Creating a Spreadsheet to track your comics..

[Ares]

After a long time I have decided to track my comics.

 

I have started to create a spreadsheet to track not only basic info but location as well. I have one Sheet for Raw books and One sheet for Graded Books

 

Other than the basic headers such as Title. Issue ongoing or limited series I dont have much to sort buy.

 

 

For those who use spreadsheets to track how do you set yours up?

[Flaming_Telepath]

I use Excel, too, and here are my headings.

 

ISSUE

GRADE

VALUE

PROFESSIONALLY GRADED?

SERIAL NO.

PAGE QUALITY

NOTES

PEDIGREE/COLLECTION

BOUGHT FROM?

AMOUNT PAID

SCAN URL

 

Obviously these are headers, and the titles read downwards. (thumbs u

[AtlasFan]

I would recommend using Microsoft Access to set up a database of your collection. Once you get used to is, its a helluva lot easier to keep track of structured data in a database table than a spreadsheet.

 

Check out your local bookstore for some quick and easy Access books.

Bill

[innocuous]

If you are going to use Excel, keep raw and slabbed on the same sheet. Just add a column to sort raw vs slab.

 

 

[nik]

I use Excel, too, and here are my headings.

 

ISSUE

GRADE

VALUE

PROFESSIONALLY GRADED?

SERIAL NO.

PAGE QUALITY

NOTES

PEDIGREE/COLLECTION

BOUGHT FROM?

AMOUNT PAID

SCAN URL

 

Obviously these are headers, and the titles read downwards. (thumbs u

 

I used to do all that then I realized its only funny books

[Ares]

I would recommend using Microsoft Access to set up a database of your collection. Once you get used to is, its a helluva lot easier to keep track of structured data in a database table than a spreadsheet.

 

Check out your local bookstore for some quick and easy Access books.

Bill

 

I thought of that but I like the fact that it's easier to add and remove collums on a whim.

 

 

I never realized just how many I had scattered all over the place.

Will make it easier to track when selling time comes.. if Ever

[AtlasFan]

I would recommend using Microsoft Access to set up a database of your collection. Once you get used to is, its a helluva lot easier to keep track of structured data in a database table than a spreadsheet.

 

Check out your local bookstore for some quick and easy Access books.

Bill

 

I thought of that but I like the fact that it's easier to add and remove collums on a whim.

 

 

I never realized just how many I had scattered all over the place.

Will make it easier to track when selling time comes.. if Ever

 

Well, sometime Excel makes it too easy to delete things. In Access, you can design reports, set filters, and delete rows or data items (columns) as you please. There are also memo fields that allow you to ramble on with unlimited text -- and you can create graphic (or GLOB) data items that can store images.

 

And, if you want to get really fancy, you can create other tables and relate them to get all kinds of interesting reports....think about it.

 

Whatever you do use, good luck!

[Count]

I Have a database and here are some of the fields I use.

 

(Book Info)

Title

SubTitle

Issue

Year

Artist

Image Name

Series

Publishers

Key

Wanlist

Genre

PurchasePrice

DatePurchased

Grade

Quantity

Notes

CGC

Location

 

(Seller Info)

SellerNIC

Site

PaypalID

EbayID

FName

LName

Street

City

State

Zip

Country

Phone1

Phone2

Fax

Email1

Email2

Website

[MightyBeanComics]

I track issue number and date in Excel.

 

I also might make a note for keys/books of interest.

 

Thats about it though. I would like to move to a bar code scanner system some day.

[joeypost]

You can actually create the spreadsheet and then create the database in Access using the Data Transformation Services (DTS) it will do a direct port of the spreadsheet structure into the database tables. It will even port over all the data into it.

[Ares]

You can actually create the spreadsheet and then create the database in Access using the Data Transformation Services (DTS) it will do a direct port of the spreadsheet structure into the database tables. It will even port over all the data into it.

 

Very nice.

 

If I update the spreadsheet later on will the updates flow into the database or will future updates need to be done in the database directly?

[dwip99]

I would recommend using Microsoft Access to set up a database of your collection. Once you get used to is, its a helluva lot easier to keep track of structured data in a database table than a spreadsheet.

 

Check out your local bookstore for some quick and easy Access books.

Bill

 

I thought of that but I like the fact that it's easier to add and remove collums on a whim.

 

 

I never realized just how many I had scattered all over the place.

Will make it easier to track when selling time comes.. if Ever

 

Well, sometime Excel makes it too easy to delete things. In Access, you can design reports, set filters, and delete rows or data items (columns) as you please. There are also memo fields that allow you to ramble on with unlimited text -- and you can create graphic (or GLOB) data items that can store images.

 

And, if you want to get really fancy, you can create other tables and relate them to get all kinds of interesting reports....think about it.

 

Whatever you do use, good luck!

 

I am just getting back into collecting and I have been using Excel in a very basic manner. Access might be nice to try and if someone had a blank template created with some pre-built structure that others could start from that would be really cool..

 

Maybe someone could be compensated for sharing such a file. (thumbs u

[sterlingcomics]

Open source already provides you with the software. Why pay for this stuff?

