v21.0: Add by Issue, Update Values report and a new Missing Comics tool!

It is December 2, 2020, so about time for Comic Collector 21!
With this huge v21 update, we are responding to the most common feature requests we have been receiving from Comic Collector users in the past few years. This has resulted in what may be the biggest Comic Collector update in years, with 3 completely new comic specific features and 1 improvement to an existing tool.

Here’s what’s new:

New Add Issue tab in Add Comics screen

In the Add Comics screen, when searching for a comic “By Series Title”, you are sometimes getting so many series results, that it can be hard to find the exact comic you have in your hands. You may find yourself expanding series after series, to find the issue you need.

But not anymore, as today’s update will make this a lot easier: Just use the new “Add Issue” tab in the Add Comics screen to search by Series title AND Issue number in one go.
E.g. search for “iron man 17” and it will instantly show you a simple flat list of all issues 17 of matching Iron Man series.

Note that the list of matches will automatically be a lot shorter, because the results will only include the series that actually have the issue number you are looking. For example, search for “action comics 214” and it will instantly give you the exact comic you are looking for.

Update Values report

Since we introduced the Update Values from GoCollect feature, one of the most common questions we received at customer support has been:

After I update the values for my comics, is there any way I can see which comics have been updated?

So, after one year of having to say “sorry, no that is not possible”, we figured, let’s make it possible.

And of course, we went way beyond just showing which comics have been updated. As of today, after you run Update Values, you will get a nice “Updated Values” report, showing you:

• which comics have been updated
• their previous values and the new values
• the value change, in green when increased, in red when decreased
• links to GoCollect to see further historic values
• total value changes for the updated comics and for your entire collection

Missing Comics screen

Another common request that we have been hearing from many years:

Is there any way I can find which comics I am MISSING for my series

Definitely not an easy feature to implement, because the first question immediately is “what about variants?”. If you own issue 13A, do you regard issue 13B, 13C and 13D as missing or not?

So our UI/US designed AJ and I (Alwin) sat down to design a flexible “Missing Comics” screen that gives you full flexibility to conjure up the missing comics list you are looking for.

Based on our ideas, web-developer Sven created a super-fast search engine on our servers, that can instantly return issue number lists for any series. Still not sure how he made it this fast, but you’ll definitely love the speed of this too.

Then finally, Windows developer Joe created the new Missing Comics tool that you can now find in the Tools menu of version 21. Alternatively, open it from the “Find missing comics” link next to you Have list in the details area.

Use the checkboxes and sort toggle at the top to:

• Show or Hide missing variants.
• Switch between a compact list and a verbose list. (the compact view lists missing comics in “ranges”.)
• Show or Hide series that are completed already.
• Order the missing issue lists in Ascending or Descending order.

IMPORTANT: the Missing Comics tool is a new online service that always requires an ACTIVE Comic Collector subscription.

Use the button on bottom left to generate a nice text file that you can print off, for taking with you to the store or to a show:

Improved Pre-fill screen (previously called Quick-Fill)

The Quick-Fill screen is a time-saving tool that lets you set some fields immediately when adding new comics.
In today’s update, we changed the screen to a 2-column layout and have added several fields to the screen (Grading Company, Slabbed vs Raw, Tags, plus the ability to “Auto-fill Purchase Price with Cover Price”.

Also, we have renamed the screen to “Pre-fill Comic Details” to make the purpose a bit clearer.

Completed Series folders are now hilited in blue

In the Edit Series screen, you can mark a series a “Completed”. Previously this only change the icon of the series in the folder panel, but with version 21, the program now also hi-lites the folder name in bold and blue: