General Forum

Looking for reccomendations on the best kind of scanner to use on my cards.  I have a basic printer/copier/scanner (HP Envy), but I find it does a terrible job at picking up on foil colours and other subtleties, and the cards seem out of focus / pixelated as well.  I'd like to contribute more scans, but I'm hesitating at this point.

Looking for something that connects wirelessly.  Thanks

Ive looked into auto-feed scanners, but the only ones Im finding are kinda expensive to me. To me flatbed scanners are best for slabbed cards, but the bulk of mine arent slabbed and havent even thought about scanning everything until I get a better scanner. There are several vids on youtube comparing diff types, but to me are a bit pricey. Brother ADS2700 is highly rated by 3rd parties and seen it mentioned by several diff card site, but its 489.(wireless)

I've been using a Canon MG6820 for the last few years. Works well but I think I'm burning it out now. But it does work wirelessly and was awesome for these few years after I bought it. It also only cost me about $50 brand new. Check out a newer model of the same thing and I'm sure you'll get your money's worth out of it. Otherwise, go the expensive route and hope the product lasts way longer to make it worth your money over the time it is useful. My Canon MG outlasted the laptop that I bought 2 months after it and works just as well with my current laptop. I'm going to say that an All-in-One Printer/Scanner at $50 will get you 3-4 years of use and I used it A LOT!

You have a Contact Image Sensors (CIS) scanner. In simple terms, only objects in direct contact with the scanner bed are in focus. The best are Charge-Coupled Devices (CCD) scanners. They focus on the object even if it's not in direct contact with the bed, i.e., slabbed cards.

Here's a card scanned with a CCD scanner. I used bottle caps to raise it 1/2 inch off the scanner bed.

I use an Epsom WP250. It's done well. It's also good to have a good photo editing software. I use photoscape. Check out the FAQ there are some good tutorials for getting good results scanning your cards

Thanks a bunch for the recommendations, that's a good place for me to start!

And to C2Cigars for the CIS / CCD difference, I had no idea!

I seen this post from early this year, and thought it would be a good one to bring back.  I will be looking to get a new scanner and wanted to see what other members are using.  What brands are the best and what brands to stay away from? I plan to look at the Charge-Coupled Devices (CCD) since that seems like the best opition.

Thanks,

If it's specifically foil cards that are the issue I've started using a cheap "overhead" scanner that I bought off Amazon. (It's by a company called Kinghun. The software was a bit of a pain to download as it's language is defaultt Chinese.)

I've blogged about it here https://point394.blogspot.com/2020/12/adventures-in-scanning-new-hardware.html

It's a little bit tricky lining the cards up to get them straight (although you can see them 'live' on the screen while moving them aorund so if you have a crop zone you can line it up perfectly. It also works better in natural daylight. There are built in LEDs but they reflect off the cards so I don't use them. 

It's not wireless but it is portable and just plugs in using USB ports. It doesn't need an external power supply. It powers up via the USB.

Epson 550 or 600.  Fantastic scans and can do pics, slides, etc.  Around $300.

Yeah, as much as I'd like to contribute wherever I can, not dropping that much to scan. Forever a L6