Thoughts and a question on organizing. I know some people use software and apps they purchase of freeware/shareware apps to organize things. I do so on a limited basis using the GCD. The nice thing about GCD is it lets me define different "collections" which I use to sort books by category. It allows books to be placed in multiple categories without "counting them more than once when indicating how many copies you own, so I can place books that overlap into multiple collections in all they apply to (for example an issue of Our Army at War that has a Joe Kubert cover and a story with Alex Toth art can be placed in the DC War category, the Joe Kubert Have (or want depending if I own it or not) and the Alex Toth have (or want again depending) but it only shows I own 1 copy.
But as I was sorting some books today I began to wonder, do others who collect a lot of different types of books sort their books (either physically or in their lists/catalogs) by "collections" or sub-types, genres, creators, publishers, etc. or is it just one mass.
I think I may have too many categories I use, but it helps me identify books easily whenever I pull them up on GCD. My physical sorting is slightly different (many of the categories combined in the same boxes for example for space reasons), but is not all that different.
If you do organize them in this manner what categories do you use? Do you do the same for want lists? GCD offers a way to distinguish between wants and haves and I do have a few specific want lists there, mostly things that cross several titles and eras such as Alex Toth wants, Joe Kubert wants, Frazetta wants, etc. just so I can have them all in one place if I want to look over them.
So here's my list of "collections" on the GCD:
Alex Ross haves
Alex Toth haves
Alex Toth wants
All in Color for a Dime (all comics from 30s to 60s usually with a 10 cent cover but a few with different prices from that era due to size)
Anthologies & Eclectic Collections
Archie Related Books
Batman Family
Comic Strip Collections
Comics with Records
Crime & Detective Fiction Comics
D&D Related Comics
Darwyn Cooke haves
Dave Stevens haves
DC Heroes
DC Mystery
DC Reprints
DC War
Devil with a Red Dress On (all those red dress covers I own)
Digest-sized comis
Disney Ducks
Disney (non-Ducks)
EC & EC Reprints
Ed Brubaaker haves
Fantasy & Adventure comics
Fanzines & Comi Journalism
Frazetta haves
Frazetta wants
Ghost Rider
Golden Age reprint collections and anthologies
Horror & Mystery Comics (non-Mvl/DC)
Howard's Heroes (Conan and all other REH adaptations & spin-ffs like Red Sonja)
Humor & Oddities
Jay Scott Pike haves
Joe Kubert haves
Joe Kubert wants
King Features characters (Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Phantom etc.)
Kirby Krackle (Kirby books regardless of publisher)
Licensed Comics
Magazine-sized comics
Manga
Marvel Heroes
Marvel Horror
Marvel Reprints
Marvel War
Matt Baker have
MattBaker wants
Micronauts
My Childhood Comics (those I owned before I entered high school, which I am trying to recreate)
Non-Fiction Comics (biographies, memoirs, historicals, etc.)
Pulp Heroes
Red Dress wants
Romance
Super-Heroes-non Mvl/DC
Superman Family
Treasury-sized comics
Usagi Yojimbo
Wally Wood wants
War (non Mvl/DC)
Warlord
Will Eisner's Spirit & other Eisner haves
The biggest difference between how I organize the boxes is that I have different boxes for short series (less than 50 issues) and long series (more than 50 issue runs). Characters with multiple series that combine for more than 50 issues but may not have exceeded 50 issues on series go in the long term series boxes. It just makes for less shifting of boxes for the shorter stuff if I add issues to a long term series and fill a box. Less likely to happen with those shorter run series. Also since I don't buy a lot of Marvel new or back issues anymore, they're combined with all other publishers except DC in the boxes, but I do get a lot of DC stuff so I keep those in different boxes.
My system is meant to reflect how I do things and facilitate functionality so I can keep up with the organization once the initial grunt work and infrastructure is done and can find things when I am looking for them to read or reference. I doubt it would work, or even make sense for/to anyone else. But I am always curious how others who collect go about organizing things, whih is why I am posting this.
-M
