Leaving ComicBase and need help 1 1

[MedicAR]

I've been using ComicBase for the last eleven years or so and thought it was awesome. They did a recent upgrade to their site and it all went to carp.  The mobile reports no longer function, the site isn't quite right, and now the program itself has lost around 300 of my books. I want to migrate to a new program but don't want to manually enter nearly 15,000 books.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Collectorz looks like the way to go but entering the data via import/export has been less than ideal, not getting quantities or grades or other random bits.  Does anyone know of software to make the transition?  Collectorz has hinted at one in the past but it doesn't appear to have come together yet.  Is there another good program?

Edited June 6, 2017 by MedicAR

[Zacreth]

Sorry to hear that Medic. There's no tool currently that I know of that will transition your data into their unless they have a generic text file upload. There were tons of different programs people are using that told me over the weekend during PhoenixCon but lots of people I know was using ComicBase.

I'm trying to find a reasonable multi channel inventory manager for a decent price and haven't found one yet.

I know people were using apps like Collectorz though and there's a few others out there.

[sckao]

Depends on your ComicBase version, but if you can export to Excel or CSV, you shouldn't have a problem. (You should be able to with most versions...)

Collectorz has an Import Text/CSV function. You just have to get your data in the right format.

https://connect.collectorz.com/whatsnew/posts/2017/01/03/new-import-text-csv-files/

 

 

Edited June 7, 2017 by sckao

[MedicAR]

Thanks for the ideas.  

ComicBase has been fantastic but it keeps having hiccups.  I've had entire databases become corrupted.  I had an error in the program occur where the notes for Batman #428 were randomly inserted into various titles and issues throughout the system.  Now it has deleted a title that I created and had issues in inventory for despite the claim that if an issue is in stock of anything, an update will not delete it.  Their last "upgrade" was a fancy new picture on the startup screen and their "mobile app" is an icon on your home screen that takes you to a bookmark in your browser.  The capper is losing two long boxes worth of entries that have been assimilated into my regular collection, somewhere around 250 books.  I only know because my total number of books in my inventory went down after adding them.  They have an option to back up databases to the cloud an that "app" I mentioned before will allow you to see your collection on your device.  It sounds good but we only get to see empty databases or incomplete information.  The best part of all of this?  Their only suggestion for all of these problems is to contact their tech support.  When I asked how a call to tech support will fix a problem on their website, I was told that a remote session could be done! 

  Right.  Like I want the people who can't get their site, program, or app together to have a poke around in my computer!  

CB is pretty limited in that you can either export as "Spreadsheet-Database Records" or "Formatted Report."  I tried the spreadsheet option which was just a mess and didn't seem to interact with Collectorz in any meaningful way.  I'm poking around again to see if can find a way to expedite it all and will keep information up to date here as I get the impression that others on the CB site are as frustrated as I am and looking for a way around it.  To top it all off, we have no way to privately communicate between users so I can't help them out other than publicly on the CB site.  

[Semicentennial]

Thanks MedicAR for posting this.  I've been on the fence on which program to use for my collection and I had some doubts about all of them.   

[MedicAR]

All of them?  Is there another?

[UnboxingTreasures]

I love collectorz.com. It's not free, but truly worth the money.

[MedicAR]

ComicBase tech support is looking over my databases now to determine what the problem might be.  

