Gregory Hecht
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Posts posted by Gregory Hecht
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From a netiquette perspective, it is preferred that you post within a thread you have started for this topic rather than start a brand new thread for the exact same topic. This is the second time that I have merged one of your posts into the original thread.
As to your original question, my personal opinion as a CB user (I'm not a Human Computing employee and do not serve any formal role on the CB editorial team) is that while it is obvious which comics would qualify as a "major key" (e.g., Action Comics #1, Amazing Fantasy #1, Showcase #4, etc.) there will always be some subjectivity as to which comics constitute a major key and especially what should count as a minor key.
Is Thor #337 a major key or a minor key? If you choose minor key, does that change if Beta Ray Bill gets a starring role in an MCU movie or TV show? What about Amazing Spider-Man #545? It's not expensive on the back market, but it is a key moment in Spider-Man history and continuity (even if it is not necessarily a popular moment). Wolverine's first appearance was only a cameo in Incredible Hulk #180. Presumably #181 is a major key, but is #180 a major key b/c it is the true first appearance or is it a minor key b/c it is only a couple of panels? Wolverine has a similar cameo in Incredible Hulk #182... is that a minor key or not a key?
Should keys for non-super-hero comics be included? So does Bone #1 (1st printing) count as a major or minor key? What about subsequent printings of Bone #1? Do all of the first issues of EC's "New Trend" titles get labeled as major keys? What about the first issues of EC's "New Direction" titles? Is Sugar & Spike #1 a major or minor key?
Do non-English comics get "key treatment" for the first appearances of One Piece, TinTin, or Asterix? What about various issues of Weekly Shonen Jump from Japan (such as #43 that introduced Naruto) or the reprints of those stories that Viz published in Shonen Jump in North America?
Captain Underpants and Dog Man are really popular, so the first appearances of those characters should probably be labeled as a "key" in some way... but there are people who argue that those characters aren't enough like comic books to warrant that kind of attention (even if the CB database categorizes them under Comics rather than Books).
To varying degrees, a lot of major and minor keys are in the eyes of the beholder.
I wouldn't want to speak for Pete, but my guess (and I emphasize that this is a **guess**) is that with everything that the CB editorial/corrections team needs to field each week, adding editorial decisions about what is (or is not) a major or minor key is something that would eat up a ton of the team's time without a lot of "value added" to the CB product. YMMV, of course.
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I am not sure that I am understanding this.
Did the publisher put out both a polybagged and an unpolybagged edition of issue #2?
• If so, why wouldn’t those be recorded as #2 and #2/A? Cataloging the polybagged version of #2 as SE1 when presumably the indicia says #2 seems unnecessarily confusing to me. Do it as SE2 if you must rather than 2/A unless the number in the indicia really says #1.
• If not, I think the practice for CB is that the two publications in the bag get listed separately in the database. If the ancillary publication (in this case, the issue of Jupiter’s Legacy) is identical to the JL issue that was sold separately from Den of Geek then so be it. If it is unique in some way then it is a variant issue of JL and gets treated as such under the appropriate Jupiter’s Legacy comic title.
As for how to list (i.e. what selling price to use) an unopened polybagged edition on AA, I would think you should be able to charge a premium as compared to selling a high grade copy of just the Den of Geek issue removed from the polybag. As I understand it, CB gets its valuations primarily from AA listings & transactions and from Heritage, and by spot checking against eBay and other sort when users call out specific individual items. In the absence of any data, I think CB defaults to cover price as the valuation. So for something relatively unusual like an unopened polybagged issue of Den of Geek, do some homework before listing such as checking eBay listings and completed sales.
I am sure that @Mark J. Castaneda will correct me if I am wrong in my discussion above.
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At one point long ago I did end up accidentally scanning a UPC number into the Quantity in Stock field. I discovered shortly afterwards that my collection had an insanely high number of issues in total, so I did a search for items with Quantity > 1 and quickly found the culprit.
A few years later I had another instance where I was looking for Quantity > 1 and discovered that I must have made the same or similar error at some point with another comic after the incident above. I don't recall exactly, but I think the program didn't use the erroneous quantity in any of the file statistics or anything like that. So I suspect that somewhere along the line the program already has a feature that either recognizes or ignores blatantly crazy Quantity in Stock values.
