If I piece together a complete product over time, I make note of the price of each of the accessories as we're tracking the price paid for the product, and all of these items, and their associated costs, are part of the product. Perhaps we could enter a price paid field that would be seen on the part pages that would give us an idea how much that specific
individual part is worth.
If I pick up a G1 Mirage for $10 and, over time, I end up paying $15 for his accessories, I enter $25 for the price paid for the Mirage product. If want to, I could enter the prices paid for his individual accessories...this isn't a bad idea.
Now, if I happen to pick up a stray gun for, say, Astrotrain, and I don't have Astrotrain, I don't bother entering it until I get the figure it belongs to, but perhaps we could still provide the price paid without the need to have it as parts of our collections. Not sure if this is even possible...
Do these conditions apply to the toy as a whole, or to each individual part? If you've lost the box, for example, what does that do to the rating of the toy? If you can rate a figure, does he lose points if, say, you've lost his gun? Or does the gun itself get a rating?
As far as condition goes, we're talking actual physical condition...not "completeness".
You can still indicate that you have a complete figure, with all of its accessories, by choosing those parts in the "Parts Checklist" area on the blue bar where you enter the product into your collection.
I would tend to think we would assign conditions to each of the parts, in addition to the packages...the way I envision it would be something like the following.
First off, we change our current term of "condition" to another term...perhaps "status", as condition usually describes the actual physical condition of an item, not so much "graded", "sealed", "opened", or "loose".
If you choose "Graded", a choice that was greyed out initially becomes active: "Package condition (and a text field)" - this is where you would enter the AFA Grade and/or subgrades. Or, instead of a text field, a condition picker.
If you choose "Sealed" or "Opened" for current condition, a choice that was greyed out initially becomes active: "Packaging condition (and a text field)". Or, instead of a text field, a condition picker.
That's where condition stops for packages, it's handled on the product page...this also prevents us from having to enter the box as an accessory (something I've never been too keen on). The fact that you chose opened or sealed already indicates the presence of a box and this allows us to assign a condition to it.
If you choose "Opened" or "Loose", then the "Part condition" fields (or pickers) open up on the part pages for those records. Keep in mind that this doesn't really account for figures with obvious flaws while still sealed inside the package, so the part condition fields could become active on any choice for "condition". This would also handle the AFA subgrades...I think they assign a condition to the figure still sealed inside the box, as well.
So, if you get an a pretty decent, complete opened G1 Sandstorm, you would:
Look at the package...damn, a flap crease. Choose "Opened" for "status", which activates the "Package condition" text field. You enter (or pick) c6 (or whatever rating system we end up using).
Then you look at the parts...there's a slight bit of chrome wear on G1 Sandstorm, not too much, but it's noticeable.
You would enter/pick "c7" for Sandstorm on his part page.
The gun appears to be fine, so, on the part page for the gun, you would enter/pick "c9" for the gun.
The instruction booklet has a very slight crease, so on the part page for the booklet, you enter/pick "c7".
The label sheet looks great..."c9".
Crud, you don't have the tech specs decoder. Well, that would be taken care of of the "Parts Checklist" area of the blue bar when you entered it into your collection. If you ever end up getting one, add it to the parts checklist and then rate the condition on the its part page.
If you purchased a sealed ROTF Mindwipe, in an excellent condition box - sharp corners, no scuffs, no damage to the plastic, you'd choose "Sealed" for the status activates the "Packaging condition" field, enter a c9, and you're done. Again, if we see the need to assign a condition to the sealed figures/parts that can be seen inside, I suppose we could do that as well.
Whether or not a text field or a picker is used for condition...maybe a picker would be better...we could still keep the text field so we could perhaps enter the area of the damage, describe the damage, etc.
MIKE
engledogg
