StashMyComics.com

[thunderstrike78]

While not strictly Avengers-related, it is is comics-related, and I wanted to see if anyone has an opinion.

Over the years, my comics collection has become so voluminous that it's hard to keep track of. I try to keep them organized, but I feel like I'm in a catch-22.

On the one hand, if I keep them in alphabetical order, I can find things very easily. Nothing gets lost, and it's very easy to see what I have and what I'm missing at a glance.

On the other hand, keeping them alphabetically organized makes it hard to read long runs that involve multiple titles. For example, right now I'm trying to go through the Busiek run on Avengers, and in my mind that run begins with Thunderbolts #1. Being the perfectionist that I am, I want to read them in order so that all the events dovetail together as neatly as possible. Before long, I realized that I wanted to include the Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor runs from that era as well, since many of those events are referenced in Kurt's Avengers. Before long, I found myself trying to file hundreds of comics from numerous different titles (once I included Avengers Forever, Maximum Security, and numerous others) into some kind of "proper reading order". It's exhausting.

But, of course, now if I go looking for a single issue or two, it's damned hard to find because it's not alphabetically organized. ARGH!

So, now that I've found this website, it looks like it will allow me to create an online database of my comics collection. This way, I can keep things filed in my "reading order" but I can still easily identify what issues I'm missing from the run and which ones I already have.

So, my question is: has anyone used this service before? Does anyone have any opinions about it that I should be aware of? Advantages? Disadvantages? Any input would be appreciated before I put a lot of work into it.

Thanks!

[scottharris]

I've never seen this site before, but it looks pretty cool. It also looks like something that could easily absorb dozens of hours of my time. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Hmm.

I also, like most collectors, have my own personal quirks, one being that I own a bunch of comics that I may or may not consider part of my "collection". I have 3 categories: comics in my collection, comics I own that are definitely not in my collection and a third nebulous category of comics that aren't necessarily in my collection but that I don't quite want to get rid of either. This kind of website would force me to confront that grey area and decide whether or not to consider these books in or out of my collection. Arrgh! WHAT TO DO?!

[Shiryu]

It's not something I need but it does look impressive, even has thumbnail pic for some comics.

BTW, I simply have my comics organized by title and then by issue number, it's always seemed the easiest way.

[thunderstrike78]

I've started uploading some of my comics to the site, and it seems to work pretty well. It's hardly exhaustive (I'll need to take a weekend to do that sometime), but so far it's helped with getting a handle on some of the stuff I still need. (For example, I just realized that I never got the 2001 Avengers Annual--I think that's the one that concludes the whole "duplicate Hank Pyms" story from the Busiek run. I was shocked to find that I was missing an important chapter!)

[rosecarver]

I used to add my comix to the Comic Collector Live website. At the time, it too was free, but after a year, you had to pay membership fees to continue to use/access your items. In my procrastination, I never got all 9,156 comic books listed! (I currently have a paper list of titles and numbers.)

This website looks like it might work out, and I may try it. But I just wonder how long their service will be free until they charge a fee for usage also.