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Good day,

I have been putting my collection in Comic Collector Live for many years. My question pertains to the fact that the FCBD comics are not always put into the database. Why is that? I have a few from a couple of years ago that were never entered and there are a LOT from this year that I don't see, but I am guessing that those will show up eventually. Any assistance is appreciated. Thanks!

Trekkie =/\=

The database is user-supported. Meaning, that if you have something from a few years ago in-hand, you can submit a Change Request and get it added to the database.

As far as this year's books go, you are correct. The Approvers generally have most new releases up in a timely manner. I'd give it a week, then begin the process of submitting books for approval into the database.

I personally have added the FCBD books for many years now. There should not be anything missing (with the exception of this year). I got a late start on that.

The easiest way to find them is to do a story arc search for "Tag: Free Comic Book Day (year)".

If you still can't find something, let me know and I can help you find it.

There they go with the censorship trying to hide the truth from you again!!!!

You pay expecting to be able to use it, you then find you have to do the work to eventually get it useable, then they charge you and others for the privilege to access that work for the rest of your life. Working for others for free!!!!

Is this sarcasm, or are you calling wildd0g a liar?

BJ, with all due respect, I was the one that deleted your post and here's the reason why.

It was unhelpful, untruthful and unnecessary. The OP (Trekkie007) was asking why some comics were not yet in the DB. Your odd response about Burger King and having to cook your own food, clean up after yourself, etc. was not helpful or relevant to the question. The responses posted by Thundercron and wildd0g are. Yours was not and was just another excuse to bash the site.

We all know that you hate CCL. You've closed your store, refuse to shop here and only use the Forums. That's fine, it's your prerogative. Some of us however enjoy the site and use it gladly to buy, sell and organize comics. I for one try to make a living out of selling comics here and I do not appreciate someone needlessly and falsely badmouthing CCL in an attempt to drive people away. Why you are even replying to something that has nothing to do with you is perplexing. What was the purpose behind that?

Also, since when is anyone trying to "hide the truth"? It is well known that this is a User Driven site. No one is hiding anything. If someone doesn't know all they have to do is ask.

BTW - in addition to the volunteer Approvers (who do an outstanding job) CCL now has a couple of paid employees that add most New Releases.

May I offer you a bit of advice? When I was growing up I was taught that if you don't have anything nice to say about something or someone then don't say anything at all.

If you have a problem with me deleting your post then I urge you to take it up with either Joe or Steve.

Joe Butler: Joe
Steve Boyd: The_Valiant_One or steve@golocomedia.com

CCL Office phone number: 615-264-4747

CCL e-mail: helpdesk@comiccollectorlive.com

If you read his original post it reads that he's using the software and is confused about why some things are not in now and for long periods of time that should be. The Burger King example IS the closest example to the nonsense that goes on here that can be made truthfully. You don't have to like the truth for it to actually be the truth. Many of us expected simple inclusion of new releases in a timely manner to be the norm and many are frequently left out. You PAY MONEY for the database and are then expected to build the thing yourself for which the content you now provided, is then provided to others at a FEE and if you stop paying CCL, you lose access to that work you provided. You are basically paying for something you thought would be one thing to learn later like me and many others did that it's not. The site relies on FREE HELP!!!!

We've made numerous offers over the years to try and turn this dump around including offering to pay more if they'd hire just one part timer, maybe a disabled vet, college student, etc just to make sure the basics get loaded every Sunday so they are ready to go Tuesday morning allowing the FREE HELP to focus on filling in back issues, store variants and the odd item here or there. Simply add everything on Lunars list for the week and Previewsworld list and you stop most of the bleeding right up front. Then stores can at least list the items for sale on time in one shot increasing total sales and profits for all.

Other suggestions include being dissatisfied with the approval process. It's not only extremely confusing, it's extremely frustrating. I and others have been more than willing to come back and add a cover scan here or make a simple adjustment there as needed if you just get the basics up but when they don't, we try to do so ourselves, come back days later and find things not approved yet, comments as simple as punctuation, spelling or trying to guess what you want in the variant description box that will actually get the item approved, it's pointless and people should know before starting down that road some of the hiccups and frustrations that will occur. Don't leave comments, make the simple adjustment the approver feels is needed and approve the damn thing. Cut out the delays and be happy most of the rest was correct and ready to go live and that it was brought to the attention of the approvers since it should have already been active before we ever got forced into taking the time to try and add it.

