Buylist Scanner: open models that price a Pokémon collection at the shop counter, without a single photo leaving the store

Description and use

Buylist Scanner enables small TCG shops to quickly and accurately price Pokémon card collections using local models and open price sources, without sending photos to the cloud.

Problem

Small TCG shops manually price each card in a collection, leading to long times, inconsistent offers, and potential loss of sales.

Outcome

In real‑world tests, the scanner processed 84 cards from 40 photos in 1.6 s median per photo, produced 12 buy sessions, and was well received by two stores at an expo, generating interest for trials.

Workflow

• Employee takes a photo of one card or a binder page with a phone.
• The shop PC crops the photo into 1–9 cards.
• Image search (DINOv2 + FAISS) identifies each card against a 20,448‑card catalog.
• OCR extracts set code, collector number, and language to distinguish reprints and flag Spanish/Japanese cards.
• The system looks up TCGplayer market prices via TCGdex (cached daily) and applies Banxico exchange rate.
• Offers are calculated using shop condition factors (85% cash, 90% credit).
• The phone shows a summary with totals and exchange rate date, and exports to CSV for inventory.

Evidence

Someone walks into a small TCG shop in Mexicali with a shoebox of Pokémon cards and asks: how much will you give me?

Source

Buylist Scanner turns that into a few photos: The employee photographs one card or a whole 9-pocket binder page with their phone.

Source

The shop's PC finds each card, straightens it, and identifies it against the English catalog: 20,448 cards.

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It looks up the TCGplayer market price, converts it at Banxico's official rate for the day, and applies the shop's condition factors: 85% in cash, 90% in store credit.

Source

From the evening of October 14 to midday on the 15th, I used it on real cards from a phone: 40 phone photos, 84 card identifications, median 1.6 s per photo.

Source

The phone shows a customer summary with every card's offer, the totals, and the exchange rate with its date. It exports to CSV for inventory.

Source