 

Actually, there's not that many alternatives, but it may be worth a look.

[AtlasFan]

You can actually create the spreadsheet and then create the database in Access using the Data Transformation Services (DTS) it will do a direct port of the spreadsheet structure into the database tables. It will even port over all the data into it.

 

Very nice.

 

If I update the spreadsheet later on will the updates flow into the database or will future updates need to be done in the database directly?

 

Its really a one time deal -- when you import an existing xls into access. You theoretically could keep adding data in excel and reimporting it after each session, but its quite cumbersome. Stick with one or the other.

[nocutename]

You can actually create the spreadsheet and then create the database in Access using the Data Transformation Services (DTS) it will do a direct port of the spreadsheet structure into the database tables. It will even port over all the data into it.

 

Very nice.

 

If I update the spreadsheet later on will the updates flow into the database or will future updates need to be done in the database directly?

 

Its really a one time deal -- when you import an existing xls into access. You theoretically could keep adding data in excel and reimporting it after each session, but its quite cumbersome. Stick with one or the other.

 

Actually, you can select to import the spreadsheet which is a one-time deal or you can select to link which creates a link to the spreadsheet. The only thing, I believe with the link is that you cannot change the original data structure (i.e. excel columns). File -> Get external Data -> LInk (those are the file menus off the top of my head). Play around with both options to see if you like it. But in any event, if you are more comfortable in Excel you can always put it in a database format later on.

 

Anyway, here's my columns but its interesting to see how others are set up:

 

Title

Issue #

Date

Comic Title

Writer

Penciler

Inker

Appearance - I only have this in one field though

Rate

Comments

Continues - The next issue for multi-part story lines

Grade/Comments

Source - Where I purchased it

[Epcomics]

http://www.wikihow.com/Organize-Your-Comic-Collection-with-Excel

[sakaridis]

I use Excel, too, and here are my headings.

 

ISSUE

GRADE

VALUE

PROFESSIONALLY GRADED?

SERIAL NO.

PAGE QUALITY

NOTES

PEDIGREE/COLLECTION

BOUGHT FROM?

AMOUNT PAID

SCAN URL

 

Obviously these are headers, and the titles read downwards. (thumbs u

 

I used to do all that then I realized its only funny books

 

It is?

[joeypost]

I would recommend using Microsoft Access to set up a database of your collection. Once you get used to is, its a helluva lot easier to keep track of structured data in a database table than a spreadsheet.

 

Check out your local bookstore for some quick and easy Access books.

Bill

 

I thought of that but I like the fact that it's easier to add and remove collums on a whim.

 

 

I never realized just how many I had scattered all over the place.

Will make it easier to track when selling time comes.. if Ever

 

Well, sometime Excel makes it too easy to delete things. In Access, you can design reports, set filters, and delete rows or data items (columns) as you please. There are also memo fields that allow you to ramble on with unlimited text -- and you can create graphic (or GLOB) data items that can store images.

 

And, if you want to get really fancy, you can create other tables and relate them to get all kinds of interesting reports....think about it.

 

Whatever you do use, good luck!

 

I am just getting back into collecting and I have been using Excel in a very basic manner. Access might be nice to try and if someone had a blank template created with some pre-built structure that others could start from that would be really cool..

 

Maybe someone could be compensated for sharing such a file. (thumbs u

 

You can port from excel to access by creating one to one relationships. Columns become tables in the database. I will try and see if their are any on-line tutorials for this. I have done it in the past but it has been a while.

[dwip99]

I would recommend using Microsoft Access to set up a database of your collection. Once you get used to is, its a helluva lot easier to keep track of structured data in a database table than a spreadsheet.

 

Check out your local bookstore for some quick and easy Access books.

Bill

 

I thought of that but I like the fact that it's easier to add and remove collums on a whim.

 

 

I never realized just how many I had scattered all over the place.

Will make it easier to track when selling time comes.. if Ever

 

Well, sometime Excel makes it too easy to delete things. In Access, you can design reports, set filters, and delete rows or data items (columns) as you please. There are also memo fields that allow you to ramble on with unlimited text -- and you can create graphic (or GLOB) data items that can store images.

 

And, if you want to get really fancy, you can create other tables and relate them to get all kinds of interesting reports....think about it.

 

Whatever you do use, good luck!

 

I am just getting back into collecting and I have been using Excel in a very basic manner. Access might be nice to try and if someone had a blank template created with some pre-built structure that others could start from that would be really cool..

 

Maybe someone could be compensated for sharing such a file. (thumbs u

 

You can port from excel to access by creating one to one relationships. Columns become tables in the database. I will try and see if their are any on-line tutorials for this. I have done it in the past but it has been a while.

 

Thanks and thanks to Ares for started a thread that I can learn from..

[Ares]

I think im going to stick with a spreadsheet for now.

 

I keep comming up with ideas for collums and how to tie books together.

With autofilter I can pull up the data in so many ways..

 

 

I use Open Office 3.0 and im not sure if I can turn it into a database yet!