There are three ways to scan trading cards for eBay: your phone, a flatbed scanner or a sheet-fed document scanner. This guide covers when each makes sense, then walks through the document scanner method step by step: prepping cards, settings, batch scanning fronts and backs, naming files, and getting the images into listings one at a time or in bulk. It ends with the image mistakes that cost sales or bring returns.

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Your options for scanning cards

Phone and eBay’s card scanning

The eBay app can scan a card with your camera. In the app, go to My eBay and tap “Scan cards.” eBay’s Price Guide page says it works best for sports cards and the big trading card games (Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece and Disney Lorcana), handles raw and graded cards, and lets you “start a listing draft directly from the scan.” It’s free, US only and app only.

CollX does similar identification and pricing, with its own marketplace for selling. A phone is fine for a handful of cards. It gets slow at volume, because you handle every card twice and fight glare on every glossy card.

Flatbed scanner

A flatbed like the Canon CanoScan LiDE 300 never moves the card, so it’s the safe choice for slabs, toploaders and cards you might grade. One of our guest sellers scans “40-50 cards in a 15-minute time frame” on one (Card Dealer Pro review). That’s a few hundred cards a month comfortably, but not thousands.

Sheet-fed document scanner

A document scanner like the Ricoh (Fujitsu) fi-8170 feeds a stack of raw cards and scans both sides of each in one pass. Our other guest seller, on an older Fujitsu fi-7030, scanned “a few hundred cards in a fifteen minute timeframe.” It can’t take slabs or toploaders, and its rollers touch every card. To compare models, see our best scanner for sports cards guide.

How to scan trading cards with a document scanner, step by step

1. Prep the cards

• Sort. Group cards by set or product before scanning. Each batch then has one card stock and one scanner profile, and your listings come out grouped.
• Pull what shouldn’t go through the feeder: slabs, cards in toploaders, thick patches and relics, anything you might send for grading, and fragile vintage. Those go on a flatbed. Check card thickness against our toploader sizes guide if you’re unsure.
• Unsleeve, or test sleeves first. Raw cards feed most reliably. Penny sleeves can catch, fold and add glare.
• Clean carefully. Tap off dust and pack debris, which otherwise ends up on the rollers and in your scans. A dry microfiber cloth is the most you should use on a card. Our guide to preparing cards for grading covers what not to clean.
• Clean the scanner too. Ricoh’s guide warns that “Vertical streaks may appear on images if the glass section is dirty,” so wipe the glass and rollers before a big batch.

2. Set up the scanner

Start with these:

• Duplex (both sides)
• 24-bit color
• 300 DPI for bulk base, 600 DPI for hits and anything a buyer will zoom on
• Automatic crop and deskew on
• Blank page detection off, or plain card backs get dropped and every front pairs with the wrong back
• Multifeed (double-feed) detection on

For a full walkthrough, see the fi-8170 settings for cards in our scanner guide. The same settings apply to other scanners that use Ricoh’s PaperStream IP driver.

3. Batch scan fronts and backs

1. Close the paper guides snugly to the card width. Loose guides cause skew.
2. Load a short stack, all cards facing the same way. Ricoh’s fi-8170 guide recommends placing plastic cards face down; check your own scanner’s manual.
3. Scan. The scanner outputs front, back, front, back.
4. As each batch finishes, stack the cards in output order and band them. The card order in the stack must match the file order.
5. Check the last pair in each batch. If the final front and back don’t match, a card was skipped or double-fed somewhere, and every pair after it is off.

eBay image requirements for card listings

Size and number of photos

From eBay’s photo help page, checked October 2026:

• Minimum 500 pixels on the longest side; eBay suggests about 1600 x 1600 for the best results
• Up to 24 photos per listing, each up to 12MB
• JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, WEBP, HEIC or AVIF

A standard card at 300 DPI is 750 x 1050 pixels, and at 600 DPI it’s 1500 x 2100. Both clear the minimum. Use 600 DPI where buyers will zoom.

What eBay doesn’t allow

eBay’s picture policy bans added borders, added text or artwork, watermarks of any kind, and stock photos for used items. A used card needs a photo of the actual card. A dark scanner background isn’t a border, but don’t add a frame or your store logo afterward.

eBay’s own tips for trading cards are a white backdrop, no flash and soft, diffused light, and showing the front, the back, any significant flaws and any grading label.

Show corners and surface honestly

Buyers grade your card from your photos. Give them what they need:

• Front and back, always. Back condition matters, and a missing back photo looks like you’re hiding something.
• The full card in frame. Every corner and edge visible, nothing cropped.
• Close-ups of flaws. If there’s a ding, crease or print line, add a close-up and say so in the description.
• An angled photo for surface. Scans flatten the surface. For cards worth more than a few dollars, add a phone photo at an angle to a light so scratches and dents show.
• Slabs: label and both sides. Photograph the actual slab with the cert number readable.

Naming and organizing files for bulk listing

Set this up before your first batch, not after.

• Folders: one per batch, named by date, batch number and contents.
• File names: date, batch, card number, side. For example 2026-10-04_b01_0001_F.jpg and 2026-10-04_b01_0001_B.jpg. Sorted by name, each front sits directly above its back. Ricoh’s PaperStream Capture can add the F and B for you.
• Tie files to cards: card 0047 in the folder is card 47 in the banded stack, so when it sells you know exactly where it is.
• Consignment: put the consignor’s name in the folder name so their cards never mix with yours.

Scans/
  2026-10-04_b01_2025-topps-s1-base/
  2026-10-04_b02_2025-prizm-hits/

Uploading and matching images to listings

One listing at a time

In the listing form, upload the front first. eBay calls the first picture the main photo, and it’s the one shown next to your title in search results. Then add the back and any close-ups. You can drag photos into a different order after uploading.

In bulk

• Listing software. Tools like Card Dealer Pro import the scans, match each card to a database, and build titles, item specifics and prices for you to review before listing to eBay. Read our Card Dealer Pro review for two sellers’ experience with it.
• eBay’s photo tool. In Seller Hub, Listings, Create listings, “Multiple listings from photos” turns a batch of photos into draft listings, and eBay says it handles hundreds of photos per batch. Check every draft before it goes live.
• Seller Hub Reports upload templates. These CSV templates have an “Item photo URL” column, so the images need to be hosted online first. If you upload a drafts template instead, eBay lets you add photos from your computer to each draft afterward.

Whichever route you use, spot-check a sample of listings before they go live. One shifted pair in a batch means every later listing shows the wrong back.

After the sale

Pull the card from its banded batch, compare it with the listing photos, and ship. A thermal label printer like the Rollo Wireless prints 4×6 shipping labels with no ink. For raw cards under $20 in plain envelopes, see our guide to eBay Standard Envelope tracking.

Mistakes that hurt sales or cause returns

• Glare. Chrome, refractors and holos reflect light. A glare streak can hide a scratch, and a buyer who finds that scratch will send the card back. Scanners avoid room glare, but for high-value glossy cards add an angled photo.
• Crops that hide flaws. A tight crop that cuts off a corner looks like you’re hiding the corner. Leave a small margin around every card.
• Color shifts. Glossy cards often scan darker than they look in hand. A parallel that looks like the wrong color can bring an “item not as described” return. Compare a few scans with the cards in daylight and adjust brightness for that stock.
• Mismatched fronts and backs. One dropped scan shifts every pair after it. Count the files in each batch folder and check the last pair.
• Stock images. eBay doesn’t allow a stock photo for a used item, and buyers can’t judge condition from one. Use your scans.
• Pricing from the photo, not the comps. A great scan doesn’t change what the card is worth. Check comps before pricing.

Scaling up: when to move from phone to scanner

Move to a scanner when photographing cards is what holds back your listing, not finding or pricing them. A rough guide:

• Fewer than 50 cards a month: your phone, or eBay’s card scanning.
• 50 to a few hundred: a flatbed, especially if you sell slabs.
• Several hundred and up: a sheet-fed document scanner plus a flatbed for slabs, ideally with listing software.

To choose a machine, see the best scanner for sports cards. If you’ve settled on a sheet feeder, our Ricoh fi-8170 card scanner guide covers setup, settings and bundles.

