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Everything posted by Doug MedicAR
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Pricing for Signature Series Graded Comics
Doug MedicAR replied to Jim Dreyfuss's topic in Feature Suggestions
I don't know that there is an accurate algorithm to apply for signatures. Let's use a popular one as an example, Incredible Hulk #181. Let's say you have a 7.0 signed by Len Wein and I have the same book in 7.0 signed by Herb Trimpe and Billy Bob has a 7.0 signed by Len Wein, Herb Trimpe, John Romita, Stan Lee and Hugh Jackman. How do we determine the value on that? Wein, Trimpe, are fairly common. Jackman is incredibly rare but you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a half dozen Stan Lee signed books on eBay. I would say the Wein and Trimpe signed books are fairly equal in value. I'm not trying to be a jerk, I've given this some thought in the past and just don't see a good way clear as the signed market is an entirely different animal from the rest of the hobby. Books that I wouldn't touch with your wallet (New Mutants #98 signed by Stan Lee, anyone?) will bring stupid money despite Stan Lee having absolutely nothing to do with the book. I prefer some connection to the characters, the history, or something, having Stan Lee sign anything Marvel always drove me completely nuts. At least on Hulk #181 one could argue that he created the Hulk so it's good. Despite the title, I don't think of Hulk #181 as a Hulk book but rather the first Wolverine book. I've got Stan Lee on some moderns that he didn't have anything to do with but they are anniversary type books or some other "classic" tie in. Amazing Spider-Man #657 is one that I had signed because it tied two of his creations together on the cover in a unique image. ASM #638-C is another one but with Stan on the cover, it's an easier connection to make. If you've got a good algorithm, I am all ears! -
The is a book on my Unknown Items list that I have submitted in the past but it keeps coming back. Under the title Locke & Key, it should show up as #1/AUT. It was issued by IDW at roughly the same time as the regular #1. The UPC is the same as the other first prints but it has "SIGNED EDITION" under the IDW logo and a big gold seal that reads "Signed Edition" similar to other IDW signed editions. I've added a scan below. Sorry for the bright white line about midway down, this is a new action by my scanner that I can't seem to get fixed.
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I'm not really sure where to post this as it touches a lot of different areaed to content and corrections because it involves later printings of books that already exist in CB that don't actually exist (read on, I made this really complicated). It's sort of a technical issue as I believe my problem stems from the big update to CB 2021. I'll try to map it out and see where we get. I have lots of sketch cover variants, you know the blanks that were made to get the artist to sketch on. Years ago, I started entering my sketches in Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #3. Many of my sketches are CGC graded and I wanted to keep track of all of my sketches in CB and to have images of the individual sketches available. I did this by using high numbered variants. As an example, I have a Fallen Son #3 that got a 7.0 (ouch) from CGC. My solution was that I would enter it as a 70th printing and put the scan into my database so that it was available in CB. The picture number was 3-B-70. I rationalized that no one would ever get up to a 70th printing so this should be safe, plus CB appeared to allow an infinite number of printings. I didn't upload the books since they were mine and no one would benefit from all my personal sketches. I did this with all grades but with the high grades where most of my books land, the first CGC 9.0 became a 900th printing, the second became the 901st printing and so on. 9.4 became 940th printing, 9.6 became 960th printing and continued. CGC doesn't use 9.5 or 9.7 so I could use those to add additional 9.4s and 9.6s. My 9.8s go up to 1021 printings to cover them all. As it currently stands, all my high number printings are still in CB but all the images are gone. To make matters worse, I can't access these books to change printing numbers and bring them in line. I assume it has to do with the high printings. It appears that 50 is the highest printing CB now accepts. I have no way to change the information on the books because I can't even open up the individual issue. I get the following message Is there any way to get back to something similar to the way things were? I really liked having my books in front of me on CB but I'm guessing that since the program didn't see the books in the Master DB, it deleted the images? That's a whole different issue but in trying to reconcile my collection with the Unknown Items list, the images are gone meaning I'm digging through literal tons of books to try to guess what I meant when I entered the book originally. I don't mind moving stuff around to bring it in line but not even having an image to compare makes it difficult at best. Also, I number the FCBD variants in their title by the year they were released. I copied the pictures and changed the numbers to fit my collection but now about 1 in 3 that I look at are gone. Again, I assume because the issue number isn't in the Master DB? Is this an action that can be halted?