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2 hours ago, Randall J. Paske said:
The new title Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse and the Amazing Lost Ocean doesn't adhere to the usual standard that would make it Mickey Mouse and the Amazing Lost Ocean (Walt Disney's...), either.
There seem to be a number of titles in the database where the "Walt Disney's" portion of the title is not relegated to parentheses (click over to this page, then scroll down about halfway to see some examples). So many of those titles have been in the database for so long that I assume there is reluctance to make the correction, but it appears that situation may have created an opening for new titles to "continue the tradition" since there are also a bunch that are relatively recent.
While we're on the topic, it appears that there are two comic book titles that are missing the apostrophe in "Walt Disney's..." Those titles should probably be corrected.
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This week's update added the Comic title Pop Kill (Made Cave). That should really be Pop Kill (Mad Cave) [note correction to the name of the publisher].
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This update added Dc Vs. Vampires: World War V—Darkness and Light as a Comic Book title. I assume that should really DC Vs. Vampires: World War V—Darkness and Light (note capitalization change).
• Similarly, should the existing comic title Dc Vs. Vampires: World War V be changed to DC Vs. Vampires: World War V ? -
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Actually, I take it back... I do have another item for consideration.
This week's updated added multiple items under the Book title The Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta. I have all five of these books (not necessarily all first printing), but at the moment I am only able to easily find my copies of volume 3 and volume 5. Although these are undeniably part of the same series as volume 1, both the covers of vol.s 3 & 5 and the indica pages state that the book title is merely Frank Frazetta (i.e., the phrase "The Fantastic Art of..." is not there).
Note that the phrase "The Fantastic Art of..." is only on the cover of the first volume.
I will have to look at the indicia of the first volume (as well as volume 2) to see whether the volume 1 indicia page matches the cover and what the indicia page of volume 2 looks like, but I am expecting that the indicia pages will match the cover titles. If this is the case, how should this series of books be handled in the database? -
Potentially only one small nit to pick this time around:
This week's update added the Comic title Shift Presents … The Man from Z.O.D.I.A.C. There are spaces both preceding and following the "..." Should both of those spaces be there? (honestly not sure what the convention is supposed to be for that)
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Wasn’t that a reprint issue? If so, what issue did it reprint? My guess is that it is probably listed as a variant of the original issue.
EDITED TO ADD: Is this it? -
Noticed that a new book was added to the title That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime (Light Novel). Should that title be corrected to That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (Light Novel) ? (note capitalization change)
This week's update also added the book title Berkeley Con Program. Just curious: should convention programs be treated as books or as magazines?
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24 minutes ago, mark d. smith said:
i dont think the series is listed in the uk editions on comicbase
I have not had any luck finding it, either.
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5 minutes ago, Gregory Hecht said:
New Mutants #98/I
(the font on these boards isn't clear, but that would be the letter "I" not the number "1", i.e., the variant listed after variant "H")
In looking at this, I see that the Item Description for New Mutants #98/I in the database indicates that it is the Pan-Universal 3D version, but that note doesn't show up on the Atomic Avenue page for the New Mutants title or the page for the issue itself.
This obviously has the potential to create confusion for Atomic Avenue shoppers in that they won't know which variant exactly they are looking at, and that has the potential to make or break a sale and also to make or break the customer's satisfaction when they receive their order. I can see this being an important point for lots of shoppers since there are not just many different variants but also only subtle differences between some of those variants. @Peter Bickford @Peter R. Bickford Any chance that we can get "Item Description" info displayed on Atomic Avenue?
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New Mutants #98/I
(the font on these boards isn't clear, but that would be the letter "I" not the number "1", i.e., the variant listed after variant "H")
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The title Comic Art (Comic Art Magazine) is currently housed in the Comic Book category. It should be moved to Magazines.
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Additional notes regarding the 1970s Fireside series of Marvel books:
• The database currently lists The Superhero Women trade paperback, but my understanding is that there was also a hardcover version. GCD seems to only have a placeholder listing for the hardcover. Although Mycomicshop lists a hardcover version, their scan is apparently of the trade paperback (note the $6.95 cover price in the scan). Can anybody verify for sure that the hardcover version exists? If so, then it should be added to the database.
• The database currently lists both the trade paperback and hardcover versions of Marvel's Greatest Superhero Battles, but it lists the cover price for the hardcover edition as $0.00. Can anybody verify what the cover price should be for the hardcover version?