FAQ

How do I scan cards on eBay?

In the eBay app, go to My eBay and tap “Scan cards,” then point your camera at the card. eBay identifies it, shows recent sales, and can start a listing draft from the scan for you to check. For more than a few cards, a document scanner and bulk listing is faster.

Does eBay have a card scanner?

Yes, in the app. The card scanning in eBay’s Price Guide covers sports cards and the major trading card games, raw or graded. It’s free, works only in the app, and is US only.

What is the best way to scan trading cards?

For a few cards, your phone. For slabs and high-end raw cards, a flatbed. For hundreds of raw cards, a sheet-fed document scanner. Our best scanner for sports cards guide compares the options.

What DPI should I scan trading cards at for eBay?

300 DPI for bulk base cards and 600 DPI for anything a buyer will zoom on. eBay’s minimum is 500 pixels on the longest side, and a card at 300 DPI is already 1050 pixels tall.

Should I scan cards in penny sleeves?

Raw is better if the card is safe out of the sleeve: it feeds more reliably and avoids glare. Test a few sleeved cards before scanning a full batch that way.

How do I scan both sides of a card at once?

Use a duplex document scanner, which captures front and back in one pass. On a flatbed or phone, scan the front, flip the card and scan the back.

Can I scan graded cards?

Yes, on a flatbed or with a phone, not a sheet feeder. Place the slab face down, cover it with a dark cloth to cut reflections, and make sure the cert number is readable.

How do I scan cards in bulk?

Sort by set, load a sheet-fed scanner with a short stack, scan duplex into a dated batch folder, keep the physical stack in scan order, then import the folder into listing software or eBay’s “Multiple listings from photos” tool.

The post How to Scan Trading Cards for eBay Listings appeared first on Rorz Cards.

The best scanner for sports cards depends on how many cards you list and what kind. A bulk eBay seller feeding thousands of base cards a month needs a sheet-fed document scanner. A seller of slabs and high-end raw cards needs a flatbed that never touches the card. Plenty of serious sellers end up with one of each.

These picks are based on the manufacturers’ published specs, Card Dealer Pro’s list of supported scanners, and two guest sellers’ experience from our Card Dealer Pro review. We haven’t run our own side-by-side test of these machines yet. When we do, we’ll add the results here.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Scanner links on this page are affiliate links.

Quick picks: best scanner for sports cards

Scanner vs app: when hardware beats CollX-style apps

Most people searching for a “card scanner” want an app. CollX and the card scanning in the eBay app identify a card from a phone photo and show what it’s worth. eBay’s version lives in My eBay under “Scan cards,” costs nothing, and can start a listing draft from the scan. For checking a few cards, or a collection you’re deciding whether to sell, an app is the right tool.

Hardware wins when the job is producing listing images at volume:

• Throughput. A sheet feeder runs while you do something else. One of our guest sellers reported scanning “a few hundred cards in a fifteen minute timeframe” on a Fujitsu fi-7030, refilling the tray as it ran. A phone means handling every card twice, once per side.
• Fronts and backs together. Duplex scanners capture both sides in one pass, already paired.
• Consistent images. The same light, angle and background for every card, with no desk-lamp glare.
• Listing software. Tools like Card Dealer Pro take scanner images, match them to a card database and build eBay listings in bulk.

Stick with an app if you list fewer than a few dozen cards a month, mostly sell slabs, or are only looking up values. For the full phone-vs-scanner workflow, see how to scan trading cards for eBay.

What matters in a trading card scanner

Card thickness

Card thickness is measured in points (1 pt = 0.001 in). Standard paper cards fit a 35pt toploader, chrome stock 55pt, and patch cards 100pt and up, as our toploader sizes guide covers. Ricoh doesn’t publish trading-card limits, but its plastic-card limits are the closest guide:

Trading cards are card stock, not PVC, so treat these as a guide. Toploaders and slabs go on a flatbed whatever the feeder.

Duplex

Duplex means both sides scanned in one pass. All three sheet feeders here do it. Flatbeds don’t, so you flip each card and scan again.

Background and cropping

Auto-crop needs contrast between the card edge and what’s behind it. The fi-8170’s background can be switched between white and black, and black crops white-bordered cards cleanly and shows corner wear. The fi-8040’s background is white only.

Color

Glossy chrome stock reflects the scanner’s light and often scans darker than it looks. Our guest seller on a Canon flatbed found that “base Panini Prizm cards, base Topps Chrome cards and other similar cards can show up much darker than they appear.” Look for a driver that lets you save brightness and gamma per profile, as PaperStream IP does.

Speed

Rated speeds are measured on A4 or letter paper: 70 pages per minute for the fi-8170, and 40 for the fi-8040 and iX1600. Cards are much shorter than a sheet, and loading and restacking take time, so real cards per hour depends as much on handling as on the rating.

Software and driver support

This decides more than speed. The fi-series scanners use Ricoh’s PaperStream IP TWAIN driver, which scanning software can control. Ricoh says ScanSnap models “do not support TWAIN drivers or ISIS drivers.” Card Dealer Pro accepts “any jpeg image,” so a ScanSnap still works with it, but you scan to a folder and upload the files instead of scanning straight in. Card Dealer Pro’s tested list covers the Ricoh (Fujitsu) fi-8170, fi-8040, fi-7160 and fi-7030 feeders and the Epson V600 and V550 flatbeds.

Sports card scanner reviews

Ricoh (Fujitsu) fi-8170

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The fi-8170 is a production document scanner with a 100-sheet automatic feeder, duplex scanning and Ricoh’s PaperStream IP driver. Ricoh lists “Trading Card Scanning” among its features, and Card Dealer Pro calls it its “Most Recommended” auto-feed scanner. It replaced the fi-7160 in Ricoh’s lineup in 2022.

Best for: sellers listing hundreds to thousands of raw cards a month.

Pros:

• Rated at 70 pages per minute (140 images per minute duplex) with a 100-sheet feeder
• Takes plastic cards up to 1.4 mm (about 55 pt), the most of the three feeders here
• Switchable white or black background for cleaner crops
• PaperStream IP controls crop, deskew, color and multifeed detection, with saved profiles
• USB 3.2 and wired Ethernet; Windows, plus a Mac driver over USB

Cons:

• $1,445 on Ricoh’s US store
• Can’t take slabs or toploaders, and thick patch cards are over its card limit
• Rollers touch every card, so keep grading candidates off it

Settings, setup, bundles and troubleshooting are in our full Ricoh fi-8170 card scanner guide.

Ricoh (Fujitsu) fi-8040

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The fi-8040 is the compact model in the same fi-8000 family, with the same PaperStream software. Ricoh replaced the fi-7030, the scanner our guest seller Ibreak Cards used to list thousands of cards, with it. Card Dealer Pro lists it as a tested scanner.

The specs make it a lower-volume machine, not a thick-card one: a 50-sheet feeder, 40 pages per minute, a plastic-card limit of 0.76 mm (about 30 pt) fed one card at a time, and a white-only background. Its operator’s guide also warns that thick documents such as plastic cards “will always be falsely detected as overlapped documents” unless you change the multifeed settings or use its Manual Single Mode.

Best for: sellers who want PaperStream and listing-software support at a lower price and list mostly standard paper-stock cards.

Pros:

• $638 on Ricoh’s US store, under half the fi-8170
• Same PaperStream IP driver and settings as the fi-8170
• On Card Dealer Pro’s tested scanner list

Cons:

• Half the feeder capacity and a lower rated speed than the fi-8170
• Lower card-thickness limit, so more chrome and thick cards end up on the flatbed
• White background only, which makes white-bordered cards harder to crop

Ricoh (Fujitsu) ScanSnap iX1600

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ScanSnap is Ricoh’s (formerly Fujitsu’s) line for home and small-office users. The iX1600 is built around a touchscreen and the ScanSnap Home app, and Ricoh’s spec sheet says it “Does not support TWAIN / ISIS.” That matters more than anything else here: listing software can’t drive it, so you save image files and upload them yourself.

Best for: sellers who list by hand from image files and want a cheaper sheet feeder.

