Unrecognized Items

[Kenneth Horneman]

After running the most recent software and content updates, I noticed for the first time a link for unrecognized items. This might have been available for a while, but this is the first time I noticed it. When I clicked on the link, I got a fairly lengthy list of unknown items. Some of it seems to be series that have been renamed, though others there's no noticeable difference between two names. Most of the individual comics are either from an unknown series, or are variant covers that maybe have been renamed, but there are a few items that seem to be normal issue numbers from series that aren't marked as unknown. Since I've only entered comics directly through the desktop or mobile software, how do I have unknown items? Am I supposed to manually correct these? If there's already instructions on this somewhere, please point me to them, as I was unable to find any. I'm including the full list below to provide some examples.

Kenny

Unrecognized Comic Titles

Arcade: The Comics Revue
Batman ‘66
Bleeding Cool
Comic Reader, The
Doctor Who: Free Comic Book Day
Doctor Who Magazine
Fifty Who Made DC Great
Fun and Games Magazine
Fury of the Firestorm: The Nuclear Men
Image+
Iron Manual
James Bond (3rd Series)
Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth
Kingdom of the Dwarfs
Madballs Vs. Garbage Pail Kids
Marvel Vision
Multiversity, The: Pax America
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 1)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 3)
Official Marvel Index to the Avengers
Official Teen Titans Index, The
Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man
Project Superpowers (2nd Series)
Roy Rogers’ Trigger
Saga of Crystar, the Crystal Warrior
Spider-Man: Parallel Lives
SupeRichie
That Darn Cat (Walt Disney’s...)
Unexpected (2nd Series), The
Vision: Director’s Cut
Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan’…), The
Wizard JLA Special
Wizard Presents The Legacy of Spider-Man Special Edition
Wizard’s Avengers Special
Wizard’s JLA Special
Wizard: The Superman Tribute Edition
X-Men Movie Premiere Prequel Edition
Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths (Alan Moore’s… )
Zane Grey’s Stories of the West