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I put signatures in the Grading Notes if they're not a limited edition.
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I have a handful of titles that have the occasional random issue repeated from three to maybe a dozen times. As a rule, I delete them as I find them, just shrugging it as a minor bug. I'm not entirely sure when I did my last export/import so it might be time.
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I can find them. They are certainly there, but I never have, nor would I ever use the number 2/May. I have used a variety of designations for variants but not the months. I'm operating from memory at this point, but few, if any, of the issues correspond to the month that follows the number. The whole thing is just odd and I wondered if maybe the way data is moved/changed at times might correlate. I have several books on my wanted list and these certainly may have been on that list once but are not currently. I regularly rebuild lists and optimize my database just in the interest of keeping things running smoothly. Logically, CB has left the issues behind when it has done updates because I had a quantity in stock. You mentioned that you don't have these particular issues, but have you ever seen anything similar? Maybe with a book or two that might complete a run?
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Yes, the item #. What I have listed above are the unknown items after the update. There are standard numbers in my db.
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I am noticing something very strange in my "Unknown Items" list. I have issues that have a number with a slash followed by a month. I figured this was some sort of holdover from a previous update where something didn't get carried into the new database. In going over these, I am finding that I don't have most of the issues that are marked but they are issues that I would certainly like to have as they would complete runs and such. Here's what I found: Batman: The Killing Joke 3/Jan Deathstroke the Terminator 2/Jan Doomsday + 1 (Charlton) 2/May Dork 2/Feb Dork 3/Jan Hate 2/May Hate 3/Apr Hate 4/Jan Johnny the Homicidal Maniac 3/Apr Liberty Meadows 2/Feb Liberty Meadows 2/Mar Liberty Meadows 2/May Liberty Meadows 4/Jan Of these, I actually have copies of the Killing Joke and Deathstroke. I want the others to fill in gaps but have never owned them as best I can remember. I don't know if it is relevant but the months are January thru May only. The numbers don't correspond to the month but none go above #4, numerically it would be April. I'm fine simply deleting the quantity in the books above but wanted to know if anyone else had seen anything similar or if there is any explanation. I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm trying to learn how things like this might occur.
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I am in the process of switching to short boxes. Far more sturdy, not so heavy to move around, and easy to store.
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Incorrect publisher and date?
Doug MedicAR replied to Gregory Hecht's topic in Content and Corrections
Also, Topps as the company we generally think of in comics as a publisher didn't emerge until 1992. -
Incorrect publisher and date?
Doug MedicAR replied to Gregory Hecht's topic in Content and Corrections
I don't have a copy, but it's safe to say that even though Topps put out some GGA books, they never did anything that I can recall with live models. Topps was also pretty consistent with getting their name on the cover. Not only does "Topps" not appear on the cover but "MN Design Productions" is fairly prominent. I would have put it in the early to mid 90s for publication based on the $4.50 cover price but in looking for information on "Nova Girls" online, they appear to have been active from 1989-1990 so I'm think MN Design Productions in 1989. -
Grading Notes for Books and Magazines?
Doug MedicAR replied to Doug MedicAR's topic in Feature Suggestions
So....it's been a month. I finally had time to look into it and sure enough, the grading notes were simply hidden from view. Thanks for the tip! Sorry for the delay in the attempt and the update. -
Grading Notes for Books and Magazines?
Doug MedicAR replied to Doug MedicAR's topic in Feature Suggestions
Fair enough. I'll poke around tomorrow and see if they are turned off for some reason. -
I do have those settings. Nothing appeared until I completely created the new title. The pic files were there too.
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Marvel published 17 (that I know of) comics to be distributed to our troops overseas. I have most of these, and noticed a pattern while inputting some. The numbers appear random because the cover titles are all different. New Avengers guest starring the Fantastic Four New Avengers guest starring the Fantastic Four New Avengers New Avengers Letters Home New Avengers The Spirit of America New Avengers Fireline New Avengers An Army of One New Avengers The Promise New Avengers The Hero Exchange New Avengers Captain America The First Avenger Captain America The First Avenger Avengers Avengers Iron Man Thor Captain America I went to put in a single listing for all of them and once I had it entered, it was already populated with pictures and even credits. To make it weirder, I set the quantity to zero while entering it but I now have a copy of #14 with no changes from me. It was just there when the information populated. Was this title/information deleted at one point and I've stumbled onto the old data? If so, what was the thinking on breaking it up into other titles? I imagine I will keep the AAFES title for my own use but am curious.