Pros:

• List price $554 on Ricoh’s US store, and it was on sale for less in October 2026
• One-touch scanning to a folder, over USB or Wi-Fi
• Duplex, 40 pages per minute, 50-sheet feeder

Cons:

• No TWAIN or ISIS driver, and Card Dealer Pro doesn’t list it as tested
• Plastic-card limit of 0.76 mm (about 30 pt)
• Fewer image controls than PaperStream IP

Flatbed for slabs and fragile cards: Epson Perfection V600 or Canon LiDE 300

Epson V600 on Amazon · Canon LiDE 300 on Amazon

A flatbed is slow, but it handles everything: slabs, toploaders, thick patches, vintage cards with soft corners, and raw cards you plan to grade. Nothing touches the card’s surface.

The two differ in a way that matters for slabs. The V600 uses a CCD sensor; the LiDE 300 uses a CIS sensor. A card inside a slab sits above the glass, and Canon’s own FAQ on the two sensor types says CCD scanners “have the ability to scan three-dimensional subjects.” That makes the V600 the better choice for slabs, and the LiDE 300 a budget pick for raw cards lying flat on the glass.

• Epson Perfection V600: CCD sensor, 6400 DPI optical, USB 2.0, and Epson’s current driver supports Windows 11 and current macOS. Card Dealer Pro calls it its “Most Recommended” flatbed. Epson now lists the V600 as discontinued, so check that any listing is new and from a reputable seller.
• Canon CanoScan LiDE 300: CIS sensor, 2400 DPI optical, USB 2.0. Our guest seller Nate Lake uses one with listing software and scans “40-50 cards in a 15-minute time frame.” Their complaints were speed and dark glossy cards. The system requirements in Canon’s online manual stop at Windows 10 and macOS 10.13, so check Canon’s site for a driver for your computer before you buy.

Tips for slab scans: place slabs face down and square to the glass edge, lay a black cloth over them to cut reflections, and scan at 600 DPI so the label is readable. For raw cards headed to grading, a 600 DPI flatbed scan is your condition record; see how to prepare cards for grading.

Head-to-head comparisons

fi-8170 vs fi-8040

Pick the fi-8170 if volume matters or a lot of your inventory is chrome or thicker stock. Pick the fi-8040 if you list a few hundred standard cards a month, want listing-software support, and would rather spend the difference on inventory.

fi-8170 vs ScanSnap iX1600

Pick the fi-8170 if you use listing software or list more than a few hundred cards a month. Pick the iX1600 if you list by hand from image files and want to spend less.

The full fi-8170 setup and settings walkthrough is in our Ricoh fi-8170 card scanner guide.

Which scanner should you buy?

By monthly card volume

By raw vs slabbed inventory

• Mostly raw, standard stock: a sheet feeder. The fi-8170 for volume, the fi-8040 for less, the iX1600 if you upload files by hand.
• Mostly raw, lots of chrome and thick inserts: the fi-8170, which has the highest card limit of the three, plus a flatbed for anything over it.
• Mostly slabs: a flatbed with a CCD sensor, like the V600. A sheet feeder adds nothing.
• Mixed: both. The sheet feeder handles volume and the flatbed handles slabs, thick cards and grading candidates.

FAQ

What is the best scanner for sports cards?

For volume sellers, the Ricoh (Fujitsu) fi-8170, paired with a flatbed for slabs. For a few cards a month, a phone and eBay’s free card scanning are enough.

What scanner do eBay card sellers use?

Many bulk sellers use Ricoh (formerly Fujitsu) fi-series document scanners with listing software like Card Dealer Pro, which lists the fi-8170 as its most recommended scanner. Lower-volume sellers use flatbeds or their phone.

Can you scan slabs with a document scanner?

No. Slabs are far too thick and rigid for a sheet feeder. Scan them on a flatbed, face down, with a dark cloth over them to cut glare.

Is a trading card scanner machine worth it?

At a few hundred cards a month or more, usually yes, because the time saved over phone photos adds up. Below that, a phone or a cheap flatbed does the job.

What’s the difference between a card scanner app and a card scanner?

An app identifies a card and looks up its value from a phone photo. A hardware scanner produces clean listing images in bulk. Many sellers use both: hardware for images, and an app or listing software for identification and pricing.

Will a document scanner damage my cards?

Any feeder touches the card with rollers. Clean rollers and short stacks keep the risk low, but keep cards you might grade on a flatbed.

Is Fujitsu the same as Ricoh for scanners?

Yes. Fujitsu’s scanner maker, PFU, joined the Ricoh Group in September 2022, and the fi-series and ScanSnap scanners moved to the Ricoh brand from April 2023. Model names stayed the same.

What DPI should I scan sports cards at?

300 DPI for bulk base cards and 600 DPI for hits and anything a buyer will zoom on. Both clear eBay’s 500-pixel minimum. Our fi-8170 guide has full settings.

The post Best Scanner for Sports Cards (2026): Picks for Every Volume appeared first on Rorz Cards.

The Ricoh fi-8170, sold as the Fujitsu fi-8170 before Ricoh took over Fujitsu’s scanner line, is an office document scanner that a lot of eBay card sellers use as a card scanner. You drop a stack of raw cards in the feeder and get a front and back image of every card in one pass. Ricoh now lists “Trading Card Scanning” among the fi-8170’s features on its US product page.

This page covers whether it’s worth it at your volume, what it can and can’t feed according to Ricoh’s own specs, the PaperStream settings that suit cards, and the workflow from scan to live listing.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Scanner and label printer links on this page are affiliate links.

Verdict

Buy it if you list hundreds of raw cards a month or more: bulk eBay stores, breakers working through base and hits, consignment sellers taking in other people’s collections. It turns photographing cards from the slowest part of listing into one of the fastest.

Skip it if you list a few dozen cards a month, mostly sell slabs, or mostly sell thick patch cards. A phone or a flatbed is cheaper and handles those better.

Price: $1,445 on Ricoh’s US store (October 2026), including a three-year Advance Exchange warranty. Check the current price on Amazon.

Still comparing machines? See our best scanner for sports cards guide.

Why card sellers use a document scanner

Most people searching for a card scanner want a phone app like CollX that identifies a card and tells them what it’s worth. That’s a different job. An app looks up one card. A document scanner produces listing images for hundreds of cards at a time.

Where the fi-8170 beats phone photos:

• Speed. Ricoh rates it at 70 pages per minute, or 140 images per minute in duplex, on A4 paper at 200 or 300 DPI. Cards are much smaller than a sheet of paper, and loading and restacking take time too, so treat that as a ceiling, not a cards-per-hour figure. Card Dealer Pro advertises the fi-8170 at “up to 70 cards per minute.”
• Fronts and backs in one pass. It scans both sides at once (duplex), so every card produces a matched front and back image with no flipping.
• Consistent images. Every scan has the same light, angle and background, so one listing photo isn’t warmer, darker or skewed compared with the next.
• Listing software supports it. Card Dealer Pro lists the Ricoh (Fujitsu) fi-8170 as its “Most Recommended” auto-feed scanner. Our guest authors used a scanner and Card Dealer Pro to list thousands of cards; their experience is in our Card Dealer Pro review.

The trade-off is risk. A phone never touches the card. A feeder pulls it past rubber rollers. The next section is about managing that.

Can the fi-8170 handle trading cards?

Yes for most standard raw cards, with caveats. No for slabs. Ricoh doesn’t publish limits for trading cards specifically, but its limits for plastic cards and thick documents are the closest guide.

Thickness, sleeves, toploaders and slabs

Card thickness is measured in points, where 1 point is 0.001 inch. Ricoh’s numbers converted to points:

Standard paper-stock cards fit a 35pt toploader and most chrome stock fits 55pt, as our toploader sizes guide covers. So most cards sit inside Ricoh’s 1.4 mm plastic-card figure, while patch and relic cards at 100pt and up don’t. Trading cards are card stock, not PVC, so these figures are a guide, not a promise. Ricoh’s own guide also warns that “Rigid cards may not be fed properly.”