Unrecognized Comics

Action Comics 1000/A-4
Action Comics 1000/A-5
Action Comics 1000/A-7
Action Comics 1000/A-8
Action Comics 1000/A-9
All-Star Batman 1/A-10
Amazing Spider-Man, The 800/A-13
Amazing Spider-Man, The (3rd Series) 1/A-6
Amazing Spider-Man, The (3rd Series) 1/A-19
Amazing Spider-Man, The (3rd Series) 1/A-28
Amazing Spider-Man, The (5th Series) 1/A-6
Arcade: The Comics Revue 2
Arcade: The Comics Revue 4
Archie (Vol. 2) 1/A-9
Attack (4th Series) 2
Attack (4th Series) 5
Attack (4th Series) 8
Attack (4th Series) 9
Attack (4th Series) 10
Attack (4th Series) 35
Autumnlands, The: Tooth & Claw 6
Avengers (8th Series) 26/B
Avengers, The 4-3
Batman (2nd Series) 50/G-6
Batman ‘66 23/A
Black Cat (Marvel) 1/A-7
Bleeding Cool 0
Bleeding Cool 1
Captain America (9th Series) 1/A-11
Comic Reader, The 175
Comic Reader, The 187
Cross and the Switchblade, The 1/A
Detective Comics 1000/A-2
Detective Comics 1000/A-5
Doctor Who Magazine 59
Doctor Who Magazine 60
Doctor Who Magazine 79
Doctor Who: Free Comic Book Day FCBD 2016
Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor 1
Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor 2
Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor 4
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor 10
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor 11
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor 13
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Year Two 1
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Year Two 2
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Year Two 4
Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor 3
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor 12
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor 13
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor 14
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor 2
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor 7
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor 8
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor 9
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor 10
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor 11
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor 12
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor 14
Fantastic Four (6th Series) 1/A-16
Fifty Who Made DC Great 1
Fun and Games Magazine 5
Fun and Games Magazine 7
Fun and Games Magazine 10
Fun and Games Magazine 11
Fun and Games Magazine 12
Fun and Games Magazine 13
Fury of the Firestorm: The Nuclear Men 7
Giant Days HO 1
Green Lantern (4th Series) 30/A-4
Green Lantern (7th Series) Anl 1
Hangman, The 1/F
Harley Quinn (3rd Series) 1/A-71
Horseman 1/B
Image+ 3
Iron Manual 1
James Bond (3rd Series) 1/H
Jupiter’s Circle 2
Jupiter’s Circle 3
Justice League (4th Series) 1/A-3
Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth 1
Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad 1/A-31
Kingdom of the Dwarfs 1
Lady Mechanika: The Clockwork Assassin 2
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Bk 3-7
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The (Vol. 2) Bk 1
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The (Vol. 2) Bk 3
Madballs Vs. Garbage Pail Kids 2/D
Madballs Vs. Garbage Pail Kids 2/E
Magnus, Robot Fighter (Gold Key) 35-2
Magnus, Robot Fighter (Gold Key) 38-2
Marvel Legacy 1/A-9
Marvel Vision 20
Multiversity, The: Pax America 1
Multiversity, The: Pax America 1/C
Multiversity, The: Pax America 1/D
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 1) 3
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 1) 6
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 1) 7
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 1) 8
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 1) 10
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 1) 12
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 1) 13
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 1) 15
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 6
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 8
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 9
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 11
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 12
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 14
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 15
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 16
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 17
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 18
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 19
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 20
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 3) 1
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 3) 2
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 3) 3
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 3) 4
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 3) 5
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 3) 6
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 3) 7
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 3) 8
Official Marvel Index to the Avengers 1
Official Marvel Index to the Avengers 2
Official Marvel Index to the Avengers 3
Official Marvel Index to the Avengers 4
Official Marvel Index to the Avengers 5
Official Marvel Index to the Avengers 6
Official Teen Titans Index, The 1
Official Teen Titans Index, The 2
Official Teen Titans Index, The 3
Official Teen Titans Index, The 5
Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man 1/A
Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man 1/A-6
Project Superpowers (2nd Series) 0/E
Quantum Age 2
Robocop (Boom!) 3/A
Roy Rogers’ Trigger 7
Roy Rogers’ Trigger 10
Roy Rogers’ Trigger 17
Saga of Crystar, the Crystal Warrior 1
Secret War 2/A
Secret Wars 1/A-2
Secret Wars 1/A-3
Secret Wars 1/A-5
Secret Wars 1/A-7
Secret Wars 1/A-29
Shadow Now, The 1/D-2
Spider-Man: Parallel Lives 1
Star Trek/Green Lantern 1/A-2
Star Trek/Green Lantern 1/A-8
Star Trek/Green Lantern 1/A-19
Star Wars (2nd Series) 1/A-2
Star Wars (2nd Series) 1/A-10
Star Wars (2nd Series) 1/A-11
Star Wars (2nd Series) 1/A-12
Star Wars (2nd Series) 1/A-24
Star Wars (2nd Series) 1/A-67
SupeRichie 6
Superman (3rd Series) 50/F-5
That Darn Cat (Walt Disney’s...) 1
Thor 700/H
Thor 702/A
Turok, Son of Stone 130-2
Unexpected (2nd Series), The 1/A
Vision: Director’s Cut 1/A
Walking Dead, The (Image) 1/W-2
Walking Dead, The (Image) 1/W-3
War of the Realms 1/A-20
Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan’…), The 7
Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan’…), The 11
Wizard JLA Special 1
Wizard Presents The Legacy of Spider-Man Special Edition 1
Wizard: The Superman Tribute Edition 1
Wizard’s Avengers Special 1
Wizard’s JLA Special 1
X-Men Movie Premiere Prequel Edition 1
Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths (Alan Moore’s… ) 1
Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths (Alan Moore’s… ) 2/A
Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths (Alan Moore’s… ) 3
Zane Grey’s Stories of the West 34
Zane Grey’s Stories of the West 39
Zombies vs. Robots 10/A

[Steven L. Dasinger]

The Unrecognized Items list are Issues/Titles that do not appear in the Master Database.
This can happen if/when the Publisher, Title or Type (Comic Book, Book, Magazine, Newspaper) gets changed (corrected).  Same for Issues.

The first thing I would check is your Update Options.
This is accessed with Internet->Check for Updates.
If you have already processed a week's update, you can get to the window by pressing and holding the SHIFT key while selecting Check for Updates.

Unless you have a good reason not to, make sure the 'Remove Obsolete' Series and Items are checked (near the bottom).
This will allow CB to automatically delete any Title or Issue that does not appear in the Master Database.

NOTE: CB will NOT delete any Issue if you own it (Qty >= 1) and will not delete any Title is there is at least 1 issue you own in it.

If you DO own issues in the list of Titles you supplied, you will need to manually correct them.