Here's what happened.  While organizing the Steve Ditko self-published books that have been released through his Kickstarter campaigns, I recognized a pattern in their numbering.  I saw it as either two series, one of what he calls "32 Pagers" and one of specially themed issues or one series of regular and special issues.  The hang up was that there are also trade paperbacks and they combine reprints of parts of both.  My solution was to create a single title, using the "32 Pagers" as the regular issues, the themed issues as specials, and the trade paperbacks as, well, TPBs.  The numbering fits this system and there is no indicia in any of the books, leaving it all open to interpretation.  I entered all of the information since CB had a smattering of the issues, all as individual titles.  I thought it made sense to keep them in one place, particularly since there was a consistent numbering thread running through them.  I offered this to CB and it was rejected.  Whatever, no big deal.  That's one of the advantages of CB, you can enter your own titles.  If you do that though, you have to keep them updated with whatever new issues or information may come about.  The system is designed to update information as needed on any titles in the CB master database and it will delete obsolete issues and/or titles.  The caveat is that if you have your own titles and have any issues in stock, CB will not touch that title/issue just ignoring it.  It did this with my Ditko books for a couple of months then it deleted them and the entire title.  I asked about it and was told that it wouldn't delete anything that had an issue in stock.  I also noticed that the Grass Kings variants that I had added , HipHopf Comics and the Emerald City variant had been combined into a single book and the Emerald City entry was now gone despite me having that one in stock.  I added roughly two long boxes of books to my inventory but when I checked the statistics, my collection had shrank by 65 books.  I didn't sell or delete a book, adding an estimated 250+ books, but by the statistics, I dropped by 65.  I went to add a stray Ditko book I had located only to discover the title completely wiped out.  I added a Grass Kings issue and found the ECCC variant deleted and that I no longer appear to own it or the HipHopf variants according to CB.  

Here's where it get really weird.  The inventory dropped by 65 books.  That's the total quantity of the Ditkos and the Grass Kings issues.  None of the books from the two long boxes were added at all.  All of these (the boxes, the Ditkos, and the Grass Kings) were entered at different times with the two long boxes being over the period of a couple of days.  They were saved as they were entered but they suddenly went poof like a political thread from Comics General.  I believe this all happened after an update from CB on 11 May, 2017.  

As for the import to Collectorz, it almost works but it will take a lot of time and effort.  When CB exports a title, it looks like this: 

Batman Adventures
1,1,NM,
,1/SI,1,VF,
,2,1,NM,
,3,1,NM,
,4,1,NM,
,5,1,NM,

Using #1 as an example, you get the issue number, quantity on hand, and condition (I can select a lot of fields but these seemed pertinent).  It's pretty straight forward.  Unfortunately, CollectorZ needs the title for each issue meaning that I will have to copy and paste the title in front of each individual issue number.  CollecotrZ also has no importable field for the condition of the books, meaning I have to enter each one individually.  This isn't looking like a workable solution but I will keep plugging along.  

[Samoyed Sabaka]

Thanks for posting about this MedicAR.  Pretty much the same thing happened to me today after a Comicbase update.  I was going crazy trying to figure out what was going on.  All of my custom titles were deleted by the update, but luckily I had a backup from about a month ago which I was able to download from the Comicbase cloud.  Now I'm waiting on CB support to try and help me merge both databases together.  That should be simple, but it also appears the new update also corrupted some of the info in my current database - deleting whole runs of issues from non custom titles.  Really frustrating.  

So as I was typing this, I just figured out how to solve my problem (sorta).  I guess I should merge the new updated database with my older backup which should add the new issues I've added in the last 6 weeks since my last backup.  Except some of the corrupted data from the new database will still mean that I have to backtrack on the books I entered recently and try to find which ones were deleted.  

If you came up with any solutions to this problem let me know. 

[999ghosts]

On 9 June 2017 at 2:01 AM, NamesJay said:

I love collectorz.com. It's not free, but truly worth the money.

+1 

got 12500 in my database.

not perfect as database it is user driven and on some older books with variants, numbering could be wrong. But that's the only problem.

love using it, done it for many years

[Semicentennial]

On 6/30/2017 at 9:20 AM, 999ghosts said:

+1 

got 12500 in my database.

not perfect as database it is user driven and on some older books with variants, numbering could be wrong. But that's the only problem.

love using it, done it for many years

Is the program a one time buy or do you get charged a yearly fee/subscription to get updated pricing?

[999ghosts]

9 hours ago, Fiddy said:

Is the program a one time buy or do you get charged a yearly fee/subscription to get updated pricing?

Multiple options: https://www.collectorz.com/comic

[Semicentennial]

Thanks.