• Raw paper-stock cards (Topps flagship, Score, most Pokémon): the main use case.
• Chrome and refractor stock (Prizm, Chrome, Optic): test a few first. Glossy stock can slip on the rollers and tends to scan darker than it looks. A guest seller on our Card Dealer Pro review found their older Fujitsu fi-7030 “will get stuck on almost any glossy cards.”
• Thick patch and relic cards: over the plastic-card limit in normal feeding. Ricoh’s Manual Feed Mode takes documents up to 7 mm, one at a time, with multifeed detection off. A flatbed is still the safer choice for anything you care about.
• Penny sleeves: Ricoh says nothing about sleeved items. Open sleeve ends can catch, and plastic adds glare. Test a few before relying on it.
• Toploaders and graded slabs: use a flatbed. Ricoh’s card figures are for flat cards the size of a credit card, and a feeder is the wrong tool for a rigid holder.

If a card is too thick, too valuable or too fragile for the feeder, scan it on a flatbed. Plenty of sellers own both: the fi-8170 for volume and a flatbed like the Epson Perfection V600 for slabs and high-end raw cards.

Feed capacity and card size

• Feeder capacity: 100 sheets of 80 g/m² paper. For plastic cards Ricoh says up to 10 at 0.76 mm or less, or up to 5 at 1.4 mm or less. Card Dealer Pro advertises batches of up to 100 trading cards. Thicker stock means fewer cards per load.
• Minimum size: 48 x 50 mm (1.9 x 2 in.). A standard card is 63.5 x 88.9 mm (2.5 x 3.5 in.), comfortably above it.
• Loading: Ricoh’s guide recommends placing plastic cards face down.

Cards are small for a document scanner, so close the paper guides snugly to the card width. Loose guides let cards skew, and skew is where most jams and edge-scuff complaints start.

Surface wear and roller marks

Every card that goes through a feeder is pressed against rollers. Dirty or worn rollers are the bigger risk: dust and residue can leave faint lines, especially on glossy and dark-bordered cards. How to keep that risk low:

• Clean on Ricoh’s schedule. The operator’s guide says to clean inside the feeder “approximately every 5,000 sheets scanned,” with Cleaner F1 or Ricoh’s pre-moistened Cleaning Wipes. It also says not to use water or mild detergent. You can set a cleaning reminder counter in the Software Operation Panel.
• Replace rollers on time. Ricoh rates the pick roller and brake roller at 200,000 sheets each, or one year. The ScanAid kit (part CG01000-302801) bundles replacement rollers with cleaning supplies and was $89 on Ricoh’s US store in October 2026.
• Keep grading candidates off the feeder. A roller mark is invisible in a listing photo and very visible to a grader. Scan those on a flatbed.
• Feed short stacks of glossy cards, so the bottom card isn’t under the weight of a full hopper.
• Knock off debris first. Card dust, wax residue and bits of pack foil end up on the rollers.

Ricoh (Fujitsu) fi-8170 setup for card scanning

PaperStream IP vs PaperStream Capture

The fi-8170 comes with two pieces of PaperStream software that do different jobs. They were Fujitsu products first, and older guides and forum threads still call them Fujitsu software.

• PaperStream IP is the scanner driver (TWAIN and ISIS). It controls how the scanner captures: resolution, color, cropping, deskew, blank page detection and multifeed detection. Scanning programs talk to the scanner through it.
• PaperStream Capture is the scanning app included with the scanner. It runs saved batch profiles and names and saves files. PaperStream Capture Pro and Pro Premium are paid versions.

Download both from Ricoh’s fi-8170 download page. Downloads are listed by model name, not brand, and Ricoh said when it took over the line that “the model names, specifications, and functions will remain the same as before.”

If you use Card Dealer Pro, it has its own free desktop app, Trading Card Scanner, for Windows and Mac. On Windows its setup has you install PaperStream IP (TWAIN) first.

Windows 11

Ricoh supports Windows 11 and Windows 10. On Windows 11 ARM PCs, Ricoh says only the 32-bit PaperStream IP (TWAIN) driver is supported. The fi-8170 connects by USB 3.2 or wired Ethernet.

Install PaperStream IP before you plug the scanner in, then restart and connect. If Windows set up a generic driver first, remove that device in Device Manager and reconnect. Do a single test scan in PaperStream Capture before you set up any listing software.

Mac

Ricoh’s Mac driver is the “Image Scanner Driver for macOS,” which works through Apple’s Image Capture (ICA), not TWAIN. Ricoh lists macOS Monterey 12 through Tahoe 26, and on a Mac the fi-8170 works over USB only. Ricoh also warns that the Mac and Linux drivers may not offer every function PaperStream IP has.

Card Dealer Pro’s help center tells Mac users to install the Ricoh driver and use its free Trading Card Scanner app, which has a native Mac version.

Best PaperStream settings for cards

These are starting points. Card stocks vary, so scan a few cards from each product line you sell and adjust from there.

DPI for eBay listings vs grading submissions

A standard card is 2.5 x 3.5 inches, so the image size at each resolution is easy to work out:

eBay’s minimum is 500 pixels on the longest side, and it suggests about 1600 x 1600 for the best results, so 300 DPI clears the minimum and 600 DPI gets close to eBay’s suggestion. Use 600 for anything worth more than a few dollars.

Grading companies don’t ask for scans with a submission, but a 600 DPI scan before you ship lets you check centering and keeps a record of the card’s condition. See how to select cards for grading and how to prepare cards for grading. Scan grading candidates on a flatbed, not the feeder.

Color mode

Use 24-bit color, not grayscale or automatic color detection. Automatic detection can save a black-and-white card back as grayscale, which looks wrong next to a color front.

Glossy chrome cards often come out darker than they look in hand. Brightness and gamma in PaperStream IP can compensate. Save a separate “chrome” profile rather than changing your main one.

Auto-crop, deskew and background

Turn on automatic page size detection (the crop) and deskew. Together they give a straight image cropped to the card edge.

Cropping depends on contrast between the card edge and the background behind it. The fi-8170’s background is selectable, white or black, in the scanner driver. Black makes white borders and corner whitening easy to see and crops cleanly on white-bordered cards. If a card crops wrong, add a little margin rather than cropping tight. A crop that cuts off an edge hides exactly what buyers want to see.

Set the paper size to automatic, not Letter. Pokémon cards are the same 63 x 88 mm as sports cards, so the same settings work for both.

Duplex, blank pages and file names

Set the scan side to duplex. The scanner then outputs front, back, front, back.

Turn off blank page detection. In PaperStream IP it’s called Blank Page Detection, on the Page tab of the advanced settings, and PaperStream Capture has its own Blank Page Deletion setting in each job. A plain or mostly white card back can be judged blank and dropped, and from that point every front pairs with the wrong back.

In PaperStream Capture, build file names from a batch name, a counter and the Output Side option, which adds “F” for the front and “B” for the back on duplex scans. For example 2026-10-04_b03_0001_F.jpg and 2026-10-04_b03_0001_B.jpg. Sorted by name, each front sits directly above its back.

Multifeed detection

The fi-8170 detects double feeds with an ultrasonic overlap sensor and by length. Leave it on for raw cards. Two cards fed together is worse than a stopped batch, because one card goes unscanned and your pairs shift. If it keeps stopping on sleeved or thick cards, it’s sensing the extra layer. Ricoh’s Intelligent Multifeed Function can learn to ignore a repeated overlap pattern, but for cards it’s simpler to scan those few raw or on a flatbed than to switch detection off for everything.

Saved profiles

Save one profile per job so each batch is one click:

Workflow: scan, name, list

The scanner is fast. What slows sellers down is the paperwork around it, so set up folders and naming before the first batch. For the eBay side, see how to scan trading cards for eBay.