• The Incredible Hulk (Fireside) trade paperback edition is listed in the database, but the hardcover version is not. Also, the title description states "The Incredible Hulk trade edition remains relatively common with both comic and used book dealers and can often be had close to its original price of $7.95." That information may have been true at the time it was written, but it is no longer accurate. I suggest deleting that sentence from the title description.
• Amazing Spider-Man (Fireside) lists the trade paperback edition but the hardcover version needs to be added.
• Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts lists the trade paperback edition but the hardcover version needs to be added.
• The Best of Spidey Super Stories trade paperback is listed in the database, but the hardcover version needs to be added.
• All of the trade paperbacks in the Mighty Marvel Superheroes Fun Book title are listed in the database, but there was apparently also a hardcover version of Book #1 that is not included in the database.
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In 1976, Simon & Schuster (again under their Fireside imprint) published another book in this series entitled Bring on the Bad Guys: Origins of the Marvel Comics Villains. This was published in both trade paperback and hardcover format. The database lists the trade paperback but not the hardcover (which does exist), so that should be added.
In 1998, Marvel released an entirely new version of Bring on the Bad Guys in trade paperback format. ALL of the contents of this book are COMPLETELY different from the 1976 book, nothing from the 1976 book was included in the 1998 version. The indicia title was also shortened to just read Bring on the Bad Guys. This book is listed in the database as a variant of the original 1975 book; in reality, this is a completely different book. So BotBG:OofMCV Book #1/A should be spun out into its own title, Bring on the Bad Guys.
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Son of Origins of Marvel Comics was originally published in 1975 by Simon & Schuster (under their Fireside imprint) as a sequel to Origins of Marvel Comics. It was published in both hardcover and softcover formats. Back in the day, both of those formats went through multiple printings with no change in the contents. This is in the database.
• The Notes field for Son of Origins of Marvel Comics Book #1 includes "#22166". I don't have any clue what that is about, that should be deleted from the Notes field.See my note above re: the slipcase release that included both Origins of Marvel Comics and Son of Origins of Marvel Comics.
In 1997, Marvel published a new version of Son of Origins with substantial changes to the content of the book (GCD allows you to compare contents of the 1975 version to the 1997 version). Right now, this is listed in the database as a second printing of the original Son of Origins, but the changes to the contents really mean that the 1997 book should be moved to its own title.
[Moreover, there is a second printing of the 1975 version out in the world, and the 1997 version is apparently squatting in its spot in the database.]When setting up the new 1997 Son of Origins title, I do not know if the indicia states anything along the lines of "Revised Edition" (as per GCD) or "From the House of Ideas" (as per Mycomicshop).
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OK, so a new edition of Origins of Marvel Comics was just published (and it looks great, by the way). In looking at this and related titles in the database, it appears that some cleaning up is necessary. Some of it is probably very straightforward, but some of it not so much.
Origins of Marvel Comics was originally published in 1974 by Simon & Schuster (under their Fireside imprint) in both hardcover and softcover formats. Back in the day, both of those formats went through multiple printings with no change in the contents. This is in the database.
• However, the Book #1 (2nd print) has a $17.95 pricepoint and no scan. I cannot identify what this is since that cover price doesn't match the 1974 tpb, the 1974 hc, the 1997 revised edition (see below), etc. So I am guessing that this entry needs its cover price changed to either $5.95 (price of the 1st print) or $6.95 (the price of some of the later printings), but I don't know which one.
• The 4th through 7th printings list their cover price as $0.00. These should be changed to $6.95 (the 3rd and 8th printings both have a $6.95 cover price, so if those are accurate then that should be the cover price of the 4th through 7th printings).In 1976, there was a slipcase set of Origins of Marvel Comics and Son of Origins of Marvel Comics (both softcover). I don't know what the printing numbers for those editions were. I'm not aware of the slipcase set being included in the database, so unless I am mistaken this needs to be added.
In 1997, Marvel published a new version of Origins of Marvel Comics with some contents different from the 1974 version. Mycomicshop lists it as a "From the House of Ideas" collection, a phrase that is on the cover but I don't know if it is in the indicia. GCD lists it as a "Revised Edition." I'm not seeing this book in the database, so this needs to be added. (I don't have a copy, so my ability to submit info for this is limited.)
