Looking back.... 4 4

[Get Marwood & I]

49 minutes ago, Martin Sinescu said:

I like that idea of having a little notebook for reference and hastily-scrawled notes. There's something very "Grail Diary" about that. Those cut and paste pages were great, too. I'd love to take the time to put something like that together for my Batman accumulation. Back in the pre-computer convention-roaming days I just went off memory and was just doing one of each issue. Silver and the then-untitled Bronze Age books were just a bit out of my $ range, so it was easier to keep track of what I needed.

I use a spreadsheet for my Batman and 'Tec books. It's not the prettiest, I've seen some folks that can really play around with the grouping, borders and shading to look much less plain-Jane. I wanted to put thumbnails for each issue in there as well to gussy it up some, but I'm using Apple's "Numbers" program and it isn't really conducive to stuff like that. I really thought it would be cool to cook up something like MCS's interface with multiple tabs for each book, but I'm guessing that would require other programs and I can barely make a spreadsheet as it is. 

The color codes on the checkboxes are for indicating condition and the box next to that indicates how many raw copies I have. Green is NM- or better, yellow is loosely about F/VF up to VF/NM and red is for carp I maybe shouldn't have bought. If the title itself is color-coded, that means I have a graded copy, although I don't include that in my checkbox or raw count. You can see in the second shot where I break down Direct copies vs. Newsstand or Canadian Newsstand once those become applicable. I also started documenting print run numbers when known as well as sales rank for that month, but I only gave that a half-hearted effort. The numbering in the first screenshot skips around because I haven't quite committed to trying to fill out the run into the Silver Age. I might get there at some point, but right now I'm being selective. I think I've got it fleshed out pretty well from about '73 or 4 up. 

It works fine for the most part, but I wish I had a way of including a more detailed breakdown of the individual issues I have such as grades (I might have 5 copies of one book noted as green, but that could be 1 NM- copy and the rest garbage or all 5 NM+, no way to know without going to the boxes) and how much I paid (again, this is where having multiple tabs within an issue would be helpful). Recently I've started migrating price stickers over as I re-bag them, which is especially helpful if the seller has their name or a distinctive label like Dale's. I usually use small Avery dots with the same colors as I use on the spreadsheet to put my unofficial opinion of the grade on each book, but I've been thinking I should start using larger circles so I can write the price or seller. I've had some really nice buys from boardies or eBay that I've tried to distinguish from other stuff on the label. 

 

Brilliant @Martin Sinescu 

It's great to see how many of us record in a similar way. And the key codes are nice here.

I was always tinkering with mine. Extra columns and colours etc. The latest version always made it's predecessor look basic ?

[Get Marwood & I]

6 minutes ago, Ken Aldred said:

I used to have a card filing system up until around 2005 or so, when I started to focus more on collected editions.  Now, reading purely digital, it's unnecessary.

It's never unecessary Ken. Go make a spreadsheet on the digital books you've read. You need spreadsheeets in your life Ken. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar ?

[tv horror]

The only spreadsheet I need is the one to pull over me while I snuggle up with my comics. As for a little book of lists I only need 4 to complete my Spider-man collection and it originally only took up a page.  

[Get Marwood & I]

Just now, tv horror said:

The only spreadsheet I need is the one to pull over me while I snuggle up with my comics. As for a little book of lists I only need 4 to complete my Spider-man collection and it originally only took up a page.  

Nice. Which 4 we're all wondering? And is that 1-700 or did you go deeper  @tv horror ? ?

[Get Marwood & I]

2 minutes ago, tv horror said:

The only spreadsheet I need is the one to pull over me while I snuggle up with my comics. As for a little book of lists I only need 4 to complete my Spider-man collection and it originally only took up a page.  

Hurray! I've got likes back ?

[tv horror]

I'm only missing AF15 Amazing Spider-man 1, 2, 6 and yes I've all the Web, Spectacular,  Team up and Amazing up to the end of the Superior title, that was until Dan Slott ruined the character for me and I found the back issues cheaper than the latest run.  

[Get Marwood & I]

12 minutes ago, tv horror said:

I'm only missing AF15 Amazing Spider-man 1, 2, 6 and yes I've all the Web, Spectacular,  Team up and Amazing up to the end of the Superior title, that was until Dan Slott ruined the character for me and I found the back issues cheaper than the latest run.  

Nicely put.  Good luck with the final fantastic four 

[nocutename]

1 hour ago, Marwood & I said:

That looks great @nocutename ?

I see you didn't get round to rating them. And who doesn't like a 'non bats' tab. 

Great stuff.

P.S. name names. It's more fun ?

 

LOL.  I actually just moved the grouping now and added a Romance Comic tab.  Funny thing is my World's Finest comics are listed under non-bats tab.   There is a bunch of silly notes in it and it is questioning my sanity.  I should try and clean up some of the entries which I will do over time.  I have a huge folder (not a bin like yours) of a majority of my comic purchases so I could always go back and track it.  But honestly, I don't want to know.

 

@Martin Sinescu I love your sheet.  I did have colored rows to indicate something and in the end removed it as was just easier to read.  I thought I was the only one crazy enough to mark the writer and artist info.  I should do cover too but lazy to go back to it now.    Dupes are a pain.   I tried the paper insert into the back of the bags.  I end up questioning which is which.  I tend to sell off dups.  My main dupes now are in my Animated Series collection.  I wish there were BA 12 dupes.    But I have other Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn dupes.  I just never know which one to get rid off.

[nocutename]

28 minutes ago, tv horror said:

I'm only missing AF15 Amazing Spider-man 1, 2, 6 and yes I've all the Web, Spectacular,  Team up and Amazing up to the end of the Superior title, that was until Dan Slott ruined the character for me and I found the back issues cheaper than the latest run.  