1. Sort before you scan. Group by set or product so each batch is one card stock and one profile. Pull anything for the flatbed: slabs, thick cards, grading candidates.
2. One folder per batch. Name it by date, batch number and contents. For consignment, put the consignor’s name in the folder name so their cards never mix with yours.
3. Check pairs. Before listing, confirm each folder has an even number of files and the last front and back match. One dropped back shifts every pair after it.
4. Keep the physical order. Stack cards in the order they came out and band them by batch. Card 0047 in the folder is card 47 in the stack, which makes pulling a sold card fast.
5. List. Import the folder into listing software, which matches each card and builds the listing (see our Card Dealer Pro review), or use eBay’s own bulk tools. eBay’s “Multiple listings from photos” tool in Seller Hub turns a batch of photos into draft listings.
6. Print and ship. A thermal label printer like the Rollo Wireless prints 4×6 shipping labels with no ink. Ibreak Cards’ listing desk in our Card Dealer Pro review has a thermal printer on the shelf above the scanner.

Scans/
  2026-10-04_b01_2025-topps-s1-base/
  2026-10-04_b02_2025-prizm-hits/
  2026-10-04_b03_consign-jsmith/

fi-8170 bundles: which one to buy

Ricoh’s US store sells the fi-8170 three ways. Listings on Amazon may say Ricoh or Fujitsu for the same scanner. See current fi-8170 listings on Amazon.

For card selling, the Deluxe bundle’s extra is the paid PaperStream Capture Pro, and the included PaperStream Capture already runs profiles and names your files with front and back markers. The Premium bundle swaps the three-year warranty for a five-year one for $69 more, which is worth considering if the scanner runs all day. Ricoh’s store pages aren’t consistent about the bundle warranties (the Premium page also mentions four years, and the Deluxe page lists one year), so confirm the terms before you buy. Either way, budget for the $89 ScanAid kit of replacement rollers and cleaning supplies, because feeding cards all day wears rollers out.

Common fi-8170 problems with cards

Misfeeds

Usually the guides are set too wide, the stack is too tall, glossy stock is slipping, or the pick roller is dirty. Close the guides to the card width, fan the stack lightly, feed fewer cards and clean the rollers. If one product line misfeeds again and again, it may be too thick or too stiff for the feeder.

Double feeds

Cards stuck together from static or from fresh packs, or chrome cards sliding together. Fan cards before loading and leave multifeed detection on. When it stops, rescan the two cards, then check your front and back pairs are still in step.

Streaks and color cast

Ricoh’s guide says “Vertical streaks may appear on images if the glass section is dirty.” Turn the scanner off, unplug it and let it cool for 15 minutes, then wipe both glass strips with Cleaner F1 or a Cleaning Wipe. For glossy and foil stock that still scans dark or tinted, adjust brightness and gamma in a separate profile, and compare the scan with the card in daylight.

Driver errors

Usually a generic Windows driver installed before PaperStream IP, or listing software pointed at the wrong source. Remove the device, install PaperStream IP, restart and reconnect. In your software, pick the source Ricoh names “PaperStream IP” followed by the model name. A source ending in “Net” is the network connection.

Alternatives to the fi-8170

• Ricoh (Fujitsu) fi-8040. Smaller and cheaper ($638 on Ricoh’s US store), with the same PaperStream IP driver, and Card Dealer Pro supports it. Ricoh replaced the fi-7030, the scanner in our Card Dealer Pro review, with it. It’s rated at 40 pages per minute with a 50-sheet feeder, its plastic-card limit is 0.76 mm (about 30 pt) one card at a time, and its background is white only. That makes it a lower-volume choice, not the pick for thick cards.
• ScanSnap iX1600. ScanSnap was a Fujitsu brand and is now Ricoh’s too. It’s cheaper, but Ricoh says ScanSnap “does not support TWAIN drivers or ISIS drivers,” so listing software can’t drive it directly. You scan to a folder and upload the images yourself.
• A flatbed like the Epson Perfection V600 or Canon CanoScan LiDE 300. Slow, but it handles slabs, toploaders and fragile raw cards, and nothing touches the surface.

Which one fits your volume is covered in our best scanner for sports cards guide.

FAQ

Does the fi-8170 scan toploaders or slabs?

Not through the feeder. Ricoh’s card figures are for flat, credit-card-sized cards up to 1.4 mm, and a rigid holder is the wrong thing to put through rollers. Scan toploadered and graded cards on a flatbed.

What DPI should I scan cards at for eBay?

300 DPI for bulk base cards and 600 DPI for anything a buyer will zoom on. At 600 DPI a standard card is 1500 x 2100 pixels, comfortably above eBay’s 500-pixel minimum.

Is the fi-8170 worth it for under 500 cards a month?

Usually not. At $1,445 on Ricoh’s store, the time saved over phone photos takes a long time to pay back at low volume. A phone or a flatbed is the better buy until you’re listing in the hundreds every month.

Does the Ricoh fi-8170 work with Card Dealer Pro?

Yes. Card Dealer Pro lists the Ricoh (Fujitsu) fi-8170 as its “Most Recommended” auto-feed scanner, and its free Trading Card Scanner app runs on Windows and Mac.

Will the fi-8170 damage my cards?

Any feeder carries some risk. Dirty or worn rollers are the main cause of marks, so clean on Ricoh’s 5,000-sheet schedule and replace rollers on time. Keep high-value cards and anything you might grade off the feeder.

Does the fi-8170 work on a Mac?

Yes, over USB, with Ricoh’s Image Scanner Driver for macOS (Monterey 12 through Tahoe 26). It uses Apple’s Image Capture rather than TWAIN, and Ricoh says it may not have every PaperStream IP function.

Can the fi-8170 scan Pokémon cards?

Yes, the same way as sports cards. Pokémon cards are the same 63 x 88 mm size. Holo and full-art cards can show the same glare and color shift as chrome sports cards, so test a few first.

Is the Ricoh fi-8170 the same as the Fujitsu fi-8170?

Yes. Fujitsu’s scanner maker, PFU, joined the Ricoh Group on September 1, 2022, and its scanners moved to the Ricoh brand from April 2023. Ricoh said the model names, specifications and functions stayed the same, so you’ll see the same scanner sold under both names.

How do I set up the fi-8170 for cards?

Install PaperStream IP before connecting the scanner. Then set duplex, 24-bit color, 300 or 600 DPI, auto-crop and deskew, a black background, and Blank Page Detection off, and save it as a profile. The settings section above has the details.

The post Ricoh (Fujitsu) fi-8170 Card Scanner: Setup, Settings and Limits for Card Sellers appeared first on Rorz Cards.

Is PSA grading worth it? For a cheap card, almost never. For a card worth roughly $70 to $800 raw that gets a PSA 10 at least one time in six, often. I ran 22 popular sports and Pokémon cards through the same math as our grading calculator, using PSA’s current $59.99 Standard fee, PSA’s own population report for the grade odds, and recent sale prices. Nine came out worth grading, three were borderline and ten lost money.

There’s a big catch, which I’ll get to below: those odds are the best case. Here are the results first.

The results

“Expected profit” is the average you’d make per card if you graded a lot of copies and sold them all, after every fee. “Chance you lose money” is how often a single card comes back at a grade that sells for less than you paid in total. A card can be worth grading on average and still lose you money most of the time.

What the winners have in common

The cards that paid off share three things. They cost roughly $70 to $800 raw, their PSA 10 sells for at least three times the raw price, and most come back a PSA 10 at least 15% of the time. (The two exceptions, the Griffey and Kobe rookies, are gambles, covered below.) The 2011 Topps Update Mike Trout is the cleanest example: it’s a $275 card that gets a 10 on 43% of submissions, and even a PSA 9 roughly covers what you spent. It’s the only card in the list where you lose money less than a quarter of the time.

Why cheap modern cards lose

Grading a card costs about $75 before you’ve sold anything ($59.99 to PSA and around $15 for shipping both ways), and eBay takes 13.25% when you sell. A cheap card can’t carry that. The 2019 Prizm Zion Williamson base rookie is the extreme case: even if every copy came back a PSA 10, you’d lose money, because a PSA 10 sells for about $23. The 2020 Prizm Justin Herbert rookie is the same story.

A rough rule: suppose only a PSA 10 would sell for more than the raw card, and you get a 10 about 40% of the time. Then the PSA 10 has to sell for about 25 times the price of a $10 card to break even, 7 times a $50 card, or 4 times a $250 card. That’s why grading a $5 rookie almost never works, however clean it looks.

