A copy's history

This page explains the conceptual heart of KolleK: a copy shows its current state, while everything that ever happened to it lives in separate, dated records. Understand this once and the whole Tracking section becomes a set of obvious tasks.

Current state versus history

Look at one of Priya's watches. The copy tells you its current state at a glance: its condition is Used, its current location is the display case, its estimated value is what the last appraisal said.

None of that is typed in as a plain fact that overwrites the previous one. Each is the visible tip of a record underneath:

• The estimated value is her most recent valuation.
• The price she paid, and the date she acquired it, come from her earliest acquiring transaction.
• The current location is the open entry in its location history.

The copy is a summary. The records are the truth.

The record types

Seven kinds of dated records can hang off a copy, each with its own purpose and its own how to page:

• Transactions record money and ownership changes: what you paid, what you sold for, fees, shipping. See Record what you paid and what it is worth.
• Valuations record what the copy was worth at a point in time, and who said so. Same page as transactions, because the two are easy to confuse.
• Insurance records capture coverage: provider, insured value, policy dates. See Insure a copy.
• Loans track custody when a copy leaves your hands or arrives from someone else. See Lend and borrow copies.
• Maintenance records log cleaning, repair, and conservation work. See Record maintenance and repairs.
• Provenance events build the ownership and authenticity story. See Trace a copy's provenance.
• Location history remembers every place the copy has lived. See Move a copy.

You can also attach documents (receipts, appraisals, certificates) to the copy or to any individual record, and read everything merged together on the copy timeline.

The two rules that keep it coherent

Money only ever lives in transactions. A purchase price is a transaction. A sale is a transaction. Valuations and provenance events describe worth and story, never payment.

History is append only. Revaluing a copy writes a new valuation next to the old one. Renewing insurance writes a new record. Nothing overwrites the past, which is why the timeline can tell the whole story years later.

Do you need all of this?

No. Emma catalogues most comics with just a copy, a condition, and a location. The history records earn their keep on the pieces that matter: the valuable, the insured, the loaned, and the inherited. Use as much or as little as each copy deserves.

Where to next

• Start with the money in Record what you paid and what it is worth.
• See the whole story in one view in Read the copy timeline.
• Follow one prized piece end to end in the tutorial Track the full life of a valuable item.