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Hey guys - sorry I've been a little incognito the last few days - I had a long weekend and got back late from Indiana so I'm playing catch up. I've been busy catching up the CRS, approving over 1500 CRs from you guys in the last 2 days.

The Trading Cards are pushing 6000 in the CCLdb, and we're still rolling! You guys are doing great! I personally added Inkworks' SMALLVILLE: SEASON ONE Base Set to the database, and now it's:

- LOIS AND CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (Base Set)
- SMALLVILLE: SEASON TWO (Base Set)

I thought I would make this topic to cover any questions that are awaiting answers from all these threads in one nice little room. This will make my life SO much easier so I don't have to scroll through pages and pages through multiple topics.

So, what's up? ASK THE VALIANT ONE....

Alright, I'll bite:

1) lots of discussion about loose wrappers. Some of us think they should be added since they are a collectible in and of themselves - different from a sealed pack. Adding them as sealed packs and then just making a notation that it is a loose wrapper just doesn't make sense to me. It's not that easy to track in a collection that way (at a glance). Why are they not a separate item in the guidelines? Can T_V_O explain the thinking behind this? (since everyone else has already chimed in.)

2) Where can we put Collector's Trading Card Tins (For Example)? These are not factory sets, but tins with multiple packs and often have some sort of exclusive card. Can they be added as an additional item under the main title with the sealed box/pack/binder/factory set?

thanks!

OK, you asked for it. This might be the most important question you get.







How was your vacation?


I hope you had a good one. You deserved it.

Hey Scott! Here's your answers....

1) CEO JOE has ruled that loose wrappers WILL NOT be catalogued for the time being. Yes, people DO sell loose wrappers, and we have a way to do it (OWTCH! Got wrapped for suggesting the "use the sealed wrapper example") so that's all I got for the moment. Sorry, but to us from a data aspect, it's the argument of "loose" toys vs "carded" toys. If it's loose, use the carded example and put it in your item description. (And for the record, when I came up with the way to format action figures in the db, I SUGGESTED at least 2 ways to add loose figures, but sometimes, even being a 25-year collector can't sway the boss, you know? ;)

2) I have no problem with Collector's Tins added as an item in the generic title for boxes,packs, etc. HOWEVER, make sure you denote in the ITEM BIO, what comes in the tin set. These in most cases are NOT full sets of cards, but like a tin, with various sealed packs inside and an exclusive card or something. Marketing genious.

Hope that helps, my friend!

Hey Pat, thanks for the gifts and the kind words, my friend! :)


1) My vacation was awesome.
2) Her name is Kim.

The rest I'll leave for the TV movie. ;)

One more thing about Story Arc and Cards....

So far, I have only attached the arcs that are on the cards themselves, most of the time on the front, but at least obvious on each card.

But now that I doing Marvel Metal, I have found the same type of categories, but they are not on the cards, only the checklist.

My opinion is the rule for Story Arcs should be what is on the card, not somewhere else. If they meant it, but didn't include it on the card (in this case, they colored part of the card differently, but no where on cards #1-9 do they say 'Alternate X' like the checklist card has them marked), if it is not on the card, it is not a real Story Arc. But I bring it up here to the tribunal for final verdict.

Only other question we had was with Printing field, you can see that thread on the 18th page of the Guidelines thread. Some good points to review there.

POOF! Greetings, my friend!

IF you make it a story arc, it will be approved because it's on the checklist. If you DON'T make it a story arc, it will still be approved because it's NOT on the card.

LOL! I know that sounds confusing. Basically, the checklist gives legitmacy to the story arc "Alternate X", even if it's not on the card, however, it's up to you if you want to go through the process of adding the arc. I know what Joe would say, "More info is better!" so....hope that helps. There is no right or wrong answer to this one. AS Joe says...."I'm open..."

I'm glad you had a good time.

Serious question/suggestion: Is there any way we can get the market notes printed next to the item on the invoice of sold items? Here's why: I might have two books listed in GD at the same price. One might have a market note that there's a piece out, and the other that there's heavy tape. When the invoice prints I don't know which issue was ordered. I have to go into my store and see which one wasn't ordered, and that assumes I realize I have multiples in that grade which I often don't because books are stored in more than one place. Early on in my selling I had a buyer purchase a book from the 50's with a missing centerfold and priced at $1.00. The missing centerfold was noted in the market notes but the buyer didn't notice. When he received the book he was a little upset, but did contact me and admitted it was his fault for not checking more carefully and everything was fine. Having the notes on the invoice could help defuse any potential problems before they arrive. Sorry to be so long winded.

