A TCG Card Scanner Machine in Your Pocket
Scan a whole page of trading cards with one phone photo. Every card comes out straight, flat and cropped. Free, and nothing uploads.
Need to know what a card is or what it's worth? That's CardIQ, our trading card scanner app.
Drop card photos here
One card or a whole page of them. Phone photos, screenshots and flatbed scans all work.
You can also paste an image with Ctrl+V.
- Plain, contrasting background
- A small gap around each card
- Shoot from straight above
0 cards
Tap a card to fine-tune its corners, rotate it, inspect the surface and edges, or check centering. Select two cards (front, then back) to build listing photos.
Your phone vs. a card scanner machine
A trading card scanner machine, like an auto-feed scanner or a scan-and-sort robot, pulls cards through one by one and saves an image of each. This tool does the imaging part with the phone you already have: lay out a page of cards, take one photo, and every card comes out as its own straight, cropped scan.
| Card scanner machine | This tool | |
|---|---|---|
| Straight, cropped scan of every card | Yes | Yes |
| Many cards at once | Yes, through a feeder | Yes, a page per photo |
| Even, glare-free light | Built in | Depends on your light |
| Hands-off feeding and sorting | Yes | No |
| Cost | A hardware purchase | Free |
Set your phone on a stand or a 3D-printed phone tower and you can work through a stack fast. To identify cards and check their value, use CardIQ.
How to scan trading cards with your phone
- Lay the card flat on a plain surface that contrasts with its border, like a mouse pad, desk mat or sheet of paper.
- Shoot from straight above in soft, even light. A window works well. Direct sun and flash cause glare, and zooming to 2x from a little farther back keeps the edges straight and sharp.
- Drop the photo here. The scanner finds the card's edges, flattens the angle and crops it to exact 2.5 by 3.5 inch proportions.
- Save it as a PNG with clean rounded corners, or as a smaller JPG.
It works the same on iPhone and Android, and with photos already in your camera roll. For the cleanest scan, take the card out of its sleeve first. If an edge was hard to see, tap the card and drag its corners into place.
How to scan multiple cards at once
Lay out up to a full page of cards with about a quarter inch between them, take one photo or run one flatbed scan, and the scanner splits it into one straight image per card, numbered in reading order.
On a phone, "Save all" sends every card to your photos at once. On a computer, they download together as a ZIP. It's the fastest way to scan a stack of cards for an inventory, a collection tracker or a big eBay lot.
Best scanner settings for trading cards
Have a flatbed scanner or an all-in-one printer? Scan the whole glass at once and let this tool find and crop each card.
| Use | Resolution |
|---|---|
| 300 DPI | Online listings and sharing750 × 1050 px per card |
| 600 DPI | Zoomable listings and archiving1500 × 2100 px per card |
Scan in color, switch off the scanner's own auto-crop and photo "enhance" options, and lay a sheet of black paper over the cards before closing the lid, so white borders don't disappear into the white lid.
How to take pictures of trading cards for eBay
Buyers want the front, the back and a close look at the corners. Select a front and a back and the scanner builds the whole set:
- A square front-and-back main photo at 1600 × 1600 pixels, the size eBay recommends so buyers can zoom
- Close-ups of all four corners, cut from your original photo at full detail
- A 4:5 share image for Reddit, Discord and Instagram
The marketplace photos carry no logo or text, so they work on Whatnot, Mercari and Facebook groups too.
Best background for card photos
| Card border | Shoot it on |
|---|---|
| White, silver | Dark felt, a mouse pad or black paper |
| Yellow, colored | Dark or mid-grayMost Pokémon cards |
| Black | White paper or a light deskMagic, Yu-Gi-Oh! and other black borders |
| Borderless, full art | Any plain color the art doesn't use |
Wood grain and printed playmats work too, but a plain surface gives the most exact edges.
Check centering before you grade
Every card you scan gets an automatic front centering estimate, color-coded by PSA range. Sort a stack by "Best centered first" to see which cards are worth sending to PSA, BGS or CGC, then open any card in the card centering calculator with one tap for an exact measurement.
Two inspection lenses help with the rest of the grade. Surface exaggerates fine texture so scratches, print lines and dents stand out, and Edges flags possible whitening along dark and colored borders.
Scan Pokémon, sports cards and every other TCG
It works with Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece, Disney Lorcana, Dragon Ball and Digimon cards, plus baseball, basketball, football, soccer and hockey cards.
Standard cards come out at exact 2.5 by 3.5 inch (63 × 88 mm) proportions. Yu-Gi-Oh! and other small cards (59 × 86 mm) have their own size setting, and Match photo keeps the real shape of toploaders, one-touch holders and graded slabs.
Free, private, no app
The scanner runs in your browser on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and Chromebook. Finding the card, straightening it and saving the files all happen on your device, so your photos are never uploaded, stored or seen by anyone.
No account, no watermark on your card images and no limit on how many cards you scan.
Card scanning questions, answered
For an exact centering measurement, use the card centering calculator. To identify a card or check its value, use CardIQ.
Is this card scanner free?
Yes. There is no account, no watermark on your card images and no limit on how many cards you scan.
Do I need a scanner to scan my cards?
No. Your phone camera is enough: the tool straightens and crops the photo the way a flatbed scan comes out. A flatbed's built-in light is still better at avoiding glare, so shoot in soft, even light. If you do have a flatbed, it works with those scans too and splits a whole page of cards in one go.
How do I scan multiple cards at once?
Lay the cards out on a plain background with about a quarter inch between them, take one photo or run one flatbed scan, and drop it here. Each card comes out as its own straight image, numbered in reading order.
What DPI should I scan trading cards at?
300 DPI is plenty for online listings and sharing. Use 600 DPI if you want buyers to zoom in or you're archiving a collection. This tool outputs up to 1500 × 2100 pixels per card, which is 600 DPI for a standard card.
What size is a trading card in pixels?
A standard 2.5 × 3.5 inch (63 × 88 mm) card is 750 × 1050 pixels at 300 DPI and 1500 × 2100 pixels at 600 DPI. Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, One Piece, Lorcana and sports cards all use that size. Yu-Gi-Oh! cards are smaller, at 59 × 86 mm.
Does it work on iPhone and Android?
Yes. It runs in Safari, Chrome and any modern browser, so there's nothing to install. On a phone you can take the photo right from the page.
Are the photos good enough for eBay?
Yes. The main listing image is 1600 × 1600 pixels, the size eBay recommends so buyers can zoom, and the marketplace images carry no logo or text. They're your photos to use on eBay, Whatnot, Mercari or anywhere else.
Can I scan cards in sleeves, toploaders or graded slabs?
Yes. Sleeves and toploaders can add glare, so shoot them in soft, even light, or take the card out for the cleanest scan. For toploaders, one-touch holders and graded slabs, choose Match photo as the size so the image keeps the holder's real shape.
Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
No. Detection, straightening and every export happen in your browser on your own device. Your photos never leave it.
Does it identify the card or tell me what it's worth?
No. This tool makes the image. The CardIQ app for iPhone identifies the card, estimates its grade and shows live market value, and you can try it free.
How accurate is the centering estimate?
It measures the printed frame automatically and only shows a number when it finds a clean frame edge on all four sides. For an exact reading, open the card in the free centering calculator.
A clean scan shows the card. CardIQ tells you what it's worth.
The CardIQ app identifies any TCG or sports card, estimates its PSA grade, pulls live market value and tells you whether grading it actually pays. Free to try on iPhone and iPad.