Lessons Learnt: Which service is useful to manage your collections?

When you start to collect more and more comics, it makes sense to keep track of:

Which comics do I actually have?
Which comics did I order already?
Which comics should I buy/collect next?

To do so, there are several online services available and as often, the question is "How much am I willing to pay?". I didn't want to pay anything in the beginning and just check out what is possible and what is not. So when I started looking, I had the following requirements in mind:

The service has to have a free tier, which allows me to utilize the most important services for free and does not require payment after a couple of months.
The service needs to have an import/export functionality, because it may happen that the service decides at some point to charge users, and I would like to be able to keep my collection by exporting it in the future.
The service should have a comic database, so that you do not have to enter each and every detail about a comic.
The service should be an online/cloud service (no need to install any software), and if possible have an app, it is always nice to show your collection to friends on your phone.

With this requirement I found the following services that could be of interest:

I created an account for each service and I directly dismissed Go Collect, since it needed payments associated, while creating the account (see requirement #1). For the other services, I was able to create an account and I started to add ten randomly selected comics, to see how I liked the ease-of-use.

Collectorz.com Connect: Online Collection Database Software

When I started to use it was easy and simple to use. It also had an app, which I installed and used as well. Nevertheless, to actually use the service over a longer period and enjoy all the features, you have to sign up for a yearly fee.

You are able to import and export collections into the cloud service, but you need to have the subscription. So all together, I would give this service a 7/10 and for my requirements Collectorz.com achieved the following: 1. ❌, 2. ✅, 3. ✅, 4. ✅.

League of Comic Geeks

I found this service pretty fast, since it was referred in a lot of blogs and articles I read. The service itself is completely free (you can upgrade to PRO or PATRON, which is not needed - but you may support the platform). With the free version you have "Unlimited comic collection management on all devices (website and mobile apps)". The adding and management of your collection is very simple and the mobile app is also very simple to use.

If you check my profile, you already know that I decided to keep this service. Since it fulfilled all the requirements I stated 1. ✅, 2. ✅, 3. ✅, 4. ✅ and in addition is really simple and nice to use, so 9/10.

My Slabbed Comics

I found this service through a purchase on ebay. The service has a few thousand subscribers and I believe only a fraction of these are really active. The usability of the service is limited, ex. when adding a comic you have to enter all details by yourself and you can/have to upload an image. The service is for free, but has really limited functionality. I still have the account there, but I'm not really using it. All together, the service is free, has no comic database, no export or import functionality and also no app. Summarized: 1. ✅, 2. ❌, 3. ❌, 4. ❌ and a 2/10.

Summary

Summarized, the service from League of Comic Geeks is the clear winner. It's free, has a great set of functionality (ex. contribute, import/export, up-to-date comic database) for free and a nice mobile app. I can only strongly recommend this service and call to support it by signing up for a PRO or PATRON account.

Marvel Comics Collector

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