Built by a collector, for collectors.
iOS developer and Pokemon TCG collector. Built the Pokemon Card Scanner app and the reference content at pokemoncardscanner.app.
I'm Damien — the developer and collector behind the Pokemon Card Scanner app and this site. I started building the app in 2024 because every existing card-pricing tool was either riddled with ads, locked behind a paywall, or hostile to casual collectors who just wanted to know what their childhood Charizard was worth.
Today the app helps over a thousand collectors per day identify their cards by camera scan and check live market prices. It's free, no signup, and has stayed that way on purpose.
The reference content on this site — the condition guide, the PSA vs CGC vs BGS comparison, the spot-fake-cards tests — exists because the same questions came up over and over in App Store reviews and support emails. Rather than answer them one at a time, I wrote them up properly. Everything here is the answer I'd give a friend who pulled a card out of a binder and asked "is this worth anything?"
If something on the site is wrong or could be clearer, I want to know. Email me directly — the address is below.
What this site does
- Free Pokemon card identification + pricing. The iOS app uses on-device image recognition to identify any Pokemon TCG card from a photo, then surfaces live TCGPlayer and CardMarket prices.
- Every printing of every Pokemon. Hub pages for all 1025 Pokemon listing every TCG card across every set ever released.
- Long-form reference content. Condition guide, PSA vs CGC vs BGS comparison, counterfeit detection tests, and ranked lists of the most valuable cards by Pokemon.
- No signup, no paywall, no ads. The app is free on the App Store. The website never asks for an email. Pricing data is sourced from public retail markets, not behind an account wall.
How the content gets produced
A short set of principles that apply across every reference page on this site.
- Pricing comes from live retail markets.
- All market prices on card detail pages and rankings refresh daily from TCGPlayer (US) and CardMarket (EU). Graded values (PSA, CGC) are sourced from the same exchanges where graded slabs trade. We don't make pricing up, don't manually 'curate' it, and don't run promotional pricing.
- We acknowledge what we don't have.
- A handful of the most valuable Pokemon cards ever sold — Pikachu Illustrator, Tropical Mega Battle trophies, prerelease promos — aren't in the mainstream pricing catalogs. The most-valuable ranking pages name those cards explicitly so collectors aren't misled into thinking the #1 in our list is the #1 globally.
- Reference guides are written by a collector, not generated.
- The condition guide, PSA vs CGC vs BGS comparison, fake-card tests, and the storage / shipping / investment guides are written by me from years of collecting and grading. They reflect what I'd actually tell a friend — including the parts that don't help me sell anything.
- Affiliation disclosure.
- Pokemon Card Scanner is an independent third-party tool. We're not affiliated with The Pokemon Company, Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., TCGPlayer, CardMarket, PSA, CGC, BGS, or SGC. All card images and trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Get in touch
Wrong information on a page? Question the app can't answer? Press inquiry? Email is the fastest channel.