Looking back.... 4 4

[Get Marwood & I]

Just now, 1950's war comics said:

I know right ?? !!! when i bought my ASM 129 it was just a common probably cost no more than 50 cents.... it was no different than any other issue after #122..........

i got it graded and it came back CGC 7.0 so a nice little appreciation there .... 

 

TARDIS! 

NOW!

[spracknetch23]

When I get anything new, I scan the front and back cover for my archives. That way I can easily access images if I run across something I might like an upgrade to. It also helps if I decide to sell, there is already a scan. That's the extent of my cataloguing these days.

Back in '93 or so, I kept a wordpad list on my computer of all the comics I had, with a description of each and whether it was signed or not (I used to go crazy getting autographs at conventions in those days. I would carry huge duffel bags around conventions getting as many autographs as I could.)  I still update the list once in a while. The last time was Sept, 2014.

[Get Marwood & I]

5 hours ago, Marwood & I said:

Back in the days before the interweb we used to have to buy comics from paper catalogues - here are a few I found in the loft:

Whatever happened to Goldust 'only one D' Comics...?

Actually, that's not you is it @goldust40 ? 

[goldust40]

6 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:

Actually, that's not you is it @goldust40 ? 

It certainly is!

Goldust Comics (one "D", don't ask!) was active from 1994 to 2012. I still have a few copies of that catalogue somewhere.  I was doing two or three a year of those for about eight years, until the net made it less necessary. Looks like you looked after the ones pictured.

Edited July 8, 2017 by goldust40

[Get Marwood & I]

1 minute ago, goldust40 said:

It certainly is!

Goldust Comics (one "D", don't ask!) was active from 1994 to 2012. I still have a few of copies of that catalogue somewhere.  I was doing two or three a year of those for about eight years, until the net made it less necessary. Looks like you looked after those.

I always liked the 'missing' D. Very English cool. The net has it's benefits, and we wouldn't be without it, but I remember the paper days fondly 

[Buzzetta]

Really only one book left on my list that I still want.  Everything else is stuff that I find at a decent price that makes it impossible to pass up at the time it caught my eye. 

[Get Marwood & I]

6 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

Really only one book left on my list that I still want.  Everything else is stuff that I find at a decent price that makes it impossible to pass up at the time it caught my eye. 

No list required then @Buzzetta, you can write it on the back of your hand. It's not Spidey Super Stories #15 is it by any chance ?

[Buzzetta]

3 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:

No list required then @Buzzetta, you can write it on the back of your hand. It's not Spidey Super Stories #15 is it by any chance ?

There you go - it's on the back of my hand. 

[Get Marwood & I]

3 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

There you go - it's on the back of my hand. 

[tv horror]

Ahem...That's the inside of your hand. 

[batman_fan]

I migrated my list to excel on the cloud so i can access it via my cell phone anytime I need it.  Works great.

[Get Marwood & I]

10 hours ago, tv horror said:

Ahem...That's the inside of your hand. 

Damn. Still out of likes ?

[Get Marwood & I]

5 hours ago, batman_fan said:

I migrated my list to excel on the cloud so i can access it via my cell phone anytime I need it.  Works great.

Beats the quill pen I suppose @batman_fan !

I should do that really but I still go to the fairs with hastily scribbled notes on a sheet of A4. Often, I can't work out what I wrote and buy needless books on the off chance they're the one to prove the pence gap I'm looking for. 

I bought Amazing Fantasy 15 that way.

OK, that was was a joke. 

[nocutename]

I keep mine in excel and it is tabtastic!   About 26 tabs in total right now.  I record: Location, Title, Issue #, Date, Comic Title, Writer, Penciler, Inker, Appearance, Rate,  Comments, Continues, Grade/Comments, Source                     

Location is which box it is in or magazine box.  Rate was for me to rate the story which I never used.  Continues was to track if the story was continued in another issue.

The tabs:

• Comics -  Main collection of Batman/Tec along with notes of what is collected (that is old)
• non-Batman tab - Where almost everything else go.
• Animated - I started collecting all things DC animated and then it received its own tab
• Archie - Yep I used to be a bigger Archie collector.  These days, I hardly call myself a collector of anything.  I sold off a bunch of digest and probably need to update or get rid of this tab
• Wish list - It used to be constantly maintained but these days, I rarely purchase comics.  I either printed out from this list or did a handwritten one for shows.  Most of the time it was handwritten because the list was always too long.
• TPB list - I started this once my trades topped over 100.  It actually has helped not purchasing dupes. 
• The rest are of various appearances:  Poison Ivy, Catman and Deadshot, I think at one point I did collect all their SA and above appearances.  I never had any hopes of nabbing Deadshot's true 1st.
• Sold in x (x being years) / Traded - There are a few of these.  I maintained separate sales sheets when I used to sell more but I have some here because I didn't sell that much that year or maybe they were from my personal collection.
• An insane continuity list marked with if I own that storyline.