That is exactly the same thing as coming in a restaurant, expecting to get a meal and then finding only part of your meal is ready and now you have to stumble around trying to figure out how to cook and serve the rest!!! If the poster wants to come along and provide the work for free then great but be aware that many of us have found it to be distasteful at best and have chosen NOT to build stuff for a company for FREE that as near as I can tell does little other than pay for bandwidth/internet at this point. The work appears to have been done 20 years ago with no major improvements to the overall functionality since Rebirth in 2016.


That would be hiding the truth!!!! Keeping your own first hand experiences and disappointments to allow others to wander down the same road full of potholes. Tell people the truth up front and if enough people complain, maybe something good eventually happens. If they have a couple paid people now that's more than they have in the past and it appears if the FCBD books weren't added before FCBD then which is what the poster was saying, then it's not enough yet. Other than a couple late surprises we only had a weeks notice about, the rest have been known about for months and the one's from last year he wanted in should have been there already as well. It's not even a huge number, 50 to 60 total most years!!!

I still have a tiny spark of hope that one day things will improve. I've got a couple hundred thousand comics waiting if they do. I tossed around $1,400+ in upload fee's in the trash because I'm tired of the way things are. When they fix it, I'll be happy to try again.

And the other two people answered the question with helpful information.



As Howie said, they have added a couple part time paid people to add issues. I'm sure they'll be ecstatic when you re-subscribe at double the monthly rate.



It's funny that someone who runs a store dedicated to things that you read seemingly has no reading comprehension. Otherwise, you could easily read the comments left by Approvers, or look at the hundreds of thousands of examples in the database to get things correct. Your lack of effort makes the database less. You're complaining about missing information you're too lazy to add.

Kinda like going to burger king, ordering a plain sandwich, and whining when there's no condiments on it.

Other than being an annoying troll, I don't understand why you keep coming around. You dont have a store, you don't buy anything, you don't contribute to the database. You do nothing but complain. Complain about the site. Complain about diamond (isn't that horse beaten enough yet?) . Complain about peoples shipping habits. Complain complain complain.

Exactly this. BJ, why are you here posting if you hate the site so much? You go through stretches where you post in the forums a lot, but nobody ever usually comments on your threads, unless it's to counter some complaint you have. I've seen long threads you've started that are ongoing but nobody ever comments on them. Doesn't that tell you something? Even if you have something interesting to say, you've kind of left a bad taste in the mouth to everyone who has been here for any length of time. And changing your user handle didn't fool anybody.

Oh! And another thing! I'll ask again: are you calling Wildd0g a liar? You seemed to double down on it by saying there must be missing FCBD issues in the database. Has it ever occurred to you that the OP simply overlooked them in the database, and that he's searching for the wrong title to find his issue? Some of these FCBD issues can be hard to find, between the indicia, flip book formats, and differing cover titles to contend with. But nah, don't think about that possibility if another opportunity to dump on CCL presents itself.

Why, whatever do you mean? Do you mean the pointless threads in the (equally pointless) sports section about a football team that shall not be named and their quarterback? Or the long, long threads with pictures of his packages, that nobody cares about? Or the millions (and millions) of posts complaining about Diamond's shipping costs?

So did I before it was deleted. A simple honest and humorous attempt at pointing out to the poster that he's mistaken if he expects it to just automatically happen without him having to do something himself. He appeared confused that he was using a service that wasn't providing what he wanted.

While some of you still confuse hate with love and honest attempts at help, I'll be happy to point it out again.