There are two options you can use.
If the Type did NOT change, select the issues and use Edit->Transfer Items to a Different Series.
You will need to supply tghe new Series name.
NOTE: This might duplicate the issue in the new series. If it does you can delete the one you don't own.

If the Type DID change, go to the Series to change and use Edit-> Change Series Media Type.
You will need to supply the new Type (Book, Magazine, Comic Book, Newspaper).
NOTE: Again this might dupilcate the issues.

Alternately, if you don't have a lot, you can just manually change the issue in the new correct location with the information from the old (Qty, Cost, any other info you may have added) then just delete the old, incorrect issue.

I will deal with the Issues after you get the Titles cleaned up (as many will be associated with the Titles being fixed).
For the others, if you supply a new list I will see what I can do.

For the Titles you supplied here are the newer/correct names (Old name first followed by new name):

Arcade: The Comics Revue
Arcade The Comics Revue

Batman ‘66
Batman ’66

Fury of the Firestorm: The Nuclear Men
Fury of Firestorm, The: The Nuclear Men

Image+
Image+ (Vol. 1)
or
Image+ (Vol. 2)

Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth
Justice League of America: The Atom—Rebirth

Madballs Vs. Garbage Pail Kids
Madballs vs Garbage Pail Kids

Multiversity, The: Pax America
Multiversity, The: Pax Americana

(This is a little bit of a guess)
Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man
Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man

(This is a little bit of a guess)
Roy Rogers’ Trigger
Roy Rogers’ Trigger (Dell)

Saga of Crystar, the Crystal Warrior
Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior, The

Spider-Man: Parallel Lives
Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives

(This is a little bit of a guess)SupeRichie
Super Richie

That Darn Cat (Walt Disney’s...)
That Darn Cat (Walt Disney’s…)

Unexpected (2nd Series), The
Unexpected, The (2nd Series)

Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan’…), The
Wheel of Time, The (Robert Jordan’s…)

X-Men Movie Premiere Prequel Edition
X-Men Movie Special Premiere Prequel Edition

Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths (Alan Moore’s… )
Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths (Alan Moore’s…)

Zane Grey’s Stories of the West
Four Color Comics (2nd Series) #996

These changed Type to Magazines:

Bleeding Cool
Comic Reader, The
Doctor Who Magazine
Fifty Who Made DC Great
Fun and Games Magazine

Image+ name also changed to:
Image+ (Vol. 1)
or
Image+ (Vol. 2)

Iron Manual
Marvel Vision
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 1)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 3)
Official Marvel Index to the Avengers
Official Teen Titans Index, The
Wizard JLA Special
Wizard Presents The Legacy of Spider-Man Special Edition
Wizard’s Avengers Special
Wizard’s JLA Special
Wizard: The Superman Tribute Edition

This changed Type to Books:
Kingdom of the Dwarfs

Need more information for (years published for example):
James Bond (3rd Series)
Project Superpowers (2nd Series)
Vision: Director’s Cut

This one was probably entered as just a FCBD in one of the Doctor Who titles. Need more information to find (FBCD Year for example):

Doctor Who: Free Comic Book Day

[Kenneth Horneman]

Ok, I appreciate all of this information. I might post something to the feature suggestions about this, as it doesn't feel like I should have to do manual corrections every time the name of a title is corrected. Putting that aside for now, though, I have some further issues before proceeding with the clean-up.

1. It appears like collection reports will only show items of one particular type (comics, magazines, books) Does that mean, now that items like the Marvel Handbook have been changed from comics to magazines, that I will have to create at least three collection reports and refer to all three when trying to determine what issues I own? 
2. The desktop app has all the various types but only because I added the other types to my most recent update. My database size has more than doubled and is now over 4 GB!!! Does this mean I now have to start keeping all the types in my database, and downloading updates for all of them, etc.? 
3. My mobile app is not able to pull up anything that isn't a comic book. Do I need to update my mobile app? I have a separate thread opened because I have at least one database error due to trying to add a book from my mobile app (which happened when I was able to barcode scan a "book"), but I can't get any books or magazines through the item lookup functionality.
4. I made my first attempt to change the type from comics to magazines. The issues did get transferred over, but it did create duplicate issue numbers for all issues. Further, some of the cover prices matched and some didn't. (I transferred Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 1)). I'm not too worried about the cover prices, but which one do I delete? There's clearly an extra database key allowing duplicate rows of the same issue number, and I want to be sure the row I keep will be modified if future updates are applied. Does this mean I have to transfer the quantities to the pre-existing issue rows and delete the rows that just got added?
5. Changing the type only works as described in #4 if the names match. Image+ doesn't have the same name, so it just created an Image+ magazine. Since it's only one issue, I'm assuming I can just add the issue to Image+ Vol 1, delete the issue from Image+ and then Image+ will be blown away when I next "remove obsolete" during update.