I am sometimes envious of Marvel collectors.  You guys have a chance of completing a full run in the past.  Not so much now with the prices.  Collecting GA Batman or Detective is just out of my league.

[tv horror]

A few years back I had a MOMENT where I was considering buying back issues of Batman, thankfully a few slaps to the face and an ice cold glass of water over my head  cured me of that madness?  Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men or their collecting craziness. P.S We're all a bit touched.

Edited July 9, 2017 by tv horror

[Get Marwood & I]

5 minutes ago, tv horror said:

A few years back I had a MOMENT where I was considering buying back issues of Batman, thankfully a few slaps to the face and an ice cold glass of water over my head  cured me of that madness?  Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men or their collecting craziness. P.S We're all a bit touched.

That we are, that we are...

[Martin Sinescu]

1 hour ago, nocutename said:

 

@Martin Sinescu I love your sheet.  I did have colored rows to indicate something and in the end removed it as was just easier to read.  I thought I was the only one crazy enough to mark the writer and artist info.  I should do cover too but lazy to go back to it now.    Dupes are a pain.   I tried the paper insert into the back of the bags.  I end up questioning which is which.  I tend to sell off dups.  My main dupes now are in my Animated Series collection.  I wish there were BA 12 dupes.    But I have other Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn dupes.  I just never know which one to get rid off.

Thanks, after seeing yours I kinda want to go back and restructure mine so that the issue number is its own column. That's smarter than my way because I have to number anything lower than 100 with a 0 first or it won't sort correctly by name. One thing I really like is being able to sort this list by date, too, as it will sync the Bats and 'Tecs up through eras like the pre-Crisis 80's where many stories overlapped between the two titles.

 It's funny, but my brother, 18 years my junior, independently made his own spreadsheet for collecting Bats. Neither of us ever mentioned to the other that we had any sort of checklist for collecting until one day I mentioned that an issue of 'Tec was heating up so he brought up his file on his computer to see if he had it. They were eerily close with a similar breakdown of artist/writer, date, etc. He's not a condition nut like me and he doesn't collect multiples, but otherwise they were pretty close. I was quite pleased. I'm slowly molding him into my image, mwahahahahahaha!!!!

[1950's war comics]

It really warmed my heart  at the last comic con i was at when a older fellow next to me pulled out his index pamphlet and started long box diving and then checking his list , he actually pulled a few out to the side, cant't remember what series he was looking at ..........................nothing beats filling in needed holes for a completist when you get to the end of your run  !!!!!!!!

[oakman29]

1 hour ago, 1950's war comics said:

It really warmed my heart  at the last comic con i was at when a older fellow next to me pulled out his index pamphlet and started long box diving and then checking his list , he actually pulled a few out to the side, cant't remember what series he was looking at ..........................nothing beats filling in needed holes for a completist when you get to the end of your run  !!!!!!!!

I get more giddy filling holes than I do buying a big key.

[ADAMANTIUM]

11 minutes ago, oakman29 said:

I get more giddy filling holes than I do buying a big key.

Money for holes is bad for your health 

[porcupine48]

16 minutes ago, oakman29 said:

I get more giddy filling holes than I do buying a big key.

You've been spending time with lizards again,haven't you?

this place..FULL of perverts.

I love it.

Edited July 9, 2017 by porcupine48
forgot an 'L'

[Patriot6]

Cool thread! My system is I buy what I think I need and get home and sort the books into my boxes and realise that I now have four copies....

Wouldn't have it any other way! 

[Buzzetta]

4 hours ago, nocutename said:

I am sometimes envious of Marvel collectors.  You guys have a chance of completing a full run in the past.  Not so much now with the prices.  Collecting GA Batman or Detective is just out of my league.

When I was collecting Batman I set a benchmark and did every issue from 200 to what was then current.  I had scattered issues in the 100's and if I ever did 100 to current I had made the decision to go reprint or DC Archives for the first 100 issues. 

 

Eventually I sold them all. 

Edited July 9, 2017 by Buzzetta

[01TheDude]

I got the idea for making a list from Robert Bell... more or less though it might have been from my first OSPG

My first method (i was around 11 or 12) to keep track of my books utilized sheets of three ring paper and my own hand drawn check boxes:

sample page

codes used

I still have the entire list of my collection from that time and it is sort of helpful remembering where I was when I stopped in 1979 or so. I also used this to keep track of a few books I sold in the late 1980s and I can tell which ones they are as the check boxes were erased (mostly my X-Men).

When I went to re-bag and finally board my collection around 1990, I decided to buy some software to enter the condition, etc and I have those printouts still for the whole thing. This was the software I used:

Comic Collector version 1.0 

That was fine for a few decades as I really didn't add to the collection from 1979-2014. Still have the printouts and it helps as they are a little more accurate and include my first attempts at grading.

When I went to sell the collection but instead got back into collecting instead, I decided to not only re-bag/board them but also to use an online record keeping method. Checked out a bunch and went with Comic Book Realm. Not the best probably (the valuations are inflated) but not terrible either. Plus I can download the whole thing if I want to dump it into a spreadsheet or database at a later time (signed up for a lifetime membership).

I use this to document current stuff I sold by cutting and pasting the information into a jpg

sample

But to be fair-- for the handful of titles I am currently working on, I put the missing issues on a simple post it that I have in my date book to cross reference as needed.

Edited July 9, 2017 by 01TheDude

[Get Marwood & I]

48 minutes ago, Patriot6 said:

Cool thread! My system is I buy what I think I need and get home and sort the books into my boxes and realise that I now have four copies....

Wouldn't have it any other way! 

Cheers @Patriot6. Nothing wrong with that system. How else would you end up with four copies of Spidey Super Stories #15