thanks for the tips. I now have the bronze badge for catalog and still working on building up more

that sounds cool! cataloging is for badges? and then you can look through the catalog?

Aksinya  It's for the badge and also for ordering items from your catalog.  Items like Gracie stuff and campground stuff can't be reordered.  It's a nice to catalog them and than order just the things you want later in the game.