NOTHING changes if you don't speak up, say what you believe and just accept the status qua. By taking the time to do it yourself, you are becoming an ENABLER. By being an enabler, you keep the coffers filled just enough that they don't have to do anything to improve things. I fully believe a lot of the approvers including Howie are great, yet mistaken individuals who are hurting the thing I want to see get better by allowing them not to be forced into making the changes that will actually do that. You are entitled to feel differently and voice your alternative view points but I feel ALL viewpoints are worthy of being heard and people should be allowed to know the whole picture before wasting their time working for others for free just to be disappointed severely as I was. The fact that they hired a couple people FINALLY actually appears to be proof that enough rats have jumped off the sinking ship that they now feel they HAVE TO. Its not an outrageous request to want every open order new comic added in time for them to be sold on their release dates. I don't believe its an outrageous request that when you submit something that isn't there, that the 1st approve to look at it goes ahead and makes it active. Don't waste days and days of our time waiting and forcing us to try and guess what you want. Don't take 30 seconds to type a message when you already know the way you want it to look. We did most of the required work for you for free, finish it and be thankful someone finally brought it to your attention that you had missed it or ignored it for years in some cases.

I addressed the question at hand which was why they aren't there. If there's alternative answers or they are then great but the poster made the impression that he believed they weren't there and wanted to know why.


I didn't change my user name to fool anyone and I have never tried to do that. I changed it because this broken half-baked setup doesn't remove anything from feedback to user name. I've asked for years for simple improvements like the ability to be myself and not to have to be Monidaw1 which is a name inherited from two owners prior to the former store. My intention is to eventually open a new store once they actually fix some of the issues. I'm not interested in going quietly into the night. My desire is to keep mentioning simple things we want to see happen until they actually do. When I start a fresh store I want to be free of everything from the previous 2 or 3 owners from name to feedback. I actually take the time to scan the front and back of every new comic every week to make listings on my own site and share to e-bay but there are some items I would like to eventually list here again when the changes we've been waiting for that they asked us to submit back in 2016 actually occur. A few of the biggest ones like Coupon Codes so we don't have to have PayPal refund sales so customers can use every $$ on a purchase they want to and not have money tied up waiting for refunds and sellers not getting jerked out of nonrefundable PayPal fee's, purchase minimums, qty maximums, Sales Tax choices for more than a single State, policing of the criminals openly committing MAIL FRAUD by shipping comics thru Media Mail and even advertising it openly, and a full list of others can be accessed from back in 2016 if desired for a refresher.


You have a problem with a user actually using the sports forum for what it was inteneded for? Almost daily I click on and see someone elses name or guest viewing the posts at the same time I am so even if they aren't commenting, some others are at least reading along and I personally find it helpful since I like to go back over time and reference some of the thoughts I posted earlier to see how the affect things today.

As for the not caring, I've actually had other members contacting me directly about themselves not being happy and trying to fight with Diamond to get changes to occur/ refunds for some of the overcharging. If it turns into a class action suit type situation I'll be happy to join in and in the mean time, I see people reading the comments and that information is now in front of their eyes so they can make choices in the future based on actual facts and 1st hand experiences with pictures.

As for the sports forum being pointless, that's a matter of opinion. It's something some of us look forward to and while we're on our way there we have to scroll past the topics at the top hoping for that one day when we look up and see the topic "NEW IMPROVED CCL LAUNCHES TODAY!!!!"

We all have different points of view and a right to them. Take Howie last year when he was excited to win a couple meaningless games. I said it then and I watched it happen. Those couple extra wins were not enough to get us in the playoffs, we weren't good enough to do anything if they had, and the end result is we ended up drafting 16 instead of a little higher and that let 3 of the 4 top rated tackles get picked immediately ahead of us when i see that as our biggest need right now. Leno whiffs his blocks completely frequently enough that they ended up ending Fitzpatricks career and costing us a game against the Giants last year almost killing Heiney getting strip fumble sacked returned for a TD inside the 5. I don't want to settle for mediocracy and staying the same. I want to do what it takes to encourage improvement and change and if that's here talking about the forum or encouraging ours to raise their voices and get the tidal wave of discontent heard then great. We could have gotten Sam some experience last year that would have benefitted us this year. We could have had better protection for him this year. We could eventually get to the point that every new open order comic can be listed and sold on CCL on release day. We may one day be able to have a store that operates smoothly and efficiently. If you don't get what you're afraid to ask for.

