Saturday, January 31, 2015

Getting Mod with Cataloguing Comics

The Collecterz.com software is very easy to manage.
Last Sunday, I took the next step in my 30+ years of collecting comic books, by finally purchasing software to assist in the tracking and logging of the comic books in my collection. Though I have always endeavored to maintain a running list of the titles I own, including those I have discontinued reading, it was always in a way that required my entering the most basic data (title, volume and issue number) by hand.

Twenty years ago it was using a spiral bound notebook and listing the issues I had. Two years ago, I began periodically updating a Word file with roughly the same information. Needless to say, I was way behind the times, and (despite having read comic books for so many years) having always thought of myself as a casual collector, I never really felt that I needed a software system to keep these things in order. I have often marveled at the weekly "collection porn" on Comic Book Resources, but rarely envisioned myself taking it to that level. I figured I did not need to as long as I bought, boarded and bagged my books regularly. After a week of beginning to enter those titles I still add to on Collectorz.com, I am prepared to admit I was wrong.

After previewing a number of free and pay comic book collecting software, I settled on Collecterz.com comic book option due to both its reasonable cost and the ease with which one could enter the information. With older titles from the pre-variant Nineties (a fad that really never faded from the comic book shop collecting scene) it was very simple. More recent titles from publisher such as Dynamite and Dark Horse who regularly publish issues with both A and B titles, it has taken a little longer. I am oddly okay with this as it requires me physically engaging with each issue. Thus far I am happy with the software and with the opportunity to organize that which I have spent so much time acquiring, reading and re-reading.

While I still have a long way to go to get through all of the titles I've been accruing over many years, there is time. This disgustingly cold winter should continue to provide plenty of opportunity to stay inside to methodically plug ahead long-box by long-box through my collection before too long.

The cloud interface allows for checking on titles on a
tablet or phone.

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