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Prime (1st Series) #4. CB indicates 2 covers, there are actually 3 with the third sharing the art for #4 but with no UPC. The series in general has this, but I thought #4 was a good example.
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I know we have talked about this many times, but I just ran into an issue that I don't recall having seen before. I know that overall, CB doesn't differentiate between direct and newsstand editions. What about the situation where the direct edition has no UPC but the variant does? CB has the direct version pictured with no UPC but the newsstand has a UPC on the cover that is not on the direct at all. Is it better to make a separate entry or just add a UPC to a book that doesn't actually have one on it?
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Any chance of getting a grading field in the Books category and the Magazines category? It would make it easier to indicate a problem that might make us want to replace a copy or just add some different things about a book like having it signed.
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Starting to catalog and where to start
Doug MedicAR replied to David Wall's topic in Content and Corrections
I would put your collection in some kind of order first. It can alphabetical, divided by publisher, divided by character, whatever works for you. Putting the books into CB won't be an overnight process and having some system in place will make it a lot easier to step away whether it is for a day or two or a few months and get right back into the groove when you return. Creating a space is a great thing to do if you can. Setting up on the dining room table is fine until you have to clear it off for dinner. If you can have some little corner to yourself, you can bring in a box at a time and get them entered. Assuming you are using regular comic boxes, whether the long ones or short ones, find a divider of some kind. I taped two backing boards together so they stood out above the books by a couple of inches. Put that divider at the back of the box, behind all of the books, then as you enter books, move them behind the divider. This keeps the books in a single box and in the order you started with while making it clear what has and has not been entered. Bar code scanner or no, if you're having trouble finding a book in CB, you can enter the UPC numbers by hand. It may be slow but if it's only for the random difficult to find book, it works really well. Given that your collecting took off in the 80s and 90s, it is possible that you will have some small press stuff that is either not in the system or is difficult to find. That's a great time to post on the forums to ask where they might be. Don't get discouraged! That's a lot of books to enter and will take time a regular life pushes comics out from time to time. You will get it done! -
I'm slightly better rested than I was and looking over the last post, I stand by the whole thing. "Batman Detective" reprints Detective Comics issues #821-826 and based on that, it belongs under the Detective Comics entry. But in looking at the book, would anyone aside from us old dogs know where to begin? There is no "5" on the book at all. There is nothing on the exterior of the book to indicate that it is reprints any issues. I've thought too about how many new title entries that would be and hundreds is on the low end, so it's not a great idea.
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I can see both sides. Honestly, as far as I'm concerned, The Great Comic Book Heroes genuinely belongs in books. Reflecting on that opinion though, I'm not sure if it is based on the fact that it's been on my bookshelf for a couple of decades, that it is a hardback book with a dustcover (technically a book), that I first found it in a library, or what. It's not based on construction. If it were, the hardbacks and TPBs collecting a story arc would need to be moved. It's now often the case that the collections gets their own title. Putting that out there, is that a good idea? As it is, we put them in the title that they reprint and that makes sense. As best I can tell, we have been putting them into the individual series' listing and numbering them as Book 1, Book 2, etc., as they are released. Stepping outside the head of a long-time user and looking in as a new user, would I ever find that Detective Comics Book 5 (according to CB) is under Detective Comics and not Batman Detective as it appears on the cover? I haven't slept for a couple of days again, so none of this may make sense at all if I were in my right mind. Let's just say I'm brainstorming with half a brain or less....
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Bedtime Stories for Impressionable Children (American Mythology) annual #1-A has the wrong pic assigned. It has the same image as Annual #1-B. The correct picture is below but when I submitted it, it didn't upload.
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They are comics, but so is "The Great Comic Book Heroes" which is in books. The first 53 pages of The Great Comic Book Heroes are prose with many illustrations, the remaining 134 are all comics. I honestly don't care one way or the other, my rationale was that the Harvey Horrors were issued only as TPBs and HCs even though they only reprint floppies with introductions by modern authors.