The near misses

The 2018 Prizm Luka Doncic base rookie gets a PSA 10 more than half the time, which sounds like a sure thing. It still loses about $6 per card on average, because a PSA 10 only sells for about four times the raw price. It would need a 58% PSA 10 rate just to break even. The Base Set Unlimited Blastoise comes out almost exactly even for the opposite reason: a PSA 10 is worth thousands, but fewer than 1% of submissions get one.

Worth it on average, but a gamble

Some cards come out ahead only because the rare PSA 10 is worth so much. The 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. is the clearest case, and the 1996-97 Topps Kobe Bryant works the same way. A PSA 10 sells for about $5,700, but only 3% of submitted copies get one, and 71% of the time you’d get back a grade worth less than you spent. On average it pays. For one card, it’s a lottery ticket. The 151 Charizard ex special illustration rare is similar: worth grading on average, but you lose money on nearly three out of four copies.

Expensive modern Pokémon: it’s a 10 or nothing

For the high-end modern Pokémon cards, like the Evolving Skies Umbreon VMAX alt art and the Grey Felt Hat Pikachu, a PSA 9 sells for about the same as the raw card or less. Everything depends on getting a 10. They came out borderline, and they’re expensive enough that one bad grade costs you hundreds of dollars.

Vintage: the PSA 10 rate kills it

The Base Set Unlimited Charizard gets a PSA 10 on half of one percent of submissions. With a near mint raw copy selling for around $945 on TCGplayer, a typical grade doesn’t cover the cost, and the card loses over $200 on average. The average raw sale, played copies included, is much lower, but a played copy won’t get the grades behind these odds. If you own one, grading it makes sense for protection or to prove it’s real, not as a way to make money. Our guide to 1st Edition vs Shadowless cards covers how much more the earlier prints are worth.

The catch: these odds are the best case

PSA’s population report only counts cards people chose to send in, and people send in their best copies. Some are graded straight out of fresh packs, and some are resubmitted until they get the grade the owner wanted. A random raw card from your binder is less likely to get a 10 than the report suggests.

To see how much that matters, I reran every card with each grade knocked down one step: every PSA 10 became a 9, every 9 an 8, and so on. On those odds, all 22 cards lose money, including the Mahomes rookie, the best result on the list. So treat the verdicts above as the ceiling. Grading pays when you have a card that’s clearly better than average, with sharp corners, clean edges and good centering. How to select cards for grading explains how to check.

How I worked it out

• Cost is the raw price (what you could sell the card for instead), plus PSA’s grading fee, plus $15 for shipping both ways.
• The grading fee starts at $59.99 (PSA Standard, for cards worth up to $1,000). If the card grades high enough to be worth more than that, PSA moves it up to the right service level and charges the difference, so the fee I used is the average over all the grades a card could get. For the Base Set Charizard, a PSA 10 is worth more than PSA’s top published level, so its real fee would be higher still.
• Grade odds come from PSA’s population report for each card, grouped into PSA 10, 9, 8, 7, and 6 or lower. Half grades count with the grade below.
• Sale prices are the median of recent PSA-graded sales for each grade, from PriceCharting’s record of completed eBay sales. Where there were fewer than five recent sales, I used PriceCharting’s price guide. Raw prices are TCGplayer’s market price for Pokémon and PriceCharting’s ungraded price for sports cards.
• Selling fee: 13.25%, eBay’s rate for trading cards. See where to sell Pokémon cards for other options.
• Left out: promoted listing fees, the cost of shipping to your buyer, and the fact that prices can move during PSA’s 90 to 100 business-day wait.

Sports raw prices blend every condition. A copy clean enough to get a 9 or 10 usually costs more than the average raw price, which would make the sports results slightly worse.

Run the numbers on your own card

Every card in the table opens in our grading calculator with these numbers filled in. Change the price you paid, the odds or the sale prices to match your card, or type in your card’s own counts from PSA’s population report, and it’ll tell you whether grading is likely to pay.

FAQ

Is PSA grading worth it?

Only for some cards. In this test, cards worth roughly $70 to $800 raw, with a PSA 10 worth several times the raw price and a decent PSA 10 rate, came out ahead. Every card under $25 raw lost money on average.

What PSA 10 rate does a card need to be worth grading?

It depends on how much a PSA 10 sells for compared with the raw card. A card whose PSA 10 is worth four times the raw price needs a PSA 10 rate close to 60%. The 1996-97 Topps Kobe Bryant, whose PSA 10 is worth about 28 times the raw price, came out ahead with a PSA 10 rate of about 10%.

Is it worth grading cheap rookie cards?

Usually not to sell. Grading and shipping cost about $75 per card, and many modern rookies sell for less than that even in a PSA 10. Grade them if you want them in a slab for your own collection.

The post Is PSA Grading Worth It? I Ran 22 Popular Cards Through the Numbers appeared first on Rorz Cards.

What counts as a hit?

• Autographs, signed on the card itself or on a sticker added to it.
• Memorabilia cards, also called relic cards, with a piece of a jersey, bat or ball built into the card.
• Low-numbered parallels, stamped with a serial number like 07/25.
• RPAs (rookie patch autographs), which combine all of the above and are the top hit in many products.

Collectors don’t all draw the line in the same place. A /99 parallel is a hit to some people and just a nice pull to others, and it depends on the product: in a cheap retail set it stands out, in a high-end box it doesn’t.

What does “guaranteed hits” mean?

Hobby boxes usually promise a set number of hits, printed on the box or the product’s sell sheet, such as one autograph per box. Retail packs and blasters mostly don’t, which is a big part of why hobby boxes cost more.

Read the wording closely. “Hits” on a box usually means autographs and memorabilia cards, and sometimes numbered cards. And a guaranteed hit can still be a cheap card: an autograph of a little-known player often sells for a few dollars.

Case hits and big hits

A case hit is rarer: a card that turns up about once per sealed case of boxes, like Panini’s Kaboom! inserts. A “big hit” or “monster hit” is the best card in a box or a break, usually a rookie autograph or RPA of a star player. In a break, the breaker calls out each hit on camera as it comes out of the pack.

FAQ

Is a numbered card a hit?

A low-numbered one usually is. Something numbered /25 or lower, or a 1/1, counts as a hit for most collectors. A /299 or /399 parallel is a nice pull but rarely gets called a hit, especially in a hobby box where you get several numbered cards.

Are inserts hits?

Most aren’t. Regular inserts fall a few times per box. The exception is the rare ones: SSP inserts and case hits get treated as hits even without an autograph or a piece of jersey.

How many hits are in a hobby box?

It depends on the product, and the box or sell sheet will tell you. Mid-priced boxes often promise one autograph. For example, a 2025-26 Topps Chrome Basketball hobby box guarantees one autograph, while high-end products can promise several autographs and relics in a single box.

The post What does ‘Hit’ mean – Definition – The Sports Card Glossary appeared first on Rorz Cards.

Submitting cards to PSA happens online, even if you plan to drop them off in person. You create a free account, add each card to an order, pick a service level based on what the cards are worth, and print a form to put in the box. Here’s each step, plus what to do when a card won’t show up in the search or you’re not sure which version you have.

Last updated September 2026. PSA changed its service levels in September 2026, so check prices on PSA’s pricing page before you order.

How to submit cards to PSA, step by step

1. Create a free PSA account

Sign up at psacard.com. You don’t need to join the Collectors Club ($149 a year). Its main perk is the cheaper Value tiers, and those have been paused since June 2026, so there’s little reason to pay for it right now.

2. Start a submission and choose what you’re sending

In the Online Submission Center, pick Trading Cards, then the standard grading option for most cards. The other options are for autographs that need authenticating (see below), cards already in a slab (Review, Crossover and Reholder), and oversized cards.

PSA’s website has two ways to fill in an order. “Assisted” picks the service level for you from PSA’s own estimate of each card’s value, and may split your cards into several orders. “Classic” lets you choose, and it’s the one you need for anything unusual. Classic is usually simpler for a first order of a few cards, because you choose the service level and declared value yourself, and everything stays on one order.

