My Comic Book Collection

A Python-based comic book collection tracker with a Flask web app. Metadata is sourced from the Comic Vine API and pricing from eBay, all stored in a local SQLite database.

Setup

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Create a .env file in the project root:

CV_API_KEY=your_comic_vine_api_key

EBAY_PROD_APP_ID=your_ebay_app_id
EBAY_PROD_CLIENT_ID=your_ebay_client_id
EBAY_PROD_CERT_ID=your_ebay_cert_id

SECRET_KEY=your_flask_secret_key

Usage

The project has three independent pipelines:

1. Ingest — match comics against Comic Vine

Finds unmatched books in the database and identifies them via the Comic Vine API.

python ingest.py                # first 100 unmatched books
python ingest.py --limit 50
python ingest.py --all
python ingest.py --all --resume  # skip rows already identified today (crash recovery)

2. Pricing — fetch eBay market prices

Fetches current eBay listing prices for each book. Skips books priced within the last 30 days. Stops automatically if the eBay daily API quota (5,000 calls) is exhausted.

python pricing.py                # first 100 stale books
python pricing.py --all
python pricing.py --limit 50
python pricing.py --force        # reprice everything regardless of last update
python pricing.py --title "batman"

Pricing uses the median of up to 10 current listings. If no exact-grade listing is found, it interpolates linearly between the nearest available grades above and below. Also automatically tags ungraded books as Candidate where the CGC graded price exceeds the raw price by $50+.

3. Web App

python app.py

Opens at http://localhost:5000. Accessible on your local network at your machine's LAN IP on port 5000.

Features: collection viewer, manual Comic Vine match correction, CSV import, cover image management, multi-user login.

Database

Books you add need:

Field	Description
Title	Series name (e.g. Amazing Spider-Man)
Issue	Issue number
Grade	Numeric grade (0.5–10.0)
CGC	Whether professionally graded (0/1)
Variant	Variant/cover designation if applicable
Price Paid	Your purchase price

The pipelines enrich each book with:

Field	Source
Publisher, Volume, Cover Date	Comic Vine
Key Issue, Comic Age, Notes	Comic Vine
Cover Image	Comic Vine
Graded Price, Ungraded Price	eBay Browse API
Candidate tag	Computed (graded vs raw price delta)

Running Tests

python3 -m pytest test_unit.py -v
python3 -m pytest test_unit.py::TestPickBestMatch -v  # single class