[Aweandlorder]

I use comicbase solely for selling books on atomicavenue. It's a little pain in the butt. But certainly easier than listing on eBay. I have the latest version and it is a little clumsy at times (pushing inventory to atomicavenue requires a couple of tries sometimes) but overall I haven't lost any data (yet!) I do backup constantly and in 2 machines. So not sure if it makes a difference as I'm relatively new to this. 

I had an issue at the beginning where I marked "one" under minimum quantity and it didn't push the book to atomicavenue bcs of that (told u I was new to this, right? Lol) so me and the girl at atomicavenue spent a good 20-30 min over the phone till we figured it out  

anyways, hope they resolve your issue quickly 

 

[PsylockeSmythe]

On ‎7‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 7:43 PM, Fiddy said:

Is the program a one time buy or do you get charged a yearly fee/subscription to get updated pricing?

One thing that Collectorz's doesn't do; is updated pricing (comic value).  So if you want to add a value to an issue; you need to enter that information manually.  This is due to a) the cost of providing the data b) the fact that the pricing data would not please everyone since pricing and condition can be subjective.

Psy

[MedicAR]

On 6/29/2017 at 11:51 PM, Samoyed Sabaka said:

Thanks for posting about this MedicAR.  Pretty much the same thing happened to me today after a Comicbase update.  I was going crazy trying to figure out what was going on.  All of my custom titles were deleted by the update, but luckily I had a backup from about a month ago which I was able to download from the Comicbase cloud.  Now I'm waiting on CB support to try and help me merge both databases together.  That should be simple, but it also appears the new update also corrupted some of the info in my current database - deleting whole runs of issues from non custom titles.  Really frustrating.  

So as I was typing this, I just figured out how to solve my problem (sorta).  I guess I should merge the new updated database with my older backup which should add the new issues I've added in the last 6 weeks since my last backup.  Except some of the corrupted data from the new database will still mean that I have to backtrack on the books I entered recently and try to find which ones were deleted.  

If you came up with any solutions to this problem let me know. 

 

I'm struggling with it, still.  I've sent it along to a friend that works with databases and compatibility but it's a side project and no progress has been made.  

Just curious, how long have you been working with CB to get your problem worked out?  I spoke with them today, informing them that the deletions down to the May 11 update.  They told me I was the only one having such problems and that there was no way to go back to that particular update to see what happened.  To use their words, "it's like looking at train tracks trying to decide which direction the train went."   He made it clear that there was no interest in trying to find the problem because it can't happen.  

This is how it has been with them all along.  The user presents problems, they can't solve them, so it must be isolated to the user's computer.  Another common scenario is that the database "is corrupted" and must be repaired by them with no explanation as to what caused the corruption in the first place, how it might be avoided, or how one might repair it if/when it happens again.  Other users have come forward on their forums to express similar problems.  

I love their program when it works but when it goes awry, it's a disaster.  Their customer service, though, is lacking at best.  

 

[Comiczar]

Iam using clz comics app.  It's easy to use and easy to add small or large runs.  There is talk they'll add auto update pricing , maybe overstreet teamup.  There edit window needs some help, like y isnt the gd issue number on this screen? Idk.  Also they put an index number really big on the main screen. Who gives a sh*t when u indexed it?  It's size is annoying cause it catches your eye and makes u think it's the issue number...annoying.  Sorry for the rant.   Many print out options which is cool??.  But could add total value to prints outs.   They have overall total value under statics but For example like to know what total value my xmen r worth or maybe how much box 43 is worth.  Every printout option should have a total value Imo.

Edited August 10, 2017 by Comiczar

[midnightwanderer]

I use the clz comics app too but it proved to be basically worthless to me as many books from larger hauls are direct editions with no barcode. Is there something I'm missing? 

[Comiczar]

19 hours ago, midnightwanderer said:

I use the clz comics app too but it proved to be basically worthless to me as many books from larger hauls are direct editions with no barcode. Is there something I'm missing? 

I would say "add by searching feature" is what u want , it's what I used for all my silver age. That part is very fast , they even separate annuals from main title which I like.  The slow part comes in the index window.  Index window does allow u to advance to next issue but it doesn't show issue number, I guess they're workin on this problem.