 

The second half of the listing in my post shows the specific issues that are unknown. All of the unknown titles have at least one issue that I own, probably due to the fact that I do, in fact, choose the "remove obsolete" option when I do my updates. Which leads to:

• The Dr. Who FCBD issue is from 2016
• James Bond 3rd Series is from Dynamite, 2018
• Project Superpowers 2nd Series is also from Dynamite, 2018
• Vision: Director's Cut is from Marvel, 2017. I'm pretty sure this one maps to Vision (2nd Series), although the issue number maps from 1/A to CS 1/A
• I don't see a difference between the old and the new "That Darn Cat..." but I think I can get it mapped correctly anyway
• Zane Grey’s Stories of the West does not map to Four Color Comics. This was the series that followed after Four Color Comics. However, I'm pretty sure it maps to Stories of the West (Zane Grey's...)
• My Image+ issue is cover dated 9/2016, so I'm going to assume it maps to Image+ Vol 1

I think that's all for now. The listing in my original post included all of the titles and issues that were in the report of unknowns.

Kenny

[Steven L. Dasinger]

1) If you use the Collection Reports to determine what you own, then Yes you will need one for eachType.

2) If you have issues in the various Types, then Yes, you will need to keep all the Types. If you do NOT have any issues in a Type (i.e. Newspapers), on the Update Option window, you can select only the Types you want to Update. For example, if you don't want Newspapers, click on Selected Types Only and Check all the ones you want and do not check Newspapers. This will delete all Newspaper Titles from you database and won't try to Update them.
After the Update removes all of the particular Type titles, run Optimize Database to actually reclaim the space.
NOTE: If you ever change your mind, just go back to the Update Option window and change the selection.
PS Getting rid of Newspapers will free up a lot of space...

3) I really don't use the Mobile app much. I am trying to save some reports to see how it handles different Type Collection Reports but it is taking a long time. Will get back to this later.

4) Yes, every issue has a unique identifier. The main reason for this is to allow you to have 2 or more issues with different conditions, to list them separately. Unfortunately, this means CB always Add the issues to an existing title instead of merging with existing issues.
When Transferring to a different Title, I would only transfer issues you own (all the others should already be there).
After Transferring, delete the ones you don't own.
Alternately, you can delete all but one of the issues from the new title, then transfer from the old title. THis way, you would have at most only 1 issue to delete (NOTE: Is you deleted ALL the issues, it would also delete the Title.
Don't worry too much about the standard information (any information you don't supply) as the next update will populate this information.
As for future updates, they are processed by Publisher/Title/Issue number. Even if you have 2 or more issues with the same number, both would be updated.

5) Sorry, it has been awhile since I changed Media Type. I didn't remember that it didn't ask for another Title name. It would be a 2-step process. A) Change Media Type then B) Move to another Title.  Or manually change the data in the new/correct title then delete the old issue. And, as long as the Qty is 0, the next update will delete any issue (and title if all issues are deleted) when processed.

PS If you have Covers, you may have to manually move them (or down load them from the new location (if you have the Archive Edition)) if the name change causes a different folder to be created (i.e. Publisher or Title name change). And for Books you will need to rename the cover.

As for the other titles:

Doctor Who: Free Comic Book Day
Doctor Who (Titan) #FCBD 2016

(This is a little bit of a guess as the Dynamite James Bonds are a little confusing. But this one is for 2018)
James Bond (3rd Series)
James Bond 007 (Dynamite)

Project Superpowers (2nd Series)
Project Superpowers: Chapter Three

(I believe you are correct about this one)
Vision: Director’s Cut
Vision (2nd Series) #CS 1/A

For this, the difference is hard to see in the forum. If you post it to Notepad, it is more obvious.
That Darn Cat (Walt Disney’s...)
That Darn Cat (Walt Disney’s…)
The incorrect one has 3 periods (3 characters). The correct one has an ellipses which is 1 character (although is sort of looks like 3 periods).

You may be right about this one.
Zane Grey’s Stories of the West
Stories of the West (Zane Grey’s…)
You would need to check the cover and or cover date to be sure.

