I've always wondered how the online comic sites

[sd2416]

update their image gallery and set the prices for different grades. That seems like it would be an all day job if they have to scan and set those manually. Or is there some database they pull the images from?

 

 

[towards2112]

With all due respect.

Regroup and try that question again.

[cheetah]

CLink, you upload your own.

CLink auctions, they scan like dogs for days before each auction.

Pedigree, you scan your own. Doug Scans what you send him.

Worldwide has staff that does the scanning and posting.

Heritage can afford whatever they want in order to scan and upload.

[sd2416]

I was looking online at a few sites to fill some of my runs on a few titles and was thinking someone had to scan all the images for the back issues, assign a grade and a price for each grade and upload that info on the site. Each week, the new issues that come out, those images have to be uploaded and prices, etc. Not to mention if that site sells things other then comics. (toys, cards, clothing, etc)

 

Or, since I know nothing about setting up a website and maintaining it, is there a template they use and are able to uses "stock" images thus eliminating the need to scan a cover for each title and issue number?

 

More or less, just took for granted the online comic sites that I buy from without thinking about the work involved that it took to maintain those sites. (lonestar/mycomicshop,midtown, etc)

[gaz973]

Milehigh use stock pictures but some sites scan all their books.

 

Yes, grading, scanning and pricing lots of comics is a hell of a lot of work..... as is bagging, boarding, packaging, emailing customers and more besides.

[sckao]

 

I have an idea for a cheap double-sided scanner. It'd need a custom-programmed Twain driver but it'd drastically reduce the time for scans.

 

 

[Flaming_Telepath]

The whole process is inordinately time consuming...beyond even what you're imagining.

 

So you get a collection in and the first thing you do is put it into order...title then volume then issue. This takes longer than you might think. I remember the inititial stock for Comicana Direct included 27 long-boxes just of the letter S.

 

It took over a day simply to get them into order.

 

Then you start the processing...grading, bagging, boarding, inputting and potentially scanning. If you're lucky, you have a database with pre-loaded values and the grade entry triggers a calculation that gives you a price. If not, it's out with the OS and calculator.

 

We've taken a decision not to use stock scans, but we also won't scan every book. Roughly we put a $10 value limit on scans...they have to be more expensive for us to load up a scan...but we also scan any book that has different printings or variants and we scan all copies.

 

Loading the stock details and the scans to the site is your next hurdle and sometimes the sheer size of the upload causes problems with time-outs, etc. We have a programme that resizes the scans into three sizes...thumbnail, standard and large...as it loads them up. We're actually populating the site with scans at the moment and have experienced a 20% drop out rate, which has prompted us to look for a different uploading solution.

 

All in all...a load of arseache.

[towards2112]

As a nonspam reference, on my wolverine limited webshop, I scan every

issue and individually grade each book, and yes that is a -n lot

of work for two people. Been trying to work on the xmen site, but time

is a major issue.

[Stryfe1000]

The whole process is inordinately time consuming...beyond even what you're imagining.

 

So you get a collection in and the first thing you do is put it into order...title then volume then issue. This takes longer than you might think. I remember the inititial stock for Comicana Direct included 27 long-boxes just of the letter S.

 

It took over a day simply to get them into order.

 

Then you start the processing...grading, bagging, boarding, inputting and potentially scanning. If you're lucky, you have a database with pre-loaded values and the grade entry triggers a calculation that gives you a price. If not, it's out with the OS and calculator.

 

We've taken a decision not to use stock scans, but we also won't scan every book. Roughly we put a $10 value limit on scans...they have to be more expensive for us to load up a scan...but we also scan any book that has different printings or variants and we scan all copies.

 

Loading the stock details and the scans to the site is your next hurdle and sometimes the sheer size of the upload causes problems with time-outs, etc. We have a programme that resizes the scans into three sizes...thumbnail, standard and large...as it loads them up. We're actually populating the site with scans at the moment and have experienced a 20% drop out rate, which has prompted us to look for a different uploading solution.

 

All in all...a load of arseache.

 

 

It's time consuming enough with a personal collection but at least it's a hobby. Add the added pressure of required income and I'd guess that all of a sudden fun becomes a chore

 

P.S.

