Steven L. Dasinger

Just to be clear, the Condition you are setting in CB is a custom value of "NM-" (Near Mint Minus)?

Delete or Move HC.jpg From: Pictures\B\Boom!\Art Of Mouse Guard 2005 - 2015 To: Pictures\B\Boom!\Art of Mouse Guard 2005-2015, The Rename 1.jpg to TPB 1 From: Pictures\S\St. Martin's\Great Comic Book Artists, The Delete 1-A.jpg From: Pictures\A\AiT-Planet Lar\Astronauts in Trouble- Space 1959 Delete 187.2-B.jpg From: Pictures\W\Wizard\Wizard- The Comics Magazine

There are 3 colors that an issue can have. Red if the Issue has gone up in value Black if the Issue has no change in value Blue if the Issue has gone down in value.

An Item number is composed of up to 4 items. Type, Issue_Number, Variation, Printing. If all 4 are used it would be: Type Number/Variation-Printing Example using all four: Bk 1/A-2 Not all need to be used. 1 Issue Number only 1/A Issue Number with Variation 1-2 Issue Number with Printing 1/A-2 Issue Number with Variation and Printing 1-2 Issue Number with Printing Bk 1 Type with Issue Number Bk 1/A Type with Issue Number and Variation Bk 1/A-2 Type with Issue Number and Variation and Printing (There are other combinations) Punctuation is: A Space between Type and Issue Number (Bk 1) A Slash between Issue Number and Variation (1/A, 1/HC, etc.) A Dash between Issue Number (or Variation if used) and Printing (1-2, 1/HC-2)

If you can do an Advanced Find, you can do this. It may take some playing with if you are not used to SQL. For example, with an Advanced Find type this into the Items Where box: I.[Title] = 'Batman' and I.[ItemNumber] = 36 You might want to include I.[QtyInStock] >= 1 for just Issues you own. I.[Title] LIKE '%Batman%' will find any Title that has Batman in it. ItemNumber is composed of different parts, Type, Variation, Issue Number, and Printing. If you just want the Issue Number part I.[IssueNum] = 36 will find Bk 36 , 36/A, 36-HC, 36-2, ect. You can't Add with a Find, however. You can bring it up and change the Qty in Stock, though.

No need unless you already have V3198 installed. Just install on top of the older version.

You should probably start a different thread for a different problem. I can' help you much on the date since that is internal to the program. The only thing I will suggest is you enter dates in the ISO format of YYY-MM-DD as the is what the database internally. It just displays it as MM/DD/YYYY for display purposes. It may be possible you are entering DD/MM/YYY at a guess.

Do you have the latest update (20.0.2.3198)? If not download and install it and see if that helps.

Can you shrink the window down? What Edition of CB do you have. This is what my Archive Edition looks like:

Use menu item Setup->Grading. You can add other grades. However, if you try to sell them on Atomic Avenue, I don't know how they would 'translate' or work.

One more thing. This won't get you all you comics in one list but if you use the View button->Items to Show->Owned items, it will only displya Issues and Titles that you own (Qty >= 1). They will still be broken into lists per Title and not all at once but it will not display all the other items.

I am not sure you can do what you want but here is as close to what you want as I can think of. Do a Find with Item Filed of Qty In Stock and Is Greater Than or Equal. This will display a result set of all the comics you own (assuming you have set Qty In Stock to 1 or more). NOTE: Depending on how many comics you have, you may need to use menu item Setup->ComicBase Preferences and set Rows to Display In Grid View to a larger number. PS If you want a new 'clean' database, you can just create a new one.

