Redartz: You know how some tasks can be both a pleasure and a nuisance? I've been undertaking such a task this week. What task, you may ask? That of taking inventory of my entire comic collection.
Previously, I'd had my comics listed on a particular database, one which required thirty dollars annually to update. It's been impossible to justify such an outlay over the last 7 years, so consequently the information is ludicrously outdated. I supplemented it with a spreadsheet, but that is too slow and too inconvenient.
In fact, the past several flea market excursions have resulted in a few duplicate purchases, because I don't have a tally of what I need and don't need. Thus, after shopping around and getting some advice for a good app, I chose CLZ Comics: it required only a reasonable one-time purchase to get going, seemed comprehensive,and offered bar-code scanning (only functional on modern comics, not vintage, but still a colossal time-saver).
So, one quick download later, it was time to start pulling books. And therein lies the good and the bad. As most of you probably know, I've been trimming my collection over the past few years. However, it still includes about 2000 individual comics and magazines, along with a growing shelf of tpb's. So the process of going through every comic individually is a pretty gargantuan effort. And time consuming; I'm doing about sixty each evening to spread it out a bit.
And that's the nuisance part: a lot of repetitive work on the old smartphone. But what about the good part? Well, it's an opportunity to rediscover every book I have. And there are many I'd forgotten about; it often seems as though I pull the same books repeatedly to reread, leaf through, or research into. Going through each shelf, each short box, I find books that have been hidden away for eons. So the slow process of entering issues is frequently broken up by looking over a forgotten treasure! And of course, there's the simple joy of just admiring the comics and their covers; stopping to open up a choice book and remembering why you bought it in the first place. It becomes a treat rather than a travail...
So far I've entered all my DC's, and have done a few Marvels and Archies. My latest session resulted in the perusal of a House of Mystery and a Betty and Veronica. Who knows what the next session will find? I don't, but I anticipate the reveal.
As for all of you: several questions to consider today. What means do you use, if any, to keep track of your collection? Is it working well for you, or is a change in the cards? When you turn to your comics, do you usually have a specific book in mind, or do you just wade through a box to find something interesting? Over the course of your comic career, how often have you 'taken stock': deciding what to keep and what to part with? And is a comic a quick diversion for you, or do you like to bury yourself in four color wonderment for a while, surrounded by piles of books (picture Scrooge McDuck jumping into, and burrowing through, his Money Bin)? Fill us all in on your details. And if you get the urge to retreat to the basement with a long box, we'll all understand.