Then DC rebooted and this all went to hell.  I rarely access the spreadsheet or maintain it these days.  I tried to get back into collecting but the market sucks for a low bottom feed like me.  I just don't enjoy purchasing books for $25 when they were $2-10.  Or the $80 books now that were about $15.  Just too expensive.

[Get Marwood & I]

1 hour ago, nocutename said:

I keep mine in excel and it is tabtastic!   About 26 tabs in total right now.  I record: Location, Title, Issue #, Date, Comic Title, Writer, Penciler, Inker, Appearance, Rate,  Comments, Continues, Grade/Comments, Source                     

Location is which box it is in or magazine box.  Rate was for me to rate the story which I never used.  Continues was to track if the story was continued in another issue.

The tabs:

• Comics -  Main collection of Batman/Tec along with notes of what is collected (that is old)
• non-Batman tab - Where almost everything else go.
• Animated - I started collecting all things DC animated and then it received its own tab
• Archie - Yep I used to be a bigger Archie collector.  These days, I hardly call myself a collector of anything.  I sold off a bunch of digest and probably need to update or get rid of this tab
• Wish list - It used to be constantly maintained but these days, I rarely purchase comics.  I either printed out from this list or did a handwritten one for shows.  Most of the time it was handwritten because the list was always too long.
• TPB list - I started this once my trades topped over 100.  It actually has helped not purchasing dupes. 
• The rest are of various appearances:  Poison Ivy, Catman and Deadshot, I think at one point I did collect all their SA and above appearances.  I never had any hopes of nabbing Deadshot's true 1st.
• Sold in x (x being years) / Traded - There are a few of these.  I maintained separate sales sheets when I used to sell more but I have some here because I didn't sell that much that year or maybe they were from my personal collection.
• An insane continuity list marked with if I own that storyline.

Then DC rebooted and this all went to hell.  I rarely access the spreadsheet or maintain it these days.  I tried to get back into collecting but the market sucks for a low bottom feed like me.  I just don't enjoy purchasing books for $25 when they were $2-10.  Or the $80 books now that were about $15.  Just too expensive.

I have to say @nocutename that does sound like a fantastic excel spreadsheet. I know I've said I take handwritten wants list to fairs, and that's true, but I used to love mucking about with spreadsheets. Some of them, if I do say so myself, were majestic! I tried inserting scans once and gave up when I realised it would end up around a gazillion gigawatts or something. Well, it would crash my computer anyway.

I'd love to see a picture of yours - do a screen dump for us if you can.

When I look back on some of my old records, there's a real tinge of nostalgic regret. You put your heart and soul into it, and then one day it all stops and you stop keeping it up to date. Funny that.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your approach - do let us see a picture - and don't fret. I used to play in the 'big league', but now I'm just as happy bottom feeding the crappy old beat up pence copies 

[Get Marwood & I]

Just now, Marwood & I said:

I have to say @nocutename that does sound like a fantastic excel spreadsheet. I know I've said I take handwritten wants list to fairs, and that's true, but I used to love mucking about with spreadsheets. Some of them, if I do say so myself, were majestic! I tried inserting scans once and gave up when I realised it would end up around a gazillion gigawatts or something. Well, it would crash my computer anyway.

I'd love to see a picture of yours - do a screen dump for us if you can.

When I look back on some of my old records, there's a real tinge of nostalgic regret. You put your heart and soul into it, and then one day it all stops and you stop keeping it up to date. Funny that.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your approach - do let us see a picture - and don't fret. I used to play in the 'big league', but now I'm just as happy bottom feeding the crappy old beat up pence copies 

Oh, and you'd have got a like @nocutename if not for this silly system!

[nocutename]

You asked for it.

The spreadsheet is horrible out of date though.  I know I maintained the TPB list recently.  The comic list, not so much.  Just before I stopped collecting about 2 and 1/2 years ago, I did a Batman Unmasked cover theme set.  Those aren't logged.  I will never get Detective 225 but I have the reprinted one.

This is a thumbnail.  It should be clickable for a full version.  There are other columns but I don't want to show the source as I name, names.  

[Martin Sinescu]

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. 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

1 hour ago, nocutename said:

You asked for it.

The spreadsheet is horrible out of date though.  I know I maintained the TPB list recently.  The comic list, not so much.  Just before I stopped collecting about 2 and 1/2 years ago, I did a Batman Unmasked cover theme set.  Those aren't logged.  I will never get Detective 225 but I have the reprinted one.

This is a thumbnail.  It should be clickable for a full version.  There are other columns but I don't want to show the source as I name, names.  

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 ?

[Ken Aldred]

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.