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Lethal_Collector

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Posts posted by Lethal_Collector

    FindMyComic.Net. A New Comic Book Search Engine

    in Comics General

    Posted

    On 6/24/2023 at 7:45 PM, kenaran said:

    You'll need a X number of searches free, or X time period free, or something of that nature just to let people try it out, wet their appetite, that sort of thing.

    I would TOTALLY pay $20/year for an ebay search that allowed me separate text boxes for 'in title' and 'in description' for the same search.  Provided all the standard ebay search stuff still worked, like '-' and '(or)'.

    Yeah, I will circle back to the membership stuff after I get the scraping finished for the other 50-ish sites.  I'm not sure if I'll just say free until X date (something like 3 months out after everything is working), or do something like a pre-filled search for Hulk 181 until you sign in and have a membership.  

    Right now I'm just scraping the Title, Pic, Price and Date (auctions), IIRC.  So no descriptions, atm. 

     

    Jerome

    FindMyComic.Net. A New Comic Book Search Engine

    in Comics General

    Posted · Edited by Lethal_Collector

    On 6/24/2023 at 2:58 PM, s-dali said:

    That's a pretty cool site!! If you could make it an app, I doubt that anyone would have a problem with a $2.99 or $3.99 a month price tag with maybe a 7 day free trial. At least, that's my personal experience.  But  as a website, I'm not so sure. Apps have kind of spoiled things that way. I don't know how much work or money it would take to turn it into an app, but I'd much rather have to pay a fee for an app.

    Yeah, I thought about making an 'app', but there's really no need to.  You can just open Chrome/Safari on your smartphone and go to the same site and it saves me time and money in the process.  The way I had the dev set the site up is it would automatically increase/decrease the number of columns depending on how wide your browser window is.  So on my phone for example, it shows two columns and it would have the same functionality.  What you can do if you want, is follow the steps here to add the site to your iphone's home screen: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/add-a-website-shortcut-to-your-iphone-home-screen/  Once that shortcut is made with Safari in IOS, it will still open it with your default web browser (Chrome in my case).


    Jerome

    FindMyComic.Net. A New Comic Book Search Engine

    in Comics General

    Posted · Edited by Lethal_Collector

    On 6/21/2023 at 8:29 AM, ADAMANTIUM said:

    Well I am not a techy.... Idk who is to tag, but it sounds decent. What I'm hearing?

    It would be its own url or website and you can use it to search books that will in turn link you to where it's for sale?

    Google kind of has this when you Google a title and choose the shopping tab, it has its shortcomings that are obvious,  or not lowest to highest price or straight away filter. That said it does show you different kinds of outlets.

    What your doind may not necessarily be "new" but it would be comic centric? I'd love to hear any feedback that follows so :bump:

    Thats correct, I've got a proof of concept going where its just scraping and looking at Ebay for now to learn what needs to happen on the backend and what visual tweaks to make, etc. 

     

    On 6/21/2023 at 9:22 AM, HighRadArt said:

    I think this would be a great site and worth paying for with some more work on the design and input (Title, issue and print/ variant).  I know nothing about programing but it seems like a lot of work.  Best of luck.

    You can try it out now at FindMyComic.Net :)  Would something like this be worth spending $20/year, or $50/year? 

    Jerome

    FindMyComic.Net. A New Comic Book Search Engine

    in Comics General

    Posted

    Hey fellas,

    So I know I've been off the grid for a few years, just been busy beyond belief.  In the past year, I:
     - Took my family, sister and her family and my mother to Disneyland
     - Lost my mother two months later (unexpectedly)
     - Got laid off from Twitter
     - Found a new job
     - Lost my Grandma

    Plus not collecting books is easier on the wallet ;)  Anyway, I've teamed up with a really nice developer from Fiverr who is helping me build FindMyComic.Net the way I always wanted to, where the search results would open a link taking you directly to the book that is for sale on a given site.  

    We got started a few weeks ago and are honing in on our backend infrastructure with Ebay.com.  So it's only scraping Ebay.com at the moment and it still has lots of Auction items to scrape.  There are some caveats around working on a site like this, with millions of records:
     - There may be some duplicates
     - Some non-auction listings may be 'dead' as it takes time to churn through and delete sold items.  This doesn't affect auction items as those are set to be deleted once the listing is over.
     - It may take a day or two for new listings to appear, not sure on the turnaround yet as that is hard to pinpoint

    I'm hoping to add about 50 other 'top' comic book sites (Comic Link, HA, ComicConnect, NewKadia, Mile High, Hakes, etc.) to scrape and dump....eventually and "maybe" by the end of the year now that we have an idea on how the backend needs to work.  I know when I was heavy into building my MA Grails, it took at least 10 minutes+ to search all the 'good' sites for a specific issue.  This project isn't free (will be well into 4 figures), so my question to you guys is, assuming I can get all this going and considering the above caveats, would there be value in using this search engine if you had to pay:
     - $0: I never have trouble finding my books, even HTF variants in specific grades.  I may be a cheapskate :p
     - $20/year: This may be helpful at times, there may be some time savings
     - $50/year: This is a no brainer, I hate having to search every site for back issues manually
     - $250/lifetime: Shut up and take my money

    I value your guys' input more than anyone else on Earth, so I'd love to hear your honest thoughts about whether I should continue to pursue this at all, or what you feel would be a satisfactory subscription amount.  Why or why not, I don't mind if you think it's a bad idea; I want to know why it's a bad idea.


    Jerome

     

    MOST VALUABLE MODERN VARIANTS - THE RANKINGS

    in Modern Age Comic Books

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Jaydogrules said:

    I know at least one other guy who has had 2, 9.8, Dell'otto 667's.  :baiting: B|

    -J.

    ;)

     

    2 hours ago, valiantman said:

    Ironic that this thread only exists to celebrate exactly which comic books are killing traditional comic book collecting, as if there was no lesson to be learned from the sportscard industry.  The Joker's pile of money on fire in The Dark Knight might as well have had a Dell'Otto ASM #667 on the stack.  It's not about the money... it's about sending a message. lol

    Don't hate the player, hate the game?  Do you think the manufactured rarity of the Bugatti Chirons will drop in value over time (unlikely?)?  Or how the limited run of the recent Ford GT's mandated that buyers wait a few years before selling them (Jon Cena got in trouble for trying to do just that - don't recall if he ended up selling it or not) and making a profit.

    I love all comics, old and new, I want them ALL lol

     

    Jerome

    So, Why Has AF #15 Continued to increase In Value?

    in Silver Age Comic Books

    Posted · Edited by Lethal_Collector

    I mentioned this to my wife last night when we were discussing the sale....tax evasion.  As laughable as that is, someone could wrap all their dough in some comics, throw it in a lockbox and suddenly their income is less.  I'm no accountant, it was just a random thought.  I'm drawing at straws to try and explain it (shrug)

     

    Jerome

    So, Why Has AF #15 Continued to increase In Value?

    in Silver Age Comic Books

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, Dark Knight said:

    I think his 86 Fleer card is overvalued, being pumped by the "The Last Dance" series.  I saw this similar spike up  few years ago, probably by a "buyer's group" who artificially bought multiple PSA 9 cards for all-time highs probably within their inner circle.  The following year prices went straight down back to more realistic levels.  I think it is happening again now.  If you want the card, I suggest waiting it out until it dips.

    I agree.  I'd love a PSA 9, but there's so many books I want more lol

     

    Jerome