ComicBase

[Paul Nolan]

There is the odd bit of lag here and there. but I think its mainly caused by the ads. And you have to have the ads to keep the site free.

one guy "dough boy" has built the site, maintains the site and the servers.

No mean feat when you consider the number of comic covers hosted.

I think it's great to have free sites like that. Perfect solution for folks really strapped for cash an/or casual collectors with relatively small collections.

A comment: I'm poking around over there and it's REALLY not obvious on how to use the site as a Db to track your collection.....

its got a few instructions on the 'guide' tab.... but that probably could do with a name change.

I've got just over 10 longboxes worth of mine on there and it looks like this

http://comicbookrealm.com/paul+nolan/co ... ter%20Pile

[abysslord]

I just compared the reports between comicbase and cbr too, I think I actually prefer cbr now.

Here's a breakdown chart of my collection by publisher:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7229314/Untitled.png

And here's an export of my collection as a spreadsheet, which I find much easier to read and more concise [after you spread out the columns] than the comicbase report I generated by just throwing a quick collection together.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7229314/pile_export.csv

Maybe there's more to comicbase's reports than I'm seeing though. Either way, for someone who already has a huge collection in comicbase, there's no way you'd change unless there was an import. But for free, hard to beat cbr it appears.

[BobBretall]

its got a few instructions on the 'guide' tab.... but that probably could do with a name change.

It didn't occur to me to look under "Guide" to find a place to enter data on my personal collection.

If you can actually get DoughBoy to respond to your PMs, you might suggest he add a link called something like "Tracking your collection using CBR" with some instructions.

[BobBretall]

I just compared the reports between comicbase and cbr too, I think I actually prefer cbr now.

I can't provide any help there. I don't do reports/charts/spreadsheets of my collection. I just go directly to the database & run a query to get info on an issue or title when I need it.

MOST important to me is having a robust back-end database, given the # of issues I'm dealing with and the physical SIZE of data involved in tracking 60,000 issues. Apps using toy/free database back-ends are likely to have the whole thing go belly-up when confronted with lots of data rows.

[abysslord]

its got a few instructions on the 'guide' tab.... but that probably could do with a name change.

It didn't occur to me to look under "Guide" to find a place to enter data on my personal collection.

If you can actually get DoughBoy to respond to your PMs, you might suggest he add a link called something like "Tracking your collection using CBR" with some instructions.

I talked to him, if you're logged off then the home page mentions how you can track your collection but there isn't a link to anything to really tell you how to begin. I gave him that suggestion that a link would be helpful so a new user can immediately see what to do.

You can export your collection into a XML file, maybe import that into a database. I don't know how much work that would be.

[Trev]

I've also been using ComicBase for years and the scanner comes in handy for new books with barcodes (well, actually, my sainted wife does all the data entry for me).

Some day you'll have to tell me how you pulled that off.

It's definitely not the cheapest solution, but for my 60,000 book collection, I think it's the best. We have custom fields set up to track some things I care about that are not in the general release and like that it's on my computer and not a web-hosted Db.

I use some of the extra check boxes to mark issues of a particular type and I also use the ability to create variant issues to track books that I've had signed

(I'd be terrified on a web-hosted solution that the company would go out of business or something and then I'd be hosed. PLUS, I can access my info any time I boot up the laptop I host it on.

Also, since I have so many books in ComicBase, I'm kind of locked in. If other solutions want to prey on current ComicBase customers and get them to switch, they need to be able to import a ComicBase database.

Yes, any provider who could create a more modern solution that had a web component, could take Comicbase exports or create them, and provide exportable, standards based backups would be awesome. Esp if it came with smartphone apps and integrated with something like Red Laser.

The software guy in me is constantly nagged by the fact that Comicbase runs on Access and Access Forms. I wish they would at least modernize it some. It could really stand to be re-architected rather than just bolting on some simple new features every year.

I do like that it integrates with their sales site, but miss the old integration to e-bay.

[BobBretall]

I do like that it integrates with their sales site, but miss the old integration to e-bay.

I don't particularly like Atomic Avenue, so the integration of ComicBase to it is a complete no-op for me.

[BobBretall]

I use some of the extra check boxes to mark issues of a particular type and I also use the ability to create variant issues to track books that I've had signed

That's not a bad idea. I just have a Note on an issue if it's autographed, but having the issue marked would actually allow you to run a list of all autographed comics....

[JohnMayo]

I'm using a home-brewed Excel system for tracking my collection. I've looked at some of the different comic book tracking systems out there but none of them seem to be able to track from the ordering point in the process. I want something to start tracking what I order from Previews and migrate that into the inventory of my collection when it arrives. I haven't found a system that does they yet. (But I also haven't looked all that hard recently either.)

ComicBase seems good but way too pricey for me to justify as a yearly expense.