TCG Value Scanner is designed to give collectors a practical starting point. It combines card identity data, available pricing records and AI-assisted image analysis. None of those inputs can guarantee the price or professional grade of the physical card in your hand.
1. Identifying the exact printing
Value begins with identity. We use the visible card name or player, game or sport, year, set or brand, card or collector number and, when available, edition, rarity, language, finish, parallel or other variant. A card with the same character or player but a different set, number, artwork or treatment can have a very different estimate.
The app uses computer vision to suggest a likely match. The public page then shows the identifiers associated with that record. You should compare those identifiers with the physical card before relying on the value. If important details are hidden, unreadable or missing from our record, scan again in better light or treat the match as uncertain.
2. Market-estimate pages
Pages labeled Card value guide use pricing records available to the service from third-party market-data providers and retained in our database. A displayed value is the latest available estimate for that particular record and grade label. It is not necessarily a live listing, a confirmed completed transaction or the amount a buyer will pay for your copy.
Some records include a count of recent sales supplied with the source snapshot. That count is context, not a guarantee of liquidity or statistical confidence. A missing count does not mean there were no sales. Price-history charts show stored estimate snapshots over time; they are not a ledger of individual transactions.
3. Rough AI scan-estimate pages
Some trading card games do not yet have the same market-data coverage. Those pages are explicitly labeled Rough AI scan estimate. Their displayed range summarizes AI-produced value ranges attached to completed app scans that matched the page's card identity.
When shown, the sample count means matching completed scans in our available data. It does not mean that many verified sales, distinct owners or independently authenticated cards. The low, median and high values describe the stored scan estimates only. They can be narrow because the sample is small or because similar estimates were repeated; they should not be read as a market bid.
4. Freshness and update dates
A card page may show “Updated,” “Last observed” or “Last matching scan.” That date tells you when the underlying record or matching scan was last available to the page. It does not promise a fixed refresh schedule or real-time pricing. Markets can move after that date, and older or thinly traded cards may change less frequently in our data.
For a buying, selling, trading or insurance decision, compare the page with recent completed transactions and current listings from relevant marketplaces. Pay particular attention to the same set, number, variant, language and condition.
5. Raw and graded value labels
“Raw” generally refers to an ungraded copy. Labels such as PSA, BGS, CGC, SGC or TAG identify the grade category attached to a market-data record. Showing one of those labels does not mean the card pictured on the page has been graded or authenticated by that company.
Low sales volume, unusual variants and different grading populations can produce non-linear values, so a lower numerical grade is not guaranteed to have a lower recorded estimate in every snapshot. Use the table as comparative context rather than a grading promise.
6. AI-assisted condition assessment
The app can assess visible centering, corners, edges and surface from submitted photographs. The result is an AI-generated condition estimate. Lighting, focus, sleeves, glare, camera angle, hidden damage and image compression can change the outcome. The assessment is not an in-person inspection, professional appraisal or guarantee of the grade that PSA, BGS, CGC or another grading company might assign.
A TCG Value Scanner certificate records the result produced by our service and can be checked on the certificate verification page. Verification confirms that the certificate record exists in our system; it does not convert the result into third-party authentication.
7. Card photos
Card pages may use a catalog image supplied with an available card-data record or, when one is unavailable, a reprocessed copy of a community-submitted scan. Community photos are labeled and are used for identification only. We remove embedded metadata and do not attach the public copy to an account, device or scan identifier, but the visible photograph may still include the card's surroundings.
To request removal of a community photo, email [email protected] with the public page URL. More detail is available in the Privacy Policy.
8. Corrections
If a page has the wrong card identity, image, year, set, number, variant or other visible detail, send the page URL and a short explanation to [email protected]. A clear photograph of the identifying area can help us investigate. We may revise or remove a record when the available evidence does not support it.
9. What an estimate is not
All values are approximate and may be incomplete, inaccurate or out of date. They are not guaranteed sale prices, offers to buy, professional appraisals, authentication results, investment recommendations or financial advice. The owner of a card remains responsible for confirming its identity and condition and for independently evaluating any transaction.