 

[Kenneth Horneman]

Thanks again for all the information. I'll start going through all of the changes. A quick comment in regard to my third question, about the mobile app. My question had nothing to do with collection reports. If I use the mobile app, and choose the "item lookup" option, I can't find any series that is marked as a magazine or a book. If I use the bar code scanner, I can find a book, but the one time I tried to add an item that way it caused a bunch of database errors which still haven't completely gone away. (I started a separate topic about this issue.) So I can't, for example, add new issues of Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe or see the ones that I currently own that have now been converted to magazines. Note that the mobile app does not show any of the unknown items that we've been talking about. This doesn't surprise me as the mobile app likely pulls search results from some master copy of the database other than my personal copy, and I have no idea where the mobile app gets quantity data from.

 

Kenny

[Steven L. Dasinger]

Yeah, that is what I was going to do some testing on (Types other than Comics). Still having problems getting Reports to the web.

I think you save a copy of your database to the Web (Sidekick can do this) and it uses that to get Qty.

The last thing I will add is Peter knows the App has some 'issues' and is working on an upgrade.

PS While you can scan bar codes to add items to the database, it wasn't really designed to be the main/only way to enter issues.

[Kenneth Horneman]

Thanks for the update. I'm still a little confused, as I don't know why you have to upload a Report to the web in order to test the search functionality for non-comics. If the two are related somehow, then perhaps the problem is that I've never uploaded a collection report for anything but comics.

I'm a little surprised that bar code scanning isn't one of the primary ways to enter comics. Since bar code scanning doesn't show you whether you already own any copies, what is it supposed to be used for? I suppose looking up values is another use, but that's about all that's left. Entering issues through the desktop app can be easier in some cases but has several drawbacks. The main problem comes when you don't know which series a comic comes from. I know my Avengers well enough to know which volume a particular issue likely comes from but the same can't be said for Amazing Spider-Man, or Thor, or Punisher, or...So, if I try to enter them through the desktop app, I have to hunt around for the right volume based on either opening up the (usually bagged) comic book to get the year, or by referencing the bar code numbers which are usually higher for later years. Either way, I often have to open up multiple different volumes to find the right one, if I'm on the desktop. And for variant covers, I end up having to look at barcodes for sure, as I don't have cover images on the desktop (I think I need to upgrade to get all of those.) Scanning with the barcode instantly finds the right volume and (almost always) the right cover. Barcode scanning also works great for virgin covers, when I would have to open up the comic book for sure to figure out what series and issue number it is. Barcode scanning is also quite a bit faster, especially when I only have a few items from each series. And there are times when I don't have my computer available.

I would definitely be curious if you've ever surveyed your users on what they use the barcode scanner for and what their preferred methods for issue entry are. Perhaps my method is more unusual than I would have thought. In any case, I appreciate you continuing to listen to my rambling. I hope to get the rest of my titles corrected soon and then I might have questions on how to map the variant covers over for the unknown comics that aren't due to title changes.

Kenny

 

[Steven L. Dasinger]

I am not trying to 'sell' an item but CB does sell an actual barcode scanner (you can buy other brands of scanners but they are not supported with help from CB). These allow you to use the desktop program with the Add By Barcode option to add comics by barcode very quickly (and much easier than the Mobil App).

And the number of covers that come with CB depends on the Edition. Archive has all that are available (either submitted to or scanned by Human Computing). Professional only has enough covers for one issues per title (but even then, not all titles).

As for whether or not you need the Collection (or other) Reports, that is what I was going to test (I don't really use the Mobile App so I am not as sure of it works as the desktop program). Now that the process is fixed and I have the reports displayed, it appears there is no correlation/interaction between them and the actual database.  They are just a method for you to review what you own without looking through all the other titles/issues you don't own.

The Find Item only seems to look a Comic Book Types.

However, when using Scan Item then Check For Sales and Purchases, it does correctly added the issues to the correct Types (I tested Comic Books and Books). In my case, increasing Qty to 2 since I already had them entered with Qty 1.

I think the Mobile App barcode scan was envisioned for use when you are out of town and can't get to the Desktop program (i.e. convention). If you could get back to the Desktop App (and have a hand held scanner), it is MUCH faster to add you issues. In the time it takes the Mobile App to scan 1 issue, you can add a dozen (or more) issues with the Desktop program and a hand-held scanner.

Pete has mentioned that he is working on an updated Mobile App. Hopefully, some of the features currently lacking will be addressed.