News: all updates for our software and apps
This is CLZ Alwin and I am afraid I have some bad news for all users of our comic cataloging tools today:
Our agreement with GoCollect has ended, so in today’s updates all GoCollect-related features have been removed:
- CLZ Comics 6.9 for iOS and Android (now live)
- Comic Connect (changes now live)
- Comic Collector 21.7 (coming up next week)
Which means no more automatic comic values when you add comics and no more daily updates for values.
We fully understand this is a shock and a disappointment for you all. Trust me, we are very disappointed too, maybe even more so than you are.
In any case, we sincerely apologize for this sudden loss of functionality.
But first, let me give you some more background on what happened:
Our agreement with GoCollect, and how it ended
In May 2019 we first got in contact with GoCollect (GC). At the time, they did not have an API for 3rd party access at all. So they quickly whipped up a temporary API for us and we came to the agreement that CLZ could use that API for free for 1 year, or at least until they had set up their real paid API and 3rd party data licensing agreement.
However, that new API and agreement did not materialize, not in 1 year, not in 2
years. Then in May 2021 GC promised us our new API and agreement would arrive early July 2021, after their new website was launched.
Sadly, nothing happened in July… or in August. No new GoCollect website, no new API, no new paid data agreement.
Then suddenly, starting Sept 23, the number of daily value updates dropped from a few hundred to just a handful. And obviously, we started to get lots of complaints from you all about not receiving value updates anymore.
We of course contacted GoCollect. They were not aware of any problems, but told us the lack of updates was “probably caused by their migration to the new website” and that they would look into it.
Then on Oct 5 GC told us to “let our users know that there may be service interruptions over the next several weeks as they migrated to their new platform.”
On Oct 13 their statement changed to:
“The time investment in making the old API work is going to mean a longer lag than us focusing on getting the new site launched and the new API established. The estimated timeline for our new API is approx 2-4 weeks and I look forward to discussing that partnership opportunity with CLZ next week.”
Finally on Oct 15, GoCollect dropped their bomb with us:
They had changed their mind and there was NOT going to be a new paid API for 3rd parties. They told us sorry, but we were welcome to use their upcoming free API when it becomes available… but without any ETA and without any details about what data the free API would contain.
So… we had to make a tough decision…
… wait for the free API, with no ETA and the likely chance that it would be too limited anyway…
Or bite the bullet and stop working with GoCollect completely.
After serious discussions and deliberations, we decided to go for the latter. We decided to remove all GoCollect functionality from our apps and software, resulting in the updates that were released today.
Q&A: some questions and their answers
Q: Will existing values be removed from my database?
A: No, they will not. All values that were previously downloaded will remain in your database.
Q: What will happen to all the value related fields?
A:All value related fields (like Value, Grade, Grading Company, Slabbed vs Raw, Grader Notes) will stay. They are still an important part of the app.
Q: If I do not download today’s updates, will my GoCollect features keep working?
A: No, that won’t make a difference, all GoCollect value downloading has also been disabled on our Core server side.
Q: Are you looking for a different 3rd party value provider to replace GoCollect?
A: Yes, we are. No promises and no ETA though. It takes a lot of time to find a partner, set up a collaboration, negotiate an agreement, implement the API, link up their entries with our entries, etc…
Again, we are very sorry to have to bring you this bad news today.
Thanks for your understanding!