Simple Comic Collectors Inventory List

Well time to get back to unleashing my inner geek and get to grips with my OCD and use the wet weather to do come much needed comic filing

As some will have noticed......mainly my whole horde of followers.......all 42 of you hahaah Im a bit of a comic nut and have no problem letting my inner geek show through.

Now over the last 20 or so years Ive been collecting comics, various titles and runs ( run meaning sets )

Now there are many many various sites you can store all your infomation, some are free & some you pay a fee for. I personally like to use Microsoft Excel 07 as this version came free with my laptop and I also use at work so I am vamiliar with.

Which ever way you look at it, positively as I do or negatively as my other half does lol I have so many comics, well over 12 boxes.......this means each box will hold 250-500 comics depending on size so you can see the numbers we are talking about here.

With this I have created a Simple spreadsheet (download if you wish or make your own) to store various information about the comics including Title, Issue, Box number and a space for comments

(I have attached a simple draft for ppl to use if wanted)

Attachment now updated ;) ;)

Now firstly this helps if you already have a collection, but if you just starting out then happy days less typing or writing for you lol it really depends how you want to set it all up.

You need.....

Laptop

Patience

BOXES - THEY ARE A MUST HERE - They really help keep the comics in great condition and helps with the storage

Comics obviously lol

Marker / Printer

Please forgive this part but I have so many messages from friends (mainly on FB) about how to grade a comic and where to find the information relivent to value and condition etc...

So just to cover all bases

See pictures on where to gain information on your comics Title & Issue. I will add Google is a fantastic way to help narrow down your comic.

Grade; Now this is a very gray area, each person will obviously grade their comics highly and obviousy because the price will go up or down depending on this. the grading system goes from 0 - 10 and a comic can be anything from a 3.2 to a 9.8 (10 are rare to none existant) rips, marks, folds, boxing around the edges, colour fading etc will all come into this. Personally for me tho I collect because I can and grade doesnt really matter to me but its always good to know. You can pay to have your comics CGC'd (Comic Grading Company) and they will issue you with a grade and seal your comic in a plastic slab for a price. so each to their own.

Value. as with grading this is a gray area, some will assume a comic is old and worth £££'s or even ££££££'s this is not the case unfortunially. The best thing I can say is to use Google or as I do EBAY to roughly get a value, if you use EBAY you can see what others have SOLD FOR and use that as a value......never go on what people are asking as this is never accurate.

I start with a simple spreadsheet

I use 6 columns for my record for all my comics

TITLE ISSUE GRADE VALUE BOX & COMMENTS

Title, issue, grade and value are pretty simple just fill in your info in the relivent areas

Box is where things get tricky but you will have to bare with me on this as I alphabetize each box of comics separately.

Rather than trying to keep the boxes in one consecutive alpha order spanning your collection (Example: All the "A"s in Boxes 1 and 2, all the "B"s in Box 3, etc.) just make each box its own domain. Whatever comics you have in a single box, alphabetize them within that box. Don't shuffle them around, because then what will happen if you get too many "B"s in Box 3, and you have your "C"s in Box 4? Do you make a Box 3.5 for your extra "B"s? A collection is much harder to maintain that way.

I number each box prominently on the front or lid. It doesn't matter how many boxes you have, or what's in them, because you'll use the spreadsheet to figure out what box has which books inside.

Eg. Marvel Zombies Vs Evil Dead 2007 Issue 1 grade 9.8 value £15 is in box 9

Eg. The Incredable Hulk issue 181 grade 8.6 value £978 is in box 12

Comments: I normally use this to remind myself if I have more than one copy floating about or why this comic is special or worth its value (see pictures)

I know it all seems a bit complicated for cataloging your comics but it help in the event you want to sell or trade. This way you can view all your duplicates, high value or grades and find them with ease in the correct boxes and trust me it saves mass amounts of time climbing throught every box to find one issue.

Thanks all for looking, Hope it helps :D