What software (s) have helped you most with the comic hobby?

[comicwiz]

The first software that comes to mind when this question is posed is ebay. By far the most powerful web-based application ever produced to locate comics globally -- all at your fingertips.

 

Other softwares that come to mind are search engines. About a month ago, I noticed a new feature in Copernic 2001 Pro (http://www.copernic.com); the interesting thing about this software is that it is a client-side search engine, which means you need to install their program to benefit from its powerful searching capabilities. Every week or so, copernic automatically updates new features and search enhancements to your computer.

 

The new feature I noticed recently allowed searches on... newspapers. The cool thing about this is that most search engines like google and yahoo don't have the indexing capablities to handle newpapers as their information is far too dynamic for search engine robots. So I tried it out. Could you believe the software conducts a federated search on the classifieds and events sections as well as all regular sections of these following newspapers:

• 
  Baltimore Sun
  Chicago Sun-Times
  Detroit Free Press
  Las Vegas Sun
  Los Angelas Times
  Minneapolis Star Tribune
  New York Post
  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  Seattle Times
  The Boston Globe
  The Cincinnati Post and Enquirer
  The Detroit News
  The Washington Times
  Washington Post
  

I managed to find a couple of ads for collections, and estate sales which consisted of comics. A little preview I guess to what may come once all newspapers get online.

 

So what software or softwares have helped you with your hobby of collecting comics?

[blowout]

...peter bickford's comicbase is pretty good...........good comics database and useful search engine that can be linked to auction sites...........

[Darthdiesel]

Comicwiz,

 

The way the title of the thread was worded, I was going to repond MS Excel as the most powerful application that has helped me. I can create my own database to track my auctions sales and my collection all at once.

 

 

[comicwiz]

...MS Excel as the most powerful application that has helped me.

 

And the beauty of MS products in the Office suite is that they are all compatible with one another; so lets say for instance you decided to someday list those books from your collection online, with a little massaging, you could convert your Excel database to an Access database and have an ODBC compliant database which could potentially be used for visitors to perform searches on your entire collection. That's sounds powerful to me too.

[comicwiz]

...peter bickford's comicbase is pretty good...........good comics database and useful search engine that can be linked to auction sites...........

 

sounds cool; I'm going to check it out right now...

 

thanks blowout

[comicwiz]

I actually remember speaking to Peter Bickford (is this you) about the comicbase software at about the time I was developing a web-based version... the one thing I noticed from the last time I visited you site is that you now have a trial download...

 

http://www.human-computing.com/ComicBase.html

 

cool

[blowout]

......., no i'm not peter bickford........i have just been using comicbase for a year or so and found it to be very usefull, so thought i'd pass the info on.............

 

......if you are reading this though peter, i wouldn't say no to a free upgade to version 7 for the publicity i gave you................

[aardvark88]

I like the free file transfer protocol software WS_ftp to upload my eBay pics to my webhost. Hopefully, the new HP Scanjet I just bought will allow me to scan CLEAR pics right off the surface of the cgc slab. For the same price point as a Canon scanner, HP seems to be the superior scanner for cgc purposes.

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

I purchased ComicBase 6 (on Ebay for $49.99) not too long ago, and I absolutely love it! A WizardWorld portfolio pales in comparison to it. If you have thousands of comic books like me, it is well worth it for the time it saves in data base entries alone. The search engine kicks , and so do the printing options! I don't collect "adult" comic books, but even those are in the comic database! It is comic collection management software, and a comic book encyclopedia and all rolled up into one! I would recommend going to their website and downloading the manual for version 7 and reading the FAQ to find out all about it. If you have a fast connection, then you could download the demo and give it a try.

[FlyingDonut]

Please let me know how the scanner works - I'm sick of my Canon. grrrrrrrrrr

[murph0]

I use Realm of Wonder, Comicbase looks okay but last I checked it wasn't made by Microsoft so what's up with the ridiculous price tag?

