CCL Messageboard

It would be nice if someone had a lot of comics, to be able to buy a barcode scanner, connect it to their computer, and just scan the barcode of the comic to input it into the software.

Troy

I totally agree. I have a scanner and I've been trying to make it work but, so far nothing.

Interesting idea but how many people can or would use this? (perhaps more than I would guess) The biggest hangup that I can see is that the bar code numbers would have to be added to the master database for all those comics before it would work. That's quite a task in itself.

Yeah. Adding all the barcodes and the information for each would be quite a task. However, I was thinking that this could be a community effort for the benefit of everyone. As people are entering in their comic collections they could select a comic and scan a barcode that would then attach itself to that issue. This way the database would be updated by the user community. We would have some ownership of it and pride in it because we helped to build it.

Also, if incentives were needed to get people to help with this, a discount on barcode scanners or some other incentives might help.

I only have about 700 or 800 comics that I'd love to enter in this way. I can only imagine what someone who has literally thousands and thousands of comics can be thinking. Especially if they have some other way of keeping track of them that they've been using already. What's their incentive to switch?

I really like using this program and would LOVE to see the store grow to include more people and sellers.

Not all comics have barcodes. Anything before 15-20 years ago definitly does not have them. Providing a feature that only works half the time and would take a lot of effort to try may be asking a little much. Though, anything is possible I suppose.

Who exactly would give us a discounted scanner for these barcodes? This sounds like it would generate too much work for too little benefit. Plus, who really owns a barcode scanner?

Like Warlock said, a lot of comics do not have barcodes, Escpecially the earlier ones.

ComicBase lets you enter via scanner, and interface with AtomicAvenue

I use a Manhattan Barcode scanner which you can find online for about $65. Now I just have to figure out how to port the data into ComicCollector.

Just a word of warning... the comic companies are not exactly great at properly using bar codes themselves, although they are getting better at it. Sometimes multiple printings or different covers do not have different bar codes (although they should!) This could result in your 'scan' locating the wrong book...

Right now there is no way to import any data into the CCL software.

See this thread: http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/forum/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=3391

We don't have barcode data which eliminates the use of a bar code. That said, we may with Change Request 2.0 start adding bar codes to the master data.

Just checking...anything changed with the software to allow barcode scanning? I want to catalog my comics, but I really don't have the time to enter them in one by one without the help of a barcode scanner. I'm looking at other software at the moment, but would gladly choose comic collector live if the barcode option has been implemented...

Thanks for the update!

You may find that use of a barcode scanner will be a mixed blessing. At first glance, the barcode scanner may seem to be the quickest way to enter you're collection. However, this assumes that every comic has a UNIQUE bar code. This, in fact, is a false assumption. I think every comic publisher has failed to properly bar code books, particularly when it comes to variants and multiple prints. More than one cover of some books will have the exact same bar code. Implementation of bar codes in this system probably will come, but don't think it will be the answer to your 'dream' input system.

As a matter of fact, my LCS uses barcodes to support retail sales of comics - but even after YEARS of work - they continue to have issues with scanning new issues.

Personally, I have alot of fun entering my collection into this system as it is. And I really don't think it is all that time consuming...

Thanks, I'll give it a try without the barcode scanner. The barcode just seemed like a slam-dunk idea, but I guess I just need to take the time to manually catalog my comics.

Not to revive an old suggestion or thread but just found an example of a 'non-unique' barcode and thought I would toss it in here as a bit of documentation of an exception condition should CCL ever go down this path:

Two distinct covers having the same barcode - Green Lantern (Vol 3) 100-A and 100-C.

Any barcode scanning software would probably find and use the first instance found for this code, so no guarantees that the proper book would get entered to your data. I know from past work on my own database, that other exceptions exist. (And 15 years of Supermarket POS experience says scanning is not as clean as it should be.)

Since Diamond Comics Distribution has started their POS system, Comic Suite, they have put a smack down on the comic publishers to get in line with their directives regarding bar codes and duplicate bar codes. They now require all the comic companies doing business with them to use a standard +5 bar coding system. If you look at the bar code on any current comic book you will see a large bar code and a small one with 5 extra numbers right next to the long bar code. This is to eliminate duplicate codes for almost all the books out there.