3. Pick a service level

Service levels differ in price, speed and the most each card can be worth. These were PSA’s open tiers in late September 2026:

Every card on one form has to be the same service level. If you have a $50 card and a $2,000 card, that’s two forms, which can still go in the same box.

4. Add each card

Search PSA’s database by year, set, player and card number, and pick the match. Don’t worry about getting every detail perfect: PSA’s research team checks each card and fixes the description before it’s graded.

5. Enter a declared value for each card

PSA calls this the Max Insured Value. It’s what you think the card will be worth after it’s graded, not what you paid. Look up recent sales of the card in the grade you expect on eBay’s sold listings or PSA’s Auction Prices Realized.

It matters for two reasons. It decides which service level the card qualifies for, and it’s the most PSA will pay if the card is lost or damaged while in its care. If PSA thinks a card is worth more than your tier allows, it contacts you first, then moves that card up a tier and charges the difference. If you say no, the card comes back ungraded and you still pay the original fee. So guess honestly, and if you’re between two tiers, a little high is safer than low, even if it costs a bit more.

6. Check out

Review the order and add a payment card. PSA doesn’t charge it yet: you’re billed when grading is finished, and you see your grades once you’ve paid. Return shipping is added to the bill then, too. It’s $19.99 for one to four cards worth up to $2,000 in total, and that includes insurance and a signature on delivery.

7. Print the form and ship your cards

Print the submission form to go inside the box, and the submission ID label to go on the outside. Then pack and ship your cards following Chapter 4. Use the shipping address printed on your own form: PSA has different addresses for different carriers.

When a card doesn’t fit the usual steps

Your card isn’t in PSA’s database

In the PSA app, tap “Add Manually” above the search bar and type in the year, set, card number and player. If you’re not sure PSA grades that kind of card at all, send photos of the front and back through PSA’s Customer Request Center and ask first. If you send something PSA can’t grade, it comes back unslabbed and you pay the return shipping.

You don’t know which parallel you have

Pick the closest match and add what you know in the notes, like the serial number or the color. PSA’s research team identifies the exact version before grading, and you get a “Review Your Order” email to check the labels before your order finishes. If a label still comes back wrong, PSA corrects it for free. (CGC is different: it charges $5 for each card you don’t fully describe, so do the homework first. How to identify your sports cards can help.)

Autographed cards

• Autographs pulled from a pack (certified by the card company, 1998 or later) can go in any normal service level. PSA grades the card only; the signature doesn’t get its own grade.
• Autographs signed in person, through the mail, or before 1998 have to go through PSA’s Card & Autograph Dual Service, where PSA/DNA authenticates the signature. It starts at $79.99 per card (100 to 110 business days) and gives the card and the autograph separate grades.
• An autograph grade on a pack-pulled card also needs Dual Service.

PSA’s guarantee doesn’t cover autographs, and it doesn’t cover patch and relic cards at all, including their grade. PSA grades those cards, but it doesn’t vouch that a swatch is game-used.

Thick and oversized cards

Oversized cards, like tall boys and jumbos, go on their own form with the matching holder size, and PSA may charge extra for the largest sizes. For thick patch cards you don’t pick a holder: PSA chooses one based on how thick the card is. Our toploader guide explains card thickness in “pt” if you’re not sure what you have.

Cards that are already graded

• Review sends a PSA slab back for a second look. You pay the full grading fee, and if the grade doesn’t go up, you keep the original.
• Crossover moves a card from another company’s slab into a PSA one. You set a minimum grade; if it falls short, the card comes back in its old slab, and you pay either way.
• Reholder puts a PSA card in a new slab, usually with the same grade, for $12.99. PSA checks the card first and can lower the grade if its condition has changed. Useful for a scratched or cracked case.

Submitting to CGC or SGC instead

The steps are much the same: a free account, an online form, then a printed packing slip in the box. The main differences:

• CGC needs no membership. Its cheapest tier ($17, for cards worth up to $500) has a 25-card minimum, orders are capped at 300 cards, and it charges your payment card when the box arrives, not when grading is done.
• SGC charges a flat fee per card based on declared value, starting at $50 for cards worth up to $1,500.

Not sure which company to use? Our comparison of the grading companies covers price, speed and resale value.

FAQ

What if PSA can’t grade my card?

It depends on why. Cards that are trimmed, restored, cleaned or otherwise altered come back ungraded, and you still pay the full fee. Severe factory miscuts that PSA won’t grade, undersized cards and cards that won’t fit a holder come back with no grading charge.

Is there a minimum number of cards?

Not at PSA. You can send a single card. CGC’s cheapest bulk tier needs at least 25.

How long does PSA take?

Standard was quoting 90 to 100 business days in September 2026, counted from when PSA logs your order in, not from when you mail it.

Can I drop my cards off instead of mailing them?

Yes, at PSA’s events at card shows or its staffed submission centers. You still create the order online first. See getting your cards graded in person.

Next: Chapter 4: How to ship cards for grading and track your order.

The post How to Submit Cards to PSA for Grading: Step by Step (2026) appeared first on Rorz Cards.

We specialize in buying:

• Vintage Collections: We are particularly interested in collections from the 1980s and earlier.
• High-End Cards: We are always looking for rare and valuable cards, including rookie cards, autographs, and memorabilia cards.
• All Sports: Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, Football, even non-sports cards.

We offer:

• Fair and Competitive Prices: We’ll make you a fair offer for your collection.
• Fast and Convenient Service: We can come to you to appraise your collection at your convenience.
• Discreet and Professional Service: We keep every deal private.

Evaluations are free, with no obligation. Email rorz.cards@gmail.com.

I look forward to hearing from you!

The post Sell Me Your Sports Card Collection in San Diego appeared first on Rorz Cards.

Last updated September 2026, based on PSA’s official grading standards. PSA tightened the centering wording for its top grades in January 2025, so older guides (including an earlier version of this one) show looser ranges.

PSA grading scale chart

What PSA looks at

Graders check four things on every card:

• Centering: how evenly the borders frame the picture, front and back.
• Corners: how sharp they are, from perfectly sharp to frayed or rounded.
• Edges: chipping, notching and wear along the sides.
• Surface: scratches, scuffs, print defects, stains, creases and loss of gloss.

They also judge focus (whether the picture is printed sharply, “in register”) and overall eye appeal. PSA says a card can be held back a grade if it doesn’t look right even when the numbers pass, or bumped up if it looks better than a borderline measurement suggests.

Every PSA grade explained

PSA 10 Gem Mint

A virtually perfect card: four perfectly sharp corners, sharp focus, full original gloss and no staining of any kind. It doesn’t have to be literally flawless: PSA allows a slight printing imperfection if it doesn’t hurt the card’s appeal. Centering must be within about 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the back.

PSA 9 Mint

A superb card with only one of these minor flaws: a very slight wax stain on the back, a minor printing imperfection, or slightly off-white borders. Centering must be about 60/40 or better on the front and 90/10 on the back. That “only one” is what separates a 9 from an 8.

PSA 8 Near Mint-Mint

A high-end card that looks like a 9 at first glance. Up close it can show a combination of small flaws: a slight wax stain on the back, the slightest fraying at one or two corners, a minor print imperfection and slightly off-white borders. Centering about 65/35 or better on the front, 90/10 on the back.

PSA 7 Near Mint

Slight surface wear that you only see on close inspection, and slight fraying on some corners. The picture may be slightly out of focus, a minor printing blemish is fine, and a slight wax stain is allowed on the back only. Most of the original gloss is still there. Centering about 70/30 or better on the front, 90/10 on the back.

PSA 6 Excellent-Mint

Visible surface wear or a printing defect that doesn’t spoil the card’s appeal. There may be a very light scratch you only see up close, slightly graduated fraying on the corners, some loss of gloss, very slight notching on the edges and some off-white on the borders. Centering 80/20 or better on the front, 90/10 on the back.

PSA 5 Excellent

The corners start to round, very slightly. Surface wear and print defects are more visible, the edges may have minor chipping, and the gloss loss is more obvious. There may be several light scratches that don’t detract from the card. Centering 85/15 or better on the front, 90/10 on the back.

