Current stats as of today's date?
44,109 members
12,074,186 comics owned by members
940,536 comics wanted by members
170,588 comics for sale
300,689 covers
2,724 publishers
38,857 titles
320,749 comics listed
$33,162,731.00 tracked value
These are incredible numbers. I thought I had alot of comic books.
Let's take a brief, and certainly not all encompassing view, of Comic Book Realm (it's here I should note that I am not being compensated by the site, nor do I know anyone connected to the site...but I'd like to!)
First, it's a free online comic book community that features one of the most impressive, and accurate, pricing guides I have ever seen.
I remember when I was younger (that was a long time ago) I could not wait for the new pricing guides to come out. They were a little bit high priced for my budget, but I made it work. I would sit for hours looking through my collection and finding out what things were worth. Remember, this was the days before computers, spreadsheets, and other easy ways to keep track of things. Anyway, enough about me.
I have a comic book collection verging on 10,000 comics and I have yet to find one that is not on Comic Book Realm. It's really simple to find the comics; you just punch in the title of the comic, hit return, and PRESTO there are dozens of titles and volumes to choose from. The cool thing about this is that next to each title they include the years the title ran and the publisher. So, if a title changes publisher you can clearly see which one you are looking for.
Once you click on the title, all of the issue numbers line up in a nice column for you to see. In the upper right hand corner you see the cover of the first issue along with all of the relevant information associated with the comic. For instance, you may be looking for issue #700 of the Amazing Spider-Man.
For this particular issue there were dozens of variant covers. So, in the list of comics you see before you all you have to do is click on each one and see the different variant covers pop up for you to see. Check the box next to the comic you have and it's added to your collection or 'Realm'. Further, as you click on separate issues you see the information on the right change as well as the cover. So, if you are looking for a particular artist or variant, it clearly states it in a text box under the cover. Have the regular cover? It's listed there. Have the foil cover,? It's shown in the text box that it's the foil cover. You literally can't choose the wrong edition to put in your collection.
So, what if you want to see the cover close-up, let's say there's a couple of variants that look remarkably similar, just click on the picture icon and you get a blown up version of the cover.
My favorite part, however, is the pricing. If you click on the value next to the comic you choose you get a list of prices that correspond to the rating assigned to the comic. So, if you have The Amazing Spider-Man #700 and you had it professionally appraised, you know the rating. Let's say it's a 9.2. You look next to 9.2 and VIOLA you have an estimate of the current value. But it doesn't stop there. Comic Book Realm has reports you can run that show the comics in your collection that are increasing in value and decreasing in value. For instance, you might find that if you collect Civil War, that they are rising in price due to the impending movie. I love when my comic values are on the rise.
Second, I have my own realm! I am the King! In my realm I can see all of my comics and a total value of what they are worth. Now, when I say I can see all my comics what I mean is that I can create different categories in which to keep my comics and see the respective value.
Here's an example. I have all of the Civil War comics in one category labeled, of all things, Civil War. This means that all of the comics that are related to Civil War, including variants and spin-offs, etc. I can assign to the Civil War category I set up and keep them all in one spot. Comic Book Realm then shows me how much all the comics in that category are worth.
In my Realm I can not only see my comics but I can run reports like I addressed earlier. One of my favorite reports appeals to me as a collector. I was trying very hard to collect every comic related to Fear Itself. I desperately wanted them all. After putting in all the volumes that I had already Comic Book Realm let me run a report that showed all the issues I have, all the issues that are missing from the collection (including variants) and told me the approximate price of the missing issues. Cool!
Oh, did I say missing issues? I forgot to tell you one more thing about the initial listing of issues in a volume that I talked about you earlier. If a particular issue has eBay next to it, I can click on the eBay icon and it will take me to a list of sellers that are selling the copy I need on eBay. Could it be more convenient?
Third, it has an app...sort of. I can have the Comic Book Realm (CBR) icon on my iPhone and iPad but it is a limited version of the website. Don't get me wrong, it is an awesome app, I can look up prices on volumes while I am in a comic store, or even see if I have the volume, with a simple internet connection. However, I can't add to my collection if I am on the app. Please understand, part of this is due to my laziness. I could just log into the website instead of using the app and do whatever I want. So, App or no app, CBR is my go-to site.
Fourth, is the home page. It has more comic information, headlines, and ads to the coolest of comic related websites than you can shake a stick at (if you're into that kind of thing). I can go to Sideshow Collectibles or check on the latest comic book deals that are being offered or see the newest covers coming out. I could spend all day just following links on their home page.
I honestly don't know how many people they have working on the site nor how long it takes to update it every day. Frankly, I would love to know how many connections they have to keep everything so up to date.
What I can tell you is that the site is a blessing to me and comic collectors everywhere. Thanks Comic Book Realm, I'll be on the site in a couple of minutes.
It doesn't have all the variant covers. More often than not, I'm finding that comicspriceguide.com contains a more comprehensive listing of variants than CBR. Also, CBR doesn't offer any pricing for graded versions. CPG does. Finally, CBR includes Mile High Comics' prices in their average price levels/rates. Mile High's prices are exponentially (this is not an overstatement) the highest vendor in the market with rates that have no basis in reality. Any serious guide needs to remove this vendor from their calculations in order to avoid having their rates being inflated as well.
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