The Ultimate Guide To Digitizing Your Trading Cards

Most trading card collectors try to keep physical cards in the best condition possible. Protective sleeves or pocket pages are popular choices for limiting direct contact or environmental exposure. Digitizing your collection with a trading card scanner lets you reference any cards you own without risking damage to the original articles. Learn more about the benefits of digitizing your trading card card collection.

Avoid Damaging Your Cards

The condition of collectible cards is important for preserving value. Handling cards directly can transfer oils from skin that degrade designs. Other physical damage risks include bending, ripping, wear on edges, liquid damage or fading due to environmental exposure.

Trading cards can end up being worth hundreds, thousands or even millions of dollars. The most valuable cards from collectible card games have sold for up to $5 million, while rare historical baseball cards have surpassed $10 million at auction. Digitizing cards and accessing digital copies rather than originals is the best way to preserve the condition of collectible cards.

Better Organization

The process of filing or reorganizing physical cards can increase the risk of damaging, misplacing or losing cards. As you digitize cards, you can tag image files to make it easier to sort and search through your collection and even optimize the organization of physical card storage with minimal risk.

You may prefer to proceed through digitization based on your original method of organization. You can use a legal scanner designed for oversized documents, a flatbed scanner or a contactless model to capture multiple cards in the same categories at the same time. These devices can speed up the digitization process by scanning many cards at once.

Capture the Design and Condition

A quick low-resolution scan of a trading card will only capture the design. Whether you are digitizing your collection for personal reference or potential sale, you might prefer to capture cards at higher resolutions, such as 300 dots per inch or 600 dpi. 

High-resolution scans can accurately represent the physical condition of cards. Any blemishes that could affect the resale value of a card will be visible on detailed scans. Quality captures are useful for making accurate assessments of value without running the risk of causing any further damage to physical cards.

The Best Scanners for Cards

Whether you are shopping for new or refurbished scanners, you should consider how you prefer to scan cards. You can use a scanner with an automatic document feeder to quickly scan individual cards or pocket pages. While many ADF models have safety features to prevent jams, using a contactless or flatbed scanner can further reduce the risk of damage to any cards.

The right scanner can make it easy for you to digitize your card collection. Once you capture and process card images, you can save image files to physical or cloud storage and organize your digital collection to allow for quick reference. Digitizing your trading cards makes it possible for you to examine or share cards while preserving the condition of these collectibles.

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