PSA 4 Very Good-Excellent

Slightly rounded corners and modest surface wear, possibly with light scuffs or scratches. Some gloss remains, and the borders may be slightly off-white. This is the highest grade where a light crease is allowed. Centering 85/15 on the front, 90/10 on the back.

PSA 3 Very Good

Some rounding of the corners, noticeable edge wear, and most of the gloss gone. The borders may be yellowed, a crease may be visible, and there may be a slight stain on the front. Centering 90/10 front and back.

PSA 2 Good

Accelerated corner rounding and obvious surface wear. Expect scratches, scuffs, light staining or chipping, possibly several creases, and little or no gloss. Centering 90/10 front and back.

PSA 1.5 Fair

Extreme wear everywhere, heavy creases possible, and corners worn enough to affect the picture. The deciding rule: the card must be fully intact. If a piece is missing, such as a corner or part of the back layer, it can’t be a 1.5. Centering about 90/10 front and back.

PSA 1 Poor

The eye appeal is almost gone. A PSA 1 can be missing one or two small pieces, have creases that nearly break through the card, or be so dirty or discolored it’s hard to identify. There’s no centering requirement.

PSA half grades

A card that’s at the top end of its grade can get a half point: 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5, 6.5, 7.5 or 8.5. PSA says it looks at the whole card but focuses on centering when it decides. There is no PSA 9.5; nothing sits between a 9 and a 10. And PSA 1.5 is a grade of its own (Fair), not a half-point bump from a 1.

PSA qualifiers (OC, ST, PD, OF, MK, MC)

A qualifier means the card meets a grade in every way except one. A “PSA 8 OC,” for example, is an 8 that’s off center. Qualified cards sell for much less, often about what a card two grades lower would bring.

These days PSA graders usually lower the number rather than add one of the optional qualifiers, so you’ll see OC, ST, PD and OF less often than MK and MC.

Authentic and Authentic Altered

• Authentic: PSA confirms the card is genuine but gives it no number, because of an alteration, a major defect, or because the owner asked for no grade.
• Authentic Altered (AA): genuine, but trimmed, recolored, restored or cleaned. PSA only gives this grade if you write AA as your minimum grade on the submission form.

How PSA measures centering

Compare the left border with the right, and the top with the bottom. If the left border is 3 mm and the right is 2 mm, that’s 60/40. PSA uses whichever direction is worse. The front and back have separate limits, and the back is much more forgiving.

For PSA 7 and above there’s a 5% leeway on the front. PSA’s own example: a card that meets everything else for a 9 automatically passes at 60/40, and may still pass at 65/35 if the card has good eye appeal. PSA’s standards now also note that graders may allow a small variance based on eye appeal.

Until January 2025, PSA’s standards gave ranges, such as “55/45 to 60/40” for a PSA 10. They now give a single figure (55/45). PSA didn’t announce the change; its CEO reportedly called it a clean-up of the wording rather than a change in how cards are graded.

PSA 9 vs PSA 10

A 10 needs everything: sharp corners, full gloss, no stain, sharp focus and centering within 55/45. A 9 is allowed exactly one small flaw, and looser centering (60/40). Most cards that get a 9 instead of a 10 missed on centering or on one tiny flaw.

That one grade is often worth a lot. In one study of 59 football rookies, the typical PSA 10 sold for about three times the PSA 9. For cards where 10s are rare, the gap is far bigger. That’s why the population report, PSA’s count of how many copies have each grade, matters so much to price.

How many cards get a PSA 10?

More than you’d think, but that’s misleading. According to GemRate data reported by cllct, PSA gave a 10 to 43% of the cards it graded in the first half of 2025, down from 45% in 2024. Modern Pokémon and other trading card games run higher than sports cards. But people mostly send in new cards they’ve already checked, so these numbers aren’t the odds for a random card from your collection. For vintage cards, 10s are far rarer.

PSA 10 vs BGS 9.5 vs SGC 10

They describe similar cards, but they aren’t interchangeable. On centering, a Beckett 9.5 is at least as strict as a PSA 10 on the front and stricter on the back. SGC’s 10 Gem Mint is close to PSA’s standard. In the market, though, a PSA 10 usually sells for the most. A BGS 9.5 often sells for well under half, while Beckett’s Pristine 10 can sell for more than a PSA 10. Always check sales for the specific card. Our guide to the grading companies compares them in more detail.

PSA autograph grades

For signed cards, PSA can grade the signature separately on its own 1 to 10 scale. It’s based on how bold and clean the autograph is: a 10 is bold with no skips or retracing, and lower grades allow fading, skips and some retracing. There are no half grades for autographs. The label shows both grades, such as “PSA 9 | Auto 10”.

FAQ

What is the highest PSA grade?

PSA 10 Gem Mint. PSA has no grade above 10, and no 9.5.

What makes a card a PSA 9 instead of a 10?

One minor flaw, such as a slight wax stain on the back, a small print imperfection or slightly off-white borders, or centering between about 55/45 and 60/40 on the front.

What centering does a PSA 10 need?

About 55/45 or better on the front and 75/25 or better on the back.

Can a card with a crease get a PSA 5?

Usually not. PSA 4 is the highest grade whose standard allows a light crease, so a creased card generally grades 4 or lower.

New to grading? Start with what PSA is, then our step-by-step guide to grading your cards.

The post The PSA Grading Scale Explained: Every Grade From 1 to 10 appeared first on Rorz Cards.

Shill bidding is when a seller, or someone working with them, bids on the seller’s own auction to push the price up. They don’t want to buy the card. They want you to pay more for it.

You can’t prove it from the outside. You can learn the warning signs, check them in a couple of minutes before you bid, and bid in a way that leaves a shill little to work with. This is written for card buyers, especially anyone bidding on PSA, BGS or SGC slabs, where a shilled auction can cost real money.

What is shill bidding?

eBay’s shill bidding policy defines it as bidding on an item “to artificially increase its price, desirability, or search standing.” The shill might be the seller on a second account, a friend, a family member or an employee. The policy bans all of those. Buying from someone you know is allowed as long as you aren’t trying to inflate the price, and eBay says Buy It Now is fine for that.

The cost goes beyond the one auction. Collectors price cards from recent sales, called comps. A shilled sale becomes a fake comp, so the next person who looks up that card sees a price that was never real.

eBay can remove listings, warn sellers, and restrict or suspend accounts over it. The policy also says shill bidding “is also illegal in many places and can carry severe penalties.” I’m not a lawyer, so I’ll leave the legal side there.

How to check: open the bid history

On any eBay auction, click the bid count (the “12 bids” link under the current price). The bid history lists every bidder, each bid amount and the time it was placed.

You won’t see real usernames. eBay hides them behind a masked name like “j***n” with the bidder’s feedback score next to it, for example “j***n (3)”. You can’t click through to the person. The masked name and feedback score are still enough to spot most of the patterns below.

Warning signs on a single auction

1. Low feedback, lots of bidding

A bidder with 0 to 5 feedback who bids again and again on a card but never ends up winning it. One bid from a new account means nothing. Eight bids from it is different.

2. Price probing

eBay bids for you automatically up to your maximum. A shill can use that to find your number. They bid in small steps, get outbid by your automatic bid each time, and keep going until they’re just under your maximum. Then they stop. In the bid history this looks like one bidder placing a run of small bids in a few minutes, with the leader’s automatic bid answering each one.

3. Active early, gone at the end

Real collectors tend to bid in the last minutes, and plenty of them snipe in the final seconds. A shill does the opposite. They push the price up in the middle of the auction, when there’s no risk of being stuck with the card, then disappear before the end.

4. Retracted or cancelled bids

This one works differently for cards. eBay’s bid retraction page says bids on items in Trading Cards categories can’t be retracted. So if a big bid disappears from a card auction after the price has already gone up, ask why. Sellers can cancel bids, so a bid that vanishes from a card auction was most likely removed by the seller. There are honest reasons to do that, like a bidder the seller doesn’t trust, but it’s worth noting alongside the other signs.

5. A price well above recent comps

Look up recent sales of the same card in the same grade. A PSA 9 and a PSA 10 are different cards for this purpose. