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rmr1967 Posts: 1
1/5/2021
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Has anyone else noticed that depending on the title the Newsstand is Cover A, and Direct is Cover B, or the reverse? It becomes troubling when you're trying in input new comics and you're checking off the first of the two images for the Newsstand issue and then you switch to enter another title and now the first image is for the Direct.
I'm not sure if its just a simple line of code to flip it so all the titles are the same, or if they need to manually change each one. it's just aggravating, when you check off the wrong edition and have to go through the trouble to delete it to correct it.
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BasementComics Posts: 784
1/5/2021
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I believe Ron has written about this before. In the 70s and 80s, newsstand copies were more readily available and direct was shorter printings. In The 90s and the explosion of the direct market, it all flipped. So in a nutshell, the primary cover (A) will be what was more readily at the time.
Ronbatman, hope I summed it up well enough.
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collectibleshop Posts: 3088
1/5/2021
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BasementComics wrote:
...the primary cover (A) will be what was more readily at the time.
Here's my thoughts....It shouldn't matter what was more available or which version was the 'main' type back in the 80s/90s. We're not IN the 80s/90s any more, and CPG has only recently begun to catalog and show both versions, so it's not like they were doing that back in the 80s/90s and don't want to change the A/B designation now. It may be a royal pain to flip them now, or it may be a fairly simple code change, that would also change everyone's collection at the same time, I dunno.
But the OP has a point about consistency. To me it's more important for consistency in this case, and that means sticking with one A/B choice to make it easier for people who have both and collect both to keep things straight in their CPG collection. Who cares what was more prevalent when? It's not 'when' now, it's now, and everything for a long time now has a bar code, and it would make it so much easier when adding issues and verifying submissions and submitting the correct pics if Direct Market was always A and newsstand was always B. It's especially annoying when the designation is changed in the middle of a series. I've made a few verify mistakes when there's several issues in a row with direct and newsstand submissions in a series, and it flips after a number of them, so I click the nope instead of yup, or submit a pic of the wrong version cuz what was A is now B, and I have to go delete and submit again. Consistency is key and more important than ancient history that most collectors these days have no idea about, or care, they just want both versions, or one or the other, and easiness of cataloging them..
Not gonna take the time to hunt down Ron's post about that to see if he mentioned if it would be a big pain to change things now, so he can chime in and let us know. Maybe start a poll too, if enough members would see it and bother to vote.
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Ronbatman Administrator Posts: 2530
1/6/2021
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First of all, any change isn't a simple flip of a switch. Each book is individually set, because there are differences like Canadian Price Variant, British Pound Variant, Newsstand, and Direct. We talked about this internally when the decision was made to add in the thousands of Newsstand issues. Our thought process was that the most common issue should be first so that more people wouldn't have to go to the variant page. It's not about being back in the '80s or '90s it's about what best suits the majority of people. I can appreciate the consistency argument because we strive to be consistent in our wording and with the organization of the site. To us, this is consistent.
Whenever we make a change, some people aren't happy with the choice. It's our daily life. As leaders, we have to make choices that we think helps the most people. I'm sorry that you don't like the way it's organized because I do value your input, Charles.
Ron
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collectibleshop Posts: 3088
1/6/2021
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Ronbatman wrote:
First of all, any change isn't a simple flip of a switch. Each book is individually set, because there are differences like Canadian Price Variant, British Pound Variant, Newsstand, and Direct. We talked about this internally when the decision was made to add in the thousands of Newsstand issues. Our thought process was that the most common issue should be first so that more people wouldn't have to go to the variant page. It's not about being back in the '80s or '90s it's about what best suits the majority of people. I can appreciate the consistency argument because we strive to be consistent in our wording and with the organization of the site. To us, this is consistent.
Whenever we make a change, some people aren't happy with the choice. It's our daily life. As leaders, we have to make choices that we think helps the most people. I'm sorry that you don't like the way it's organized because I do value your input, Charles.
Ron
Well, I didn't think it would be a simple thing to change, but wasn't sure if a 'find and replace' command could be done, but since the code can't SEE the comic image, I guess it couldn't determine which A or B was which. So since it won't be easy, that's kills it getting changed.
It doesn't affect me much as I don't track my collection here, and don't buy anymore, but it does for those who do, and I'd think it's FAR more annoying to constantly have to change between which version is A and B part way thru a run, or entering a older series or newer series, than 'go thru the variant page', which I'm not sure what you mean there.
I'll defer to your all's decision, but I think it's flawed and came to the wrong conclusion as to what best serves the majority or is easiest to do/follow/pay attention to. Consistently using A and B across all ages that have them seems far more logical and easier to follow than jumping back and forth in a run or entering an older series that had more newsstand prints, then entering a newer series that had more direct market prints, and having to flip what A and B covers are. Same for anyone adding cover images to the database, or verifying them, which as I noted, is where it trips me up sometimes, but I try to pay more attention now that I know A/B covers aren't consistent.
So I might keep this thread bookmarked for when others come along and ask, and I suggest Ron and others who help out here do the same, as it will get asked again.
Thanks for the info Ron, now I'll get back to more verifying and sending you stuff to fix 
edited by collectibleshop on 1/6/2021
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Defiant1 Posts: 720
1/6/2021
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I make cover galleries for comics and there are inherent problems with trying to simply use the alphabet to designate cover variants (i.e. A, B C etc.)
I started using the letter "N" to designate newsstand versions when I name the image files, but there are even issues with that. If you look at X-Men #1 from the 90's there are 5 direct version covers and 4 newsstand versions. With comics like Beavis & Butthead #1, there is a 1st printing newsstand cover and there is a 2nd printing newsstand cover with color variations. It would be very difficult to assign letters in a way that is consistent across all titles and all possible situations which exist.
edited by Defiant1 on 1/6/2021
edited by Defiant1 on 1/6/2021
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lokyel Posts: 486
1/7/2021
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First of all thanks for adding the newsstand and direct versions. I know I have added quite a few my self.
but i agree it is very fustrating with the inconsistent way it is now
also I note that there are a lot of volume numbering issues as well (ie vol 20 vol 30 on mini series were others are listed as mini series. others are listed as volumes)
and whitman, mark jewelers, Canadian Price Variant, British Pound Variant, some are with the series and some are under there own link
I am not a programer but here are my segestions
1) One way is seperate each series in to 2 sub catagories newsstand vs direct like you have the tabs for annuals
2) with volumes add a .5,.75 or .25 for miniseries. (example the new mini series swamp thing (not future state) being vol 5.5 showing that it is a miniseries right after volume 5)
3) or set up seperate links for newsstand and or direct
4) set up an advanced search so you can look up by whitman, mark jewelers, Canadian Price Variant, British Pound Variant, newsstand or direct or even volume #
(example star wars and amazing spider-man #1 brings up quite a few pages. Having the ability to shrink the search would be helpful.)
thanks Gary
Frank-N-Freds
Comics & Cards
running a comic shop with over 500,000 issues i keep finding different different versions of comics and the info provided here is very helpful so thanks for that.
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Defiant1 Posts: 720
1/7/2021
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That all sounds more confusing in my opinion.
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