In 2011, Marvel published a tpb entitled Origins of Marvel Comics, but its contents are reprints of various one-shot comics from circa 2010 that are newly produced re-tellings of various origin stories. In ComicBase, this is listed as Origins of Marvel Comics (2nd series), which is awkward since it is actually the third iteration of the OfMC title, but it has been in the database for so long we are probably stuck with it.
Simon & Schuster has just re-published Origins of Marvel Comics. There is a trade paperback version and a hardcover version.
The hardcover has the same contents as the 1974 edition with added bonus materials (essays and production art, plus a new dustjacket by Alex Ross). The title page says Origins of Marvel Comics 50th Anniversary Edition.
My understanding is that the tpb version has less of the bonus materials (it might be just a straight-up reprint of the 1974 book with no changes, but I don't know for sure). I also do not know if the title page for that book says Origins of Marvel Comics 50th Anniversary Edition or just Origins of Marvel Comics.
Regardless, neither of these are in the database. I have the hardcover version, but this is a crazy busy week for me, so I am not certain that I will be able to submit it in a timely (no pun intended) fashion.I have some comments to add regarding Son of Origins of Marvel Comics, please stay tuned for those.
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This week's update added The Magic Order 5 as a comic title. We already have the title The Magic Order V for the first issue of this series, which matches the indicia. Has the indicia changed in subsequent issues? If not, The Magic Order 5 needs to be deleted. If it has changed, I suggest picking one of the two titles for all of the issues of the series and then deleting the other title from the database.
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This week's update added the Comic Book title Amazing Spider-Man, The: 65 Deaths.
My understanding is that this actually another one of those ##.whatever type issues of Amazing Spider-Man. In other words, this is supposed to be Amazing Spider-Man #65.DEATHS, just like there was (for example) an Amazing Spider-Man #16.HU (indexed as Amazing Spider-Man #16.1) and Amazing Spider-Man #78.BEY (indexed as Amazing Spider-Man #78.1)... so I think that this particular issue should be indexed as Amazing Spider-Man, The (6th series) #65.1I see that the 21 Down Complete Collection book got moved to the existing 21 Down title. The Notes field for this item still refers to "the unpublished issue #13." Issue #13 has been published, it just wasn't published in 2003 and wasn't published by DC. It exists and is in the database. The Notes field should be corrected to read "Collects 21 Down #1-13" or, if need be, "Collects 21 Down #1-12 plus #13."
This week's update also added Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four #25/HC. The earlier entry of regular issue #25 needs to be deleted.
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ANOTHER UPDATE: I have submitted information for the new 2024 edition of Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 3. They were entered as follows:
• Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man #3/D for the silver & black dustjacket edition (somebody else will need to submit a cover scan and a UPC number)
• Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man #3/E for the marble dustjacket edition
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In my travels through the database, I noticed that there is an incorrect scan and UPC for Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men #1/A. I have submitted these earlier this evening.
The scan that is presently on Atomic Avenue for Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men #1/A should be moved to Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men #1/C. (The existing scan for MM:TUXM #1/C is incorrect... it is actually the cover to The All-New, All-Different X-Men Masterworks #1.)
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UPDATE: I have submitted information for the new 2024 edition of Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men vol. 1. They were entered as follows:
• Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men #1/D for the silver & black dustjacket edition (somebody else will need to submit a cover scan and a UPC number)
• Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men #1/E for the marble dustjacket edition
Den of Geek - Bagged or Not Bagged
in Content and Corrections
Posted
I'm still not understanding something here that I suspect is a really basic piece of information necessary for this discussion.
Are you saying that the Den of Geek #2 magazine and the Den of Geek SE #1 magazine are the same thing aside from the fact that one of these was polybagged with the copy of Jupiter's Legacy #1? In other words, if you gave me copies of both of those Den of Geek magazines and I took them out of whatever polybags they were in, threw away any copies of Jupiter's Legacy #1 that were in those polybags, and then handed those Den of Geek magazines back to you, would you be able to tell the difference between them? Are their covers the same? Are their UPCs the same? Does the indicia for one of them say "Den of Geek #2" and the other "Den of Geek Special Edition #1"? Or are the two indicia identical? (and, if the indicia are identical, what do they say?)
The answers to the above help me understand whether DoG #2 and DoG SE #1 are truly duplicate listings in the database or whether the info about DoG #2 being polybagged w/ JL #1 is erroneous. (I'm still stuck on this part, so please forgive me if you feel like I am rewinding the conversation!)