 

Brian

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

If you ask me Adobe is worse than MicroSoft when it comes to prices for software. Hmmm...I'm curious about the "Realm of Wonder" software you made reference to, could you provide a link to the home web page? I agree that the price is high for ComicBase, but I have yet to see a comparable (apples for apples) piece of software. You could purchase ComicBase for $99 + S&H at BCE Mylar, that would be less than ordering directly from Human-Computing, or you could look for it on eBay like I did. If you don't see one up right now, one will come up eventually. I purchased my copy for $49.99, and at that price it is well worth the money. Have you tried the demo or downloaded the manual? After I downloaded the manual and read it, I knew that it was everything I was looking for and more. As a price guide it is serious competition to the OverStreet Price Guide. Also you can customize the grading system to your preference (which I did). The only real downside is that the user interface is not quite as intuative as I would have preferred, but once you get used to it (which shouldn't take long), there is no turning back.

[murph0]

www.realmsofwonder.com

 

I don't know if it's been updated recently but it's still very easy to use, simple interface, and does nice reports without getting too extravagent.

 

Brian

[comicwiz]

I used to almost exclusively use ws_ftp pro, but recently with my o/s upgrade to Windows XP, I've been using the ftp within Internet Explorer (IE). I like the flexibility of ftp'ing with IE as I can access my folder even when I'm not at my home computer. I believe IE was able to do this since v 5.0, and it's not necessarily the case that you need to upgrade your o/s, but I had to start from scratch with all my applications... I did some research on ftp applications during the time of my upgrade and realized that IE was fully capable of handling most ftp task. The only thing I use ws_ftp pro for now is to change the chmod on a file type if I'm using advanced -script files like php -- I still haven't figured out a way to chmod using IE.

[fantastic_four]

I evaluated ComicBase briefly, but I had three problems with it that prevented me from buying it:

 

• The historical pricing data only went back 4 years
• You couldn't print a highly condensed listing of issues you wanted to buy. I wanted a report that would fit on a page or two to make it easy to whip out while thumbing through a comic box at a convention, not a thick stack of sheets.
• You can't do anything with ComicBase comics data outside of ComicBase. This precludes using your collection data to feed a web site or to generate custom reports not already created by ComicBase

I may have been wrong about the condensed report not being there, but I couldn't find it. If any of you guys take a printed ComicBase report to conventions with you, please let me know how you like it.

 

Because of those limitations I mentioned, I went with a custom Access database. The tables and reports only took a few hours to create; the time-consuming work has been in typing in all the Overstreet data from the last 30 years in for the titles I collect (Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, X-Men). But now, thanks to Access, I have a multi-column 1-page want list to take to conventions that easily fits in my pants pocket, and I have a 30-year price history for the issues I buy. As soon as I can rip myself away from playing online Quake, I'll make some graphs to visually present the Overstreet price history for individual issues or ranges (Silver or Bronze, for example) of issues.

 

I also have a web site that feeds a product catalog from that Access database, although it isn't open to the public because I don't sell comics; I just use it for now to browse my collection while I'm bored and away from home. Like when I'm at work eating lunch and the forums here are full of ComicInvestor yet again telling us all how the comics market is going all to heck. ComicBase actually uses an Access database to store its data, but they put a password on it so that only ComicBase can get to the data directly. Had they not done that, I would have bought ComicBase myself just so I wouldn't have to type in quite so much data.

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

Brian I went to the Relms of Wonder web site to check it out, I read the FAQ, and read the following:

 

"Is Realms an Encyclopedia of Comics, and does it have a Price Guide Built In?

Realms is NOT an encyclopedia / on-line history of comics. It is designed to track your collection(s). I plan to add a database of titles soon, but issues is unlikely. Though that would be nice, it is a huge task. I realize that it would be great for initial entry of your collection, but I've built in a lot of ease of entry features. In addition, once you're initial entry is complete, most of the issues you enter will be new, and, therefore, not on the database."

