"Price" value show as zero

[Tom Carnduff]

I don't usually pay attention to my total collection value because I've never bothered to properly populate the condition field.

I did happen to notice this week that the total value had dropped considerably. Upon investigating, I see that a fair number of my books have had their "price" changed to zero and it looks like it happened during the Dec 14th data update.

I have installed the latest build and data update but the values still show as zero.

Any thoughts on how to correct this would be appreciated.

Edited December 19, 2024 by Tom Carnduff
changed words

[Steven L. Dasinger]

Can you supply some example Issues? I can check in my database to see if they are the same.

[Tom Carnduff]

48 minutes ago, Steven L. Dasinger said:

Can you supply some example Issues? I can check in my database to see if they are the same.

Batman (1940-2011) issues 1,2,3,4,5,8,12,21,24,25 all show as 0.00 in the price field. All other issues in the first 25 show what look like proper values.

I don't see any pattern to this and it has hit issues that I own, issues that I don't and issues in series that I don't own.

Thanks...I appreciate the help.

 

[Steven L. Dasinger]

Just for comparison, those issues in my database have actual values in the Price column.

If you run a Find for Price Is Less Than 0.01 , do the issues show up?

You can try menu item File->File Tools and run Rebuild Lists with Item Information checked. This may repopulate the value.

Or wait and see that this week's update fixes them.

If it persists, you may need to contact support.

[Tom Carnduff]

Thanks for checking that out and for your thoughts.

The "< .01" finds 1,393 issues in my collection and 21,402 not in my collection. It did identify the same Batman issues as above.

I checked the entire Batman series of 1,045 issues and 169 have a zero price.

I ran the rebuild list function last night and it didn't look to solve anything. I would guess that if it fixed something behind the scenes that I wouldn't see it until the next update.

I'll update the thread once the next update runs.

Cheers..

[Tom Carnduff]

After taking today's update, total value seems to be back in line with what it was last week.

I still have lots of items with a 0.00 value.

The "< .01" finds 965 (down from 1,393) issues in my collection and 15,554 (down from 21,402) not in my collection.

Notable amongst the missing values are Batman 41, 67, 99, 101, Batman Adventures 12 and Amazing Spider-Man 40, 64, 66, 69.

Has this data gap always been here and I just haven't noticed?

I can't imagine it's because there's no market for these. I'd love to know what's going on.

 

[Peter R. Bickford]

I'd suggest doing an Items > Mass Change and setting your Price to the Year 4 Value (it'll automatically account for grade when doing so). You can also do a  Setup > Grading, double-click to edit and grade and click "Save" -- when closing you'll be asked if you want to reprice everything according to the current grades. Click Yes.

 

-Pete

[Tom Carnduff]

5 hours ago, Peter R. Bickford said:

I'd suggest doing an Items > Mass Change and setting your Price to the Year 4 Value (it'll automatically account for grade when doing so). You can also do a  Setup > Grading, double-click to edit and grade and click "Save" -- when closing you'll be asked if you want to reprice everything according to the current grades. Click Yes.

 

-Pete

Thanks for that, but neither option paid off.

I tried the Grading option first with no apparent result. I still show 965 0.00 issues in my collection.

I followed up with the Mass Change option on a single title (52 issues 1,9,11) and the results didn't change. They still show as zero. I didn't expect this to work because the value graph for each issue shows zero for 2024, picture attached.

Edited December 23, 2024 by Tom Carnduff

[Steven L. Dasinger]

What that is telling me is the Value Year 4 value (displayed as column 2024) is also 0.00. I would think the Update process would populate this column.

A couple of things you can try (in case there is something in you database is not allowing these to get set) are:

Use menu item File->File tools and try Optimize Database and/or Recovery Database.

For Optimize Database, I would try the 3rd option (Full database integrity check).

For Recover Database, it won't hurt anything and might find/fix problems (you can make a backup before running if you feel safer).

One or both of these may or may not help (but won't hurt anything).

If not, you may need to contact support and see if they can look at a copy of you database to see why the columns have 0.00 and won't correct with an update.

[Tom Carnduff]

On 12/23/2024 at 7:42 PM, Steven L. Dasinger said:

Use menu item File->File tools and try Optimize Database and/or Recovery Database.

For Optimize Database, I would try the 3rd option (Full database integrity check).

For Recover Database, it won't hurt anything and might find/fix problems (you can make a backup before running if you feel safer).

Thank you for the suggestions. Neither solved my problem.

I had understood that the weekly or so data update includes just the issues with price or value changes. If that never changes, I'm going to be stuck at zero.

I looked at the update log for Dec 21 and I don't see updates for the early Batman issues that I noted above, yet all of those except issue 25 have a value after that update. They have a "Last Date of Value Change" of Dec 20.

And I'm more confused than ever as to what the difference is between price and value. Does the 2024 Value fuel the Price field? and if the 2024 field is 0, is that the root of my problem?

I did some more poking around. The vast majority of the 16,519 zero price issues show the "Last Date Of Value Change" as Dec 15 2024. A small number (3% or so)  show as Aug 30, 2024. 

I don't think that I can go any further on my own with the limited knowledge I have of the data and its relationships. So many unknowns...

I'm going to wait out the next update to see if anything changes. If not, I'll email the support team with my specifics.

 

 

[Steven L. Dasinger]

Yes, the 2024 value is the base value used with the Grade (percentage (i.e. NM, G, F, CGC, etc)) to calculate the Price value (there is some rounding to get the final Price value (a little bit for small amounts and a larger bit for higher amounts).

Depending on the Edition you have you may be able to fix it with a little work.
The Archive (and the Professional, I think) can Export and Import Data (I don't know that the Express has both).

You will find Export and Import under the menu item 'File'.
1) Export using a 'TAB' item separator, 'include Field Headers' and 'Export Only Items in Stock' with (at a minimum) columns:

Title
Item #
Condition
Qty in Stock

Plus any other columns you might have data in like (but not limited to):
Cost
Custom fields (Check, Date, and/or text)

NOTE: If you have issues in different Types (eg. Books, Comic Books, Magazines, and/or Newspapers), you will need to do a separate export for each Type.

2) After that, Created a New Database (don't copy any information when asked).
Run the Weekly Update on this New Database (this will get your old database and the new one 'in sync' with new/delete Titles and Issues.

3) In the new database, use Import to locate the Export file and Import it (by using the Field Headers and TAB delimiter, everything should be set with the correct fields selected in the correct order for the data).

Again, you will need to Import for each Type you Exported (and be in that Type during the Import (don't try to Import a file of Books to Magazines, for example).

NOTE: After the Imports, you can check for Publisher 'Unknown Publisher' to find any Titles that couldn't be matched to the new database (there shouldn't be any in you Updated the new database. Just mentioning it, incase).

Once done check to see if the '0.00' Price/2024 values have been corrected.
If yes, with CB closed, you can rename databases to whatever name you like and start using the new one.

PS, Theoretically, you could try the \Export with the Title, Item #, Condition and 2024 (Value Year 4) from the NEW (updated) database and Import to your old Database (or a copy for testing (or make a backup before the import)) which 'should' repopulate the 2024 values but I have not tested this.

[Tom Carnduff]

Thanks Steven, looks like it will be an interesting exercise.

I'll keep the thread updated,

[Tom Carnduff]

Steven,

Thanks for all of your help with this. I followed your instructions and all looks to be well.

I guess we'll never know what caused it, but I have no zero '2024 value' or 'price' records left.

The longest step was the application of the latest update to the new database.

The export and import steps were pretty snappy.

When all was done, I did some playing around with trying to port the 2024 values from the new back into the old. Trying to do the entire file gave me errors. I finally just chose a single title (Adventure Comics) and tried that. No errors and it seemed successful, but there was no change to the data. I decided that it wasn't an issue worth my time trying to understand.

Thanks again, good sir!

 

[Steven L. Dasinger]

Great. Just an FYI for anyone who reads this later.

After Importing the 2024 values back to the old database, you would probably need to do what Pete suggested above by mass change Price to 2024 values or using Setup > Grading, double-click to edit and grade and click "Save". Either should set the Price either directly (mass Change) or through Calculation (Edit Grading).

[Steven L. Dasinger]

And one more addendum. If someone was using the Old database to sell on Atomic Avenue (AA), After switching to the newly created database, you (most likely) would need to remove the inventory posted from the Old database and re-post it from the New database.

(I think AA using the unique database identifier number to keep things straight and the Old database and the New database would have different database ids.)

I don't sell on AA so the above is how I believe it works without any actually having used the process.