Since you posted this, I will add a bit about what order comics are stored in. It gives me a chance to address at least one problem with Pete's article (althogh it doesn't really change the final result he mentions). There are basically only 3 (major) ways to sort comics. There are some variations (like you haveing an Active and Inactive publisher catagories) but I will leave those out. 1) Sort by Title, Issue number Or Publisher, Title, Issue number. 2) None. Just put issues after the last ones in the box and go to a new box when full. 3) Date, Title, Issue number They all have good and bad points. 1) Sort by Title or Publisher Title: The good point is it is very easy to get to any particular comic (assuming you are labeling the boxes and have Title dividers). The bad point is if you are active collecting a Title (either new or back issues), you get to the end of a box and have to go to the next box, causing you to shift a Lot of comics as you go from box to box until you get to the end. (You can leave extra space for expansion but, depending on how active your collection is, you will eventually have to start shifting comics. 2 None. The good points are there is never any shifting of comics and it is easy to file you comics. Just keep filling up the box until full and go to the next box. The bad point is that you HAVE to have and List or Index that tells you what Box (and section, but more on that in a second) they are in. If that List every gets lost, you have a lot of comics and no idea where they are. About sections and my point about Pete's article. In it, he assumes all comics are put in to a long box which requires looking through 200 comics to find the one in the box. However, all the times I have heard this method mentioned, what is actually done is the box is broken up into 6 (or so) sections with dividers. Doing this and recording the Box/Section a comic is located in will greatly reduce the 'search' time from 1 in 200 to 1 in 33. Using 8 to 10 sections would be even few comics per section. While it is still probably slower that the Title or Publisher/Title sort, it is no where near as long to search as indicated. My main problem with this method is one (catastrophic) point of failure (the List/Index). 3) Date/Title. I saved this for last as this is what I use. The good point is, while a list would be nice, CB already contains this for (almost all) the comics with Cover Date (or Street Date). I actually use a Custom Date column Publication Date to ensure all the Issues with out a Date have one I supply. A bad point about this good point is to get to it quickly, you need to look this info up in CB then go to the correct box and find it. You can still find it by guessing at the approximate date, checking that box and based on the numbers you find, estimate what box it really is in. Another good point is you don't have to shift comics (much). If a box gets full, just add another box for that year and shift some from one box to the other. (this is a one time thing and it doesn't cascade down to other boxes as a Title sort would.) The bad points are, if you want to get a complete run on a title, you need to go to several different boxes (All the one in box 1973, then 1974, then 1975, etc.) Since I hardly ever need to access all Issues in a Title, this is not a problem for me. (and we are talking about find a single issue, most times). Sorting by Date/Title is a compromise between the other two that eliminates (or at least lessens) the bad points of each. With this method, you eliminate (most) of the shifting Option 1 has and also the critical list weak point (the critical list) that Option 2 has. It may not be perfect (If you can have a bit of empty space in each year (set of) box which can add up over all the years (but this also allows expansion with less shifting)) but, for me, it works out well. But, as they say, 'your mileage may vary'. PS About Mylar. Yes they are expensive but keep this in mind. Regular comic bags are NOT long term storage. They break down over time. 'Experts' say you should replace them every X years (the X varies per expert and I haven't looked it up in awhile but I think it is about 3 years). When I used bags, I found that they 'stuck' to my comics. Not so they damaged them (more like static electricity) but it can't be good for them. If you take in this replacement cost, then Mylar (which IS used for long term storage as it is inert and shouldn't have to be replace) isn't that much more. Yes, it is more of an 'up front' cost but long term it is probably cheaper. But with your 60,000, that is a very large cost (I have around 20,000).

Can you describe your steps in a little more detail? If you do a Find with the results in the Grid, just clicking or double clicking on an Item # (issues) does not cause the search results to go away. If you double click on an Item, it will bring up the Item detail window. Note: If you make a change on the value that you searched for value, this issue will 'disappear' from the display. For example, if the Search was for Letter John Constanza, and you edit an Item to change that, when you close the Item detail window, the search is automatically re-run and it won't find that issue (since it no longer matches). If you Single click on an item, the Title detail information at the top will change if the Item is in a different Title. If the grid results go away (i.e. you click the X in the top right corner of the grid), then, yes, you will have to run a Find again to get the results back.

Delete or Move 1.jpg & 2.jpg From: Pictures\S\Source Point\Hank Steiner, Monster Detective To: Pictures\S\Source Point\Hank Steiner- Monster Detective Rename 4.jpg to 4-A.jpg From: Pictures\B\Boom!\Folklords Rename 3.jpg to 3-A.jpg From: Pictures\F\FantaCo\Margo Intergalactic Trash Collector

If you don't have any optical drive on your computer (nor access to an external optical drive), your best bet is to go ahead and download the picture folders.

Since I am not sure of your workflow, I don't know if this will help or not. You can select multiple issues, then Right Click and select Quick Change from the pop-up menu (or use menu Item Edit->Quick Change or CTRL+G). Select Condition from the Change: drop-down box and set the To: to the condition you want. Or If you are using Add by Barcode, you can change the Condition from the list before you save it.