 

So after reading that I found out that Relms of Wonder, doed NOT have a database of title/issues, and therefore is NOT in the same league as ComicBase because ComicBase DOES have a database of titles/issues. I think the author of Relms of Wonder is right where he states "it is a huge task", and ComicBase takes the task out of keeping a comic book inventory and it's loaded with information about titles and issues.

 

I'll restate a few things I've already mentioned. If you have thousands of comic books like me, ComicBase is well worth it for the hours upon hours it saves in data base entries alone. ComicBase is comic collection management software, and a comic book encyclopedia all rolled up into one! I have yet to see a comparable (apples for apples) piece of software.

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

fantastic_four: The historical pricing data only went back 4 years

 

Did you know that with ComicBase you can create historical pricing data for however many MORE years back that you want?

 

fantastic_four: You couldn't print a highly condensed listing of issues you wanted to buy. I wanted a report that would fit on a page or two to make it easy to whip out while thumbing through a comic box at a convention, not a thick stack of sheets.

 

I'm sorry, but I don't understand this complaint at all. I've printed out inventory lists and the lists appear to be condesed enough to me. Any more condesing and I would need a magnifying glass to read them. Also if I am not mistaken (Blowout can correct me if I'm wrong), you can customize how you want to print lists, and I think that you can change the font size too.

 

About your third complaint, because I don't have a web site, I'm not qualified to answer your third complaint about ComicBase.

 

fantastic_four: the time-consuming work has been in typing in all the Overstreet data from the last 30 years in for the titles I collect (Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, X-Men).

 

All I can is WOW, either you have a small collection, or you have TONS of time on your hands.

[murph0]

Yeh, it takes a whole 10 seconds to make an entry. That'd surely be a reason to deter you from spending 10 dollars versus 100. Once you start a title all you have to do is click "Add" then you put in the issue # and other information pertinant to you such as how much you paid or where you bought it..

 

Brian

[fantastic_four]

I've printed out inventory lists and the lists appear to be condesed enough to me. Any more condesing and I would need a magnifying glass to read them

Here's the report I use:

 

 

Back when I first created this report in 2000, it took up the better part of 2 pages, but it has shrunk a bit since then. Does ComicBase have a report that shows me the issues I want and the prices for those issues anything like the picture above does? I believe I evaluated ComicBase version 5, and I couldn't find a report that was anything like this one I envisioned. I don't need a report of what I have when I go to conventions, I need a list of what I want. It's possible they added a report like this in v6, or that I overlooked some possibilities in v5.

 

All I can is WOW, either you have a small collection, or you have TONS of time on your hands.

I'm not sure what you mean. Maybe this will clear it up--I only enter the comics I want into my database, and I only enter comics that I own that are worth more than $5 to 10, although a lot of the ones I own are in there that are part of a title run with more expensive issues in it (like Spidey, where the early ones are expensive and the later ones aren't). I enter the comics I own for insurance purposes, and ones I want for the printed list to take to conventions. I've got about 4000 comics in the database. Entering those in was a tiny amount of time as compared to the amount of time it has been taking me to enter old Overstreet price data in for the titles I collect. I've got about 14 or 15 years worth entered; I usually enter an old Overstreet or two's worth of data (only for the titles I collect) on rainy or boring days every month or so.

 

The killer on ComicBase for me was the lock on the database; there's no way I'm re-entering or periodically doing a manual export of my inventory to get it on a web site when I know there's no technical reason I have to. ComicBase just doesn't want you ripping off CBG's pricing data; I'm sure that's why they've locked the database.

[blowout]

"I don't need a report of what I have when I go to conventions, I need a list of what I want. It's possible they added a report like this in v6, or that I overlooked some possibilities in v5. "

 

........i don't know about version 5, but in v 6 you can certainly print off lists of the issues you need (pretty useless without this option), i do this all the time when i attend convensions................another great thing about comic base is that when you have compiled the lists you want to print, you have the option to export the data to MS word/ Excel (or whatever), then you can reformat/ change fonts, do whatever you have to to the data................the options are limited to whatever word processing package that you have.............