Best Way To List Comic Collection?

samsmoot

Will soon be putting a collection of comics up for sale on ebay.

I want to list them alphabetically, with description, cover price, condition, artist etc - what's the best way to do this? I can't use Excel and Word Pad seems inadequate - anything out there which would help? If I could get something that would order the items alphabetically for me would be useful - any ideas please?

soolin

If you are selling as a 'lot' then I can't see that it makes much difference how they are listed. If selling in singles then you can make a template and just change the title and description each time.

I'm not sure, but I don't think that comics can be sold on a variable BIN, so you can't sell them individually from a single BIN auction- but check that as it is a long time since I've sold comics.

samsmoot

Cheers.

As there are over 200 of them I just thought alphabetical might be easier for the buyer to see what is there - but thinking about it there are other ways they could be ordered and described - but still would help to have some kind of organiser type thingy - thought there might be something out there to help get a uniform look to the descriptions - you know, press Tab to go to the next field. And obviously needs to be transcribable to ebay listing.

soolin

samsmoot wrote: »

Cheers.

As there are over 200 of them I just thought alphabetical might be easier for the buyer to see what is there - but thinking about it there are other ways they could be ordered and described - but still would help to have some kind of organiser type thingy - thought there might be something out there to help get a uniform look to the descriptions - you know, press Tab to go to the next field. And obviously needs to be transcribable to ebay listing.

My original question still stands, are you selling these as a bulk lot or individually?

Crowqueen

You would want to list them individually in alphabetical order to get them in alpha order in any shop or list.

If a buyer searches for a particular title, though, they will see your item in among offerings from other sellers, so alpha order would be kind of academic at that point.

I would usually sell things individually, if you have something like a collection, you can usually get more money for something sold retail to actual collectors rather than as a job lot to a dealer.

soolin

Crowqueen wrote: »

You would want to list them individually in alphabetical order to get them in alpha order in any shop or list.

If a buyer searches for a particular title, though, they will see your item in among offerings from other sellers, so alpha order would be kind of academic at that point.

I would usually sell things individually, if you have something like a collection, you can usually get more money for something sold retail to actual collectors rather than as a job lot to a dealer.

I am concerned that OP is thinking of selling these as a choice auction which is of course not allowable . However I agree that if these are specialist and rare then individual auctions should be sed, listing fees will be high so research will need to be done of course.

If these are sold individually then a good standard template can be used with all the details already complete and just the titles changed along with the scanned picture.

A variable BIN (my new favourite thing) would probably be best, but as above I don't think this is a category that offers that.

Crowqueen

True. If OP is entitled to FLWs (and given eBay missed one out this weekend, if they are still going to be run on the same scale as before), listing as auctions might be a way of defraying the cost somewhat. They might end up finding the price that befits their rarity as collectable items.

A choice listing would be against the rules for this. If the titles are different I don't think MVLs are allowed, and you are only allowed 30 individual items per MVL, so OP would still be accumulating some costs if they have more than that number of individual titles.

tyllwyd

(Just relating to the original question about creating a searchable list ...) Have you got Word? If all you want to do is to set up an alphabetical list, you can type each description on one line and then there is an option to sort the list. If you type it in with, say, tabs between each item (making sure you are consistent), you can then select the whole thing and 'convert text to table' to get a table that you can sort. (Or set up a table first and enter the items as you go along.)

Strapped

I'm tempted to say "with a match" but that's only because I have a relative whose house is over-run with his comic collection!

Seriously, good luck. I'd go with individual listings or small groupings.

samsmoot

tyllwyd wrote: »

(Just relating to the original question about creating a searchable list ...) Have you got Word? If all you want to do is to set up an alphabetical list, you can type each description on one line and then there is an option to sort the list. If you type it in with, say, tabs between each item (making sure you are consistent), you can then select the whole thing and 'convert text to table' to get a table that you can sort. (Or set up a table first and enter the items as you go along.)

I have Office Starter for Windows 7 - that seems to be the kind of thing I need, so thanks for that - I could try a sample first, couldn't I? See how it works out - don't do anything on Word but write simple letter so will try and follow your instructions as best I can.

Sorry - didn't make it clear: comics to be sold in one lot. They are 'underground' and adult comics, books, magazines, International Times, Oz etc. Many rarities, some more common but nice as a collection - splitting them up means some would probably remain unsold.

Would be a pain to list individually but I don't know - will have a think about it.

tyllwyd

samsmoot wrote: »

I have Office Starter for Windows 7 - that seems to be the kind of thing I need, so thanks for that - I could try a sample first, couldn't I?

It's not difficult - if you are in Word 2007 (hopefully this will be similar enough), all you have to do is type a list like

apples
pears
oranges

then in the home tab find the paragraph graph and a button with A Z and an arrow pointing downwards. Click on that and you can sort your list.

If you want to get more sophisticated, type

apples one red
pears two green
oranges three orange

select the whole thing, then in the insert tab, find the tables group and click on the little arrow pointing downwards to expand it, and one of the options should be convert text to table.

You can do it all in Excel, obviously, but for simple tables Word is fine.

Oh, and before you start doing the tables, I'd keep a back up of the file so that if you get in a muddle you don't lose track of it all!