Your new look site looks very impressive - Good work fellas

[comicdonna]

I was looking online at a few sites to fill some of my runs on a few titles and was thinking someone had to scan all the images for the back issues, assign a grade and a price for each grade and upload that info on the site. Each week, the new issues that come out, those images have to be uploaded and prices, etc. Not to mention if that site sells things other then comics. (toys, cards, clothing, etc)

 

Or, since I know nothing about setting up a website and maintaining it, is there a template they use and are able to uses "stock" images thus eliminating the need to scan a cover for each title and issue number?

 

More or less, just took for granted the online comic sites that I buy from without thinking about the work involved that it took to maintain those sites. (lonestar/mycomicshop,midtown, etc)

Metropolis Comics uses stock images on some of their books. You can get an actual scan if you ask.

[Flaming_Telepath]

P.S.

Your new look site looks very impressive - Good work fellas

 

Thanks!

 

There still tons of stuff to do...thousands of scans and thousands of information points for specific issues to included...and lots of features to add, but as a first 'draft', if you like?

 

Reasonably happy.

[MrBedrock]

I was looking online at a few sites to fill some of my runs on a few titles and was thinking someone had to scan all the images for the back issues, assign a grade and a price for each grade and upload that info on the site. Each week, the new issues that come out, those images have to be uploaded and prices, etc. Not to mention if that site sells things other then comics. (toys, cards, clothing, etc)

 

The back issues do have to be individually scanned. Especially if there is grade specific pricing and the scans are matched to the specific items.

 

As for new issues, Diamond and/or the individual publishers usually make those available to their accounts as a weekly download with images and item descriptions. If a web-site has images for other ancillary merchandise (t-shirts, toys etc.) those are usually stock provided by each vendor.

 

The back issue scanning is very time consuming. The other stuff is pretty simple and doesn't take much time at all. But you do have to stay on top of it and make sure there are no glitches. Where we have run into problems is with labeling individual scans with Google searchable names which match up with the various databases so that everything works together and folks can find the items which are available on our web-site. That has been a massive pain in the butt and is one of the reasons our site has been in a state of flux for the last couple of months. When it is all done it will be cool. Hopefully it won't be too long from now.

[sd2416]

For those of you that run a store and a website, how do you keep track of the inventory. Say you have one copy of New Mutants 98. It is for sale in the store and on the website. You sell it in the store, how soon after the sale is it pulled from the website and listed as out of stock? Is there an inventory system/bar code scanner software you use to keep track of everything?

 

It seems like in effect, you are running multiple stores. The brick and mortar one and the online one.

 

 

[paperheart]

Storms has slave labor (SOT)

[Flaming_Telepath]

For those of you that run a store and a website, how do you keep track of the inventory. Say you have one copy of New Mutants 98. It is for sale in the store and on the website. You sell it in the store, how soon after the sale is it pulled from the website and listed as out of stock? Is there an inventory system/bar code scanner software you use to keep track of everything?

 

It seems like in effect, you are running multiple stores. The brick and mortar one and the online one.

 

 

We're still de-bugging - and we don't have a bricks & mortar, per se, although we do have 'visitors' - but the intention is for everything to be linked via one database and as soon as a sale is consumated, the item comes straight out of the system and can't be sold via any other means.

[Comicopolis]

For those of you that run a store and a website, how do you keep track of the inventory. Say you have one copy of New Mutants 98. It is for sale in the store and on the website. You sell it in the store, how soon after the sale is it pulled from the website and listed as out of stock? Is there an inventory system/bar code scanner software you use to keep track of everything?

 

It seems like in effect, you are running multiple stores. The brick and mortar one and the online one.

 

 

We're still de-bugging - and we don't have a bricks & mortar, per se, although we do have 'visitors' - but the intention is for everything to be linked via one database and as soon as a sale is consumated, the item comes straight out of the system and can't be sold via any other means.

 

For 'visitors' you mean VIP's?

[white_pages-migration]

The whole process is inordinately time consuming...beyond even what you're imagining.