Another thought, I had a college contact me and offer a free paid intern to work in the store every week. Maybe there are some colleges in CCL's area offering things like that. If you don't take the time to ask, you may never know what's out there that could make things better.

Oh, now I get it! You were trying to help CCL by saying negative things about it and urging others not to even bother trying to learn how it works. My mistake.

So is CCL perfect? Of course not. Is eBay perfect? MyComicShop? Milehigh? etc, etc? Nope. In my opinion CCL is better than all of those and I think it's about to get better. There's nothing productive or helpful about constantly beating dead horses

Speaking of a Dead Horse:


Now, you are accusing me of being a criminal. Are you going to call in the Feds to arrest me?

Do you use eBay? Did you know that they also allow comics to be shipped Media Mail? Is this not hypocritical?

Here's a funny story about the PO and Media Mail. Two weeks ago I sold my old Playstation consoles and games. It was a huge box, weighed about 30 pounds. I also had a stack of comics that I was shipping that day - Media Mail - but when I got to the video games I told the clerk (my friend Tarshema whom I see 4-5 times a week) that this package was not MM and needed to go either Retail Ground or Priority. Well, she forgot to alter the rate and it went through as Media. I stopped her and said again that it is not Media Mail. She kind of looked around, it was a busy day and the lobby was full, then shrugged and kept on without fixing it. I probably should have reported her to Management.

BTW - I'm not an Approver, just a Moderator.

I have 3 of the 2023 FCBD titles that have been sitting in the Change Manager for a week with not so much as a peep. As Corey pointed out, the titles can be difficult to find because sometimes the indicia does not match up with what gets added to the database, so I can understand if I simply overlooked them.

I recognize that CCL is saving money by having volunteers do a bulk of the submissions and approvals. None of us wants to see the cost of doing business on CCL go up. Thing is, paying customers get frustrated and leave when their valid frustrations get met with "Oh well, that's just how things work around here!" One of the big differences between a successful business and a failure is that successful businesses see their customers' wants and needs and tries to address them. They don't always succeed, but their customer at least knows that the business is trying, and that resonates with customers on some level. This site has been bleeding both sellers and customers for years largely, I imagine, because their customers needs are not only not getting met, but it seems like those in charge don't even care to do anything about the issues which people are complaining about. If I was in a grocery store and there was only one teller and a line of 10 customers, I'd be pretty upset if the manager was just standing in the front saying "Sorry, we can't afford another teller, or else we would have to raise the price of your groceries!" I'd expect them to stop standing at the front of the store making excuses like an idiot and get on another cash register and help out until the problem is under control, because that is what a good business administrator does!

Some of you seem to think we haven't had this conversation before, and others seem to have blinders on.

There really is no admins anymore. Officially, yes, there is Steve and Joe, but they essentially have forgotten this site, they're not going to put any more money into this site, and we're on our own. Which is a shame, because this is a great resource. I, personally, don't really know of another place like this anymore to buy and sell comics in this manner.

With a little effort and money and coding know-how, this site could be awesome again. Because we are losing stores and members. But we've pleaded with the alownership, to no avail.

So the Approvers, who have full time lives and jobs and responsibilities try to keep the lights on, and try to keep up. Its hard. A lot of submissions have no effort put into them. No supporting links to help us. No publishing dates. Incorrect captions.

I love lamp!

And this is the entire basis for the original question. It doesn't matter that this place is the comic shop equivalent of Wikipedia, rather than Amazon, because in both models, the books would still be difficult to find (through no fault of people here).

I agree. The format of this site is, IMO, far and away the best one for both buying and selling comics. It should be a contender with Mile High and My Comic Shop in the volume of comics being sold.

I do appreciate the approvers here and want them to understand that my comment about how long it can take to get something approved was not directed at them..It is not their fault that CCL doesn't have more staff to handle the workload that they are asked to bear.

Exactly. I've tried other sites, and CCL is by far the best.

I never meant to cause such a passionate thread of responses! I have been using this database for over 11 years now and I find it VERY helpful in catalogueing my collection. I do not post much as 99.99% of my usage of this is for keeping an accurate listing of my collection.

Thank you all for your responses and assistance. Be well.