*BLEAGH* Ok, I'm off to read. Be back in a bit. LOL!

I know you were just using Marvel Metal as an example and we do need an answer to the generic question, but in this case, the cards do say "Alternate X" just below the character names. It's hard to see on the scans in the database, but I believe it is there.

Hey Pat - thanks. I'm passing this concern to Joe, as that is more of a programming request, and that's not my cup of tea. In fact, I generally have a problem TYPING words "programming".

HEY I did it!

"Do you want text only or fully-formatted?" - asks MrMiracle...he suggests personally go with stripped of formatting. You won't get hot links, but you'd get URLS for stuff like that.

We're looking into this, Pat..stay tuned.

From the approver forum, Ratings thread: Is CCA (or CCA Approved) considered a rating that one could put in the content field?

From the approver forum, Estimated sale dates thread: Could we get some clarification on the purpose of the sale date field and if people should be filling it for older books?

[edit] - Forgot to say welcome back!

Another one: There was some question about preferred names for some miniseries story arcs. Such as, should we prefer "The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home" or just "The Long Road Home", knowing that "The Dark Tower" is also tagged as an arc?

WHEW!

OK, let's talk about the STARGATE SEASON/PRINTING question....

First of all, kudos to Abdy for tackling these daunting sets. This is what we've decided, after some debate.

If we're going to stick with using printing for series, then if Premier is the first set (i.e. Printing 1) and Season 4 is the second set, then the printing should be Printing 2. This will keep to the spirit of what we were trying to use the field for in the Trading Card realm.

3 THINGS TO ASK FROM THE COMMUNITY:

1) When submitting a cover title, make sure that you convey as much information as you can to me. In this case, I didn't know that Premier encompasses what would be considered multiple seasons of the show. This was my fault because I was unaware of this information, so sorry guys.

2) Make SURE that there are NO SETS inbetween the sets you edit for printing, because once you start down the dark path, mulitple edits await you. LOL!

3) Speaking of multiple edits, can you guys help me change the printing fields in CR 2.0 to what Abdy suggests below?

Abdy, if you read this, please post a full list of base set (not subsets) per seasons and what printing each one should be in this post, my friend. Thanks!

RULING #1: If you want to put CCA in the rating field, have at it. From a data standpoint, it's not that big a deal, but I can see why someone might want it there. But, man, you've got your work cut out for you....

RULING #2: If you want to put the sale date field in on older books, have at it. From a data standpoint, it's not that big a deal, but I can see why someone might want it there. But, man, you've got your work cut out for you....

Basically, the ONLY reasoning for adding the SALE DATE FEATURE was strictly so CCL could start adding new issues early. For older books, this is just....information, not good or bad.

Sounds like "Civil War" and then "Road to Civil War".

Two different cover titles to me:

1) "The Dark Tower"
2) "The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home"

This gives two special arcs in which people can find Dark Tower and the series inside the Dark Tower.

Does that help?

Yep - that's what we've got right now, so we won't have to change anything. :)

Couple follow on questions:
Did you have a preference on "CCA" vs "CCA Approved"? (If used at all, that is - I don't plan on adding them to any books myself!)

On the dates - some were putting in dates that had been penciled/stamped on the covers of much older books. Consensus of the approvers was not to use those dates - do you concur?

Color me concured.

IF you're only covering the base sets with this and not the Preview or the FanCLub sets (which I'm assuming will still stay at 1?); then the printing order would be as follows:

Premiere - 1
Season 4 - 2
Season 5 - 3
Season 6 - 4
Season 7 - 5
Season 8 - 6
Season 9 - 7
Season 10 - 8 (as that is all for the basic sets for now)

Now, do the chase sets that correlate with these series get changed in addition? And since, aside from chase sets, I have only entered the Premiere and Season 4 base sets so far and I still need to go back and edit for the characters I was awaiting approval on as well as the sale dates, I can change all of this at once. That was part of the reason I stopped as soon as I became aware of the issue.

I'm sure you can understand why I didn't want to get 10 seasons in and then have to go back and fix it all.

And by the time I get to Stargate Atlantis I should have this down to a science

Heh, believe that if you want. It seems like everytime I think I get it down to a science, something changes!