 

So you get a collection in and the first thing you do is put it into order...title then volume then issue. This takes longer than you might think. I remember the inititial stock for Comicana Direct included 27 long-boxes just of the letter S.

 

It took over a day simply to get them into order.

 

Then you start the processing...grading, bagging, boarding, inputting and potentially scanning. If you're lucky, you have a database with pre-loaded values and the grade entry triggers a calculation that gives you a price. If not, it's out with the OS and calculator.

 

We've taken a decision not to use stock scans, but we also won't scan every book. Roughly we put a $10 value limit on scans...they have to be more expensive for us to load up a scan...but we also scan any book that has different printings or variants and we scan all copies.

 

Loading the stock details and the scans to the site is your next hurdle and sometimes the sheer size of the upload causes problems with time-outs, etc. We have a programme that resizes the scans into three sizes...thumbnail, standard and large...as it loads them up. We're actually populating the site with scans at the moment and have experienced a 20% drop out rate, which has prompted us to look for a different uploading solution.

 

All in all...a load of arseache.

 

I like the website. Can you explain what kind of a method you use to pull a specific book. I know most of the more expensive ones will be in a specific place but if someone were looking for some random issue and number whats a good system to use.

 

Thanks.

[Flaming_Telepath]

The whole process is inordinately time consuming...beyond even what you're imagining.

 

So you get a collection in and the first thing you do is put it into order...title then volume then issue. This takes longer than you might think. I remember the inititial stock for Comicana Direct included 27 long-boxes just of the letter S.

 

It took over a day simply to get them into order.

 

Then you start the processing...grading, bagging, boarding, inputting and potentially scanning. If you're lucky, you have a database with pre-loaded values and the grade entry triggers a calculation that gives you a price. If not, it's out with the OS and calculator.

 

We've taken a decision not to use stock scans, but we also won't scan every book. Roughly we put a $10 value limit on scans...they have to be more expensive for us to load up a scan...but we also scan any book that has different printings or variants and we scan all copies.

 

Loading the stock details and the scans to the site is your next hurdle and sometimes the sheer size of the upload causes problems with time-outs, etc. We have a programme that resizes the scans into three sizes...thumbnail, standard and large...as it loads them up. We're actually populating the site with scans at the moment and have experienced a 20% drop out rate, which has prompted us to look for a different uploading solution.

 

All in all...a load of arseache.

 

I like the website. Can you explain what kind of a method you use to pull a specific book. I know most of the more expensive ones will be in a specific place but if someone were looking for some random issue and number whats a good system to use.

 

Thanks.

 

On our site, I'd use the Advanced Search function. Type in the name of the title and then issue number and press Search. It will bring up any book that fulfills both criteria, so you might get a couple of choices depending on whether there's more than one volume.

[sd2416]

For those of you that run a store and a website, how do you keep track of the inventory. Say you have one copy of New Mutants 98. It is for sale in the store and on the website. You sell it in the store, how soon after the sale is it pulled from the website and listed as out of stock? Is there an inventory system/bar code scanner software you use to keep track of everything?

 

It seems like in effect, you are running multiple stores. The brick and mortar one and the online one.

 

 

We're still de-bugging - and we don't have a bricks & mortar, per se, although we do have 'visitors' - but the intention is for everything to be linked via one database and as soon as a sale is consumated, the item comes straight out of the system and can't be sold via any other means.

 

Whats your sites address?

[Flaming_Telepath]

For those of you that run a store and a website, how do you keep track of the inventory. Say you have one copy of New Mutants 98. It is for sale in the store and on the website. You sell it in the store, how soon after the sale is it pulled from the website and listed as out of stock? Is there an inventory system/bar code scanner software you use to keep track of everything?

 

It seems like in effect, you are running multiple stores. The brick and mortar one and the online one.

 

 

We're still de-bugging - and we don't have a bricks & mortar, per se, although we do have 'visitors' - but the intention is for everything to be linked via one database and as soon as a sale is consumated, the item comes straight out of the system and can't be sold via any other means.

 

Whats your sites address?

 

www.comicanadirect.com

 

And feel free to let me know when you find things that make you go

 

Got some small glitches that we're working through. (thumbs u