Delete or Rename 1-HC.jpg to Dlx 1-HC.jpg From: Pictures\M\Marvel\X\X-Men-Avengers Onslaught Omnibus

How do you want Marvel Comics 1000 entered? This is a hardcover collection of Marvel Comics 1000 and 1001. The indicia has Marvel Comics 1000. A couple of possibilities are: Bk 1000 or CS 1000. Or do you want to use something else?

Delete or Move 1.jpg From: Pictures\O\Omnibus\Perez-Accent on the First 'E' To: Pictures\O\Omnibus\George Perez-Accent on the First 'E' Delete 1.jpg, 1-A.jpg, 1-B.jpg, 1-C.jpg, & 4.jpg From: Pictures\H\Harvey\AstroComics (Duplicate of other cover scans in the same location)

So far, the backup is working but a related problem appeared. I have backups going to my E: drive and not the default location. Installed V3176 Opened CB Did not make any changes. Used 'X' to close CB. Backup was NOT created. Opened CB Did not make any changes. Used File->Exit to Close CB. It automatically ran Optimize Database. Backup WAS created. Opened CB Did not make any changes Used 'X' to close CB Backup WAS created. Opened CB Ran Weekly Update ( I thought it was fixed so I did the update when the other tests had no changes) Closed CB with CTRL+Q Backup Was created BUT in the Default location (something changed my backup location setting) I did more testing (with no changes and without an Optimize Database). Open CB Close with either 'X' or File->Exit Backup IS created in Location Specified in Preferences (E: Drive for me). Open CB Close with CTRL+Q Backup IS created BUT the Backup Location in Preferences is reset back to the Default location and the backup is in that default location. I have repeated this a couple of times and the Backup Location is always set to default when using CTRL+Q. ===================================== More information. The Optimize Database seems to be important. I have 2 databases. Previous tests were on DB 1. These additional tests are on DB2 Changed to DB2 then Closed CB. Opened CB (so it is in DB2) Used 'X' to close CB. Backup is NOT created. Opened CB. Used 'X' to close CB (again) Backup is NOT created (wanted to check that mulitple use of 'X' had no effect). Opened CB. Manually ran Optimze Database Used 'X' to close CB. Backup WAS created. It appears you need the new version AND to run Optimze Database (either manually or File->Exit will run it automatically) to get backups to start working. (CTRL+Q resetting Backup Location is still a problem.)

I am having the same trouble (again). In the past, around the start of Feb this year, when I had the problem, I delete the ComicBase Settings.ini file, let CB recreated it and it started to make backups again. However, when I looked now the last back up was on Feb 22, 2020. So it lasted about 2-3 weeks. I have downloaded the latest version (3173) and I still am not getting backups. I have tried deleting the ComicBase Settings.ini file and letting CB recreated it (and then changing preferences to the correct Backup location) and it still is not creating backups. While doing this have have made changes to the database which should have made it create backups but it isn't.

Rename 1-HC.jpg to Bk 1.jpg From: Pictures\D\Dark Horse\B\B.P.R.D.- 1946-1948

Rename 1.jpg to TPB.jpg From: Pictures\J\John Wiley & Sons\Batman and Philosophy- The Dark Knight of the Soul (moved from Comic Books to Books) Delete or Move All (1.jpg - 3.jpg) From: Pictures\A\Action Lab\Adventure Finders- Edge of Empire To: Pictures\A\Action Lab\Adventure Finders (Vol. 2) Delete or Move 1-C.jpg From: Pictures\A\Aftershock\Godkillers, The To: Pictures\A\Aftershock\Godkillers Rename Bk 1-2.jpg to Bk 1-HC.jpg From: Pictures\F\First\Jon Sable, Freelance

There appears to be two covers for The X-Files (Topps) #-2 Lone Star comics ( https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=163961 ) list them as 'Pink' and Gray logos. The Comic Book Realm ( https://comicbookrealm.com/series/10706/122503/the-x-files-issue-2/1 ) lists them as American Entertainment Special 'Red' logo and American Entertainment Variant Gray logo. The Grand Comics Database ( https://www.comics.org/issue/899211/ ) have them as 'Black' Logo and 'Red' logo. I think there are only 2. The Pink/Red are probably the same just different scans affected the Hue. The Gray/Black are probably the same with the Black being a bad scan that didn't pick up the dark Gray logo. The Red appears to be the main issue and the Gray appears to be the variant.