Card Scanner
Updated . This page describes how the scanner works today. Plan prices and scan limits are the ones in the app, so if they ever move, the app is right and this page is behind.
Quick answer
This card scanner identifies a sports or trading card from a photo on your phone and shows what it sells for. Point the camera at the card and it reads the player or character, year, brand, set, card number, parallel and grade, pins it to one card out of the 16 million-plus we index, and shows real sold prices for the raw card and for PSA, BGS, SGC and CGC grades. It runs in your phone's browser, nothing to install, and a free account comes with 50 scans a month.
Free account, no credit card. The scanner needs camera access, which your browser asks for the first time.
What the scanner reads off a card
Most card scanner apps stop at the name. Ours reads the fields that actually move the price, because a base card and its numbered parallel can be the same player, same set, same photo and a very different number. From one photo it picks up:
- the player or character, year and brand,
- the set and card number,
- the parallel or finish (Silver, Gold, Refractor, holo, reverse holo and the rest),
- the grader and grade, when the card is in a slab,
- and a confidence read, so you know when to look twice.
When the match is wrong, and sometimes it is, you can change it. The result shows the card it picked and the other parallels in that set with a price on each, so fixing a Silver that got read as the base is one tap, not a search.
How it works
- Open hobbycardindex.com on your phone and sign in. The free account doesn't ask for a card on file.
- Tap the scanner and point the camera at the card, slab or toploader. Fill the frame, keep it flat, and keep the glare off the surface.
- The scanner finds the card in the frame, reads it and pins it to a card in the catalog. It takes a couple of seconds.
- You get the price grid: raw, PSA 10, PSA 9, PSA 8, BGS 9.5, CGC 10 and SGC 10, with recent sold comps and the price history underneath.
- Add it to your collection or watchlist, or, on Dealer, straight into inventory. Every scan is kept on your Scanned Cards page either way.
What we have that other scanner apps don't
A catalog of 16 million-plus cards
Sports and TCG in one place, so the scanner has a real card to land on instead of a text guess it then has to price somehow.
Raw and graded prices on one screen
PSA, BGS, SGC and CGC next to the raw price, all from real sold prices rather than what sellers are asking.
Sold comps and history
Recent sales for the exact card, a price chart you can set from a month back to all time, and the sales volume behind it.
Slabs and cert numbers
Scan the slab, or type the cert, and the grader's own record comes along with the price for that grade.
25-plus categories
Baseball to UFC, Pokémon to One Piece. One scanner, one catalog, no switching apps for the TCG binder.
Population and gem rate
How many copies each grader has slabbed and how many came back a 10, on the card page where you need it.
Collection and portfolio
Scanned cards drop into a collection with a live total, gains and losses, and a CSV export whenever you want your data out.
Batch scanning for dealers
Around 100 cards at a time into inventory on the Dealer and Enterprise plans, which is how you work a show.
Sports card scanner
Sports is where most of the catalog lives, and it's where parallels do the most damage to a guess. A Topps Chrome base and its Refractor often sit close together on price; the Gold /50 doesn't. The scanner reads the parallel and the serial number when it can see them, and shows the sibling parallels in the set so you can confirm. Rookies, autos and numbered cards each carry their own real sold prices, raw and graded, so you can see the PSA 10 spread before you decide whether a card is worth sending in. On Pro, the Grading ROI tool takes that further and nets the fees out for you.
If you're coming from another scanner app, we wrote up the differences honestly: HCI vs CollX and HCI vs Ludex.
Trading card scanner for Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic and One Piece
The same scanner reads TCG cards. For Pokémon it reads the set symbol, the card number and the finish, since a reverse holo and the regular print of the same card don't sell for the same money. Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic: The Gathering, One Piece, Lorcana, Digimon and Dragon Ball cards are in the catalog too. There's a dedicated page for the Pokémon card scanner if that's what brought you here.
Three ways to check a card's price
| Method | What you get | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| eBay sold filter | Real sales, but you sort out grades, parallels, reprints and lots by hand, and it only looks back about three months. | Free. A few minutes a card if you're careful. |
| Price guide sites | One number per card, often a blended guide price. Graded prices and history are frequently behind a paywall. | Free to a monthly fee. Typing, one card at a time. |
| HobbyCardIndex scanner | The exact card from a photo, raw and graded prices from real sold prices, sold comps, history and pop data. | Free account with 50 scans a month, then from $8.99. |
If you'd rather type than scan, the card price checker searches the same catalog.
Plans and scan limits
| Plan | Price | Scans a month | What else you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 50 | 25-card collection, 10-card watchlist, 3 price alerts, no credit card. |
| Pro | $8.99 a month | 5,000 | Unlimited collection, Grading ROI, full Market Movers, Collector's Workbench. |
| Dealer | $24.99 a month | 15,000 | Batch scanning (around 100 at a time), full Dealer Mode, inventory and eBay listing tools. |
| Enterprise | $49.99 a month | 30,000 | REST API and keys, bulk price files, 10 team seats. |
Yearly billing is roughly 15% off. You can cancel anytime.
A document scanner is a different tool
Some people typing "card scanner" mean hardware, the Ricoh and Epson kind that turns a stack of cards into images. That's a different job. A machine like that produces pictures; it doesn't tell you what the card is or what it's worth. If you need clean images of a few thousand cards for listings, read our buyer's guide to card scanners and the bulk scanning setup guide. If you want to know what a card is and what it sells for, that's this page.
Building something of your own? The price and sales data behind the scanner is on the developer API.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free card scanner app?
Yes. The HobbyCardIndex scanner is free to use with a free account, no credit card, and the free tier includes 50 scans a month. It runs in your phone's browser rather than an app store download, so there's nothing to install. Paid plans start at $8.99 a month if you scan more than that.
How accurate is a card scanner app?
It depends on the photo more than anything. A sharp, straight shot of the whole card in decent light usually lands on the exact card, while glare, a tilted angle or a cropped corner cause most misses. Parallels are the hardest part, so every result shows the match it picked and lets you correct it.
Does the card scanner work on graded slabs?
Yes. Scan a PSA, BGS, SGC or CGC slab the same way you'd scan a raw card and the scanner reads the card inside the holder, with room left for the label so the grade comes through. You can also type the cert number and pull the grader's record, within each grader's daily lookup cap.
What kinds of cards can it scan?
Sports cards across baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, golf, racing, UFC, boxing and wrestling, plus the trading card games: Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic: The Gathering, One Piece, Lorcana, Digimon and Dragon Ball. That's 25-plus categories in all, every one of them pinned to the same catalog of more than 16 million cards with real sold prices.
Do I need to download an app?
No. The scanner runs in the browser on your phone, so you open hobbycardindex.com, sign in and tap the scanner. It asks for camera permission the first time, the same way any website does. That also means it works on both iPhone and Android, and the scan history syncs to your account on a laptop.
Can I scan a lot of cards at once?
On the Dealer and Enterprise plans, yes. Batch scanning takes up to around 100 cards in one go, identifies each one and pushes them straight into inventory, the way dealers work a show. On Free and Pro you scan one card at a time, and every scan is saved to your Scanned Cards page.
Does the scanner tell me what the card is worth?
Yes. Once the card is matched you see the real sold price for the raw card and for each grade we track, PSA 10, 9 and 8, BGS 9.5, CGC 10 and SGC 10, plus recent sold comps and a price history chart. Add it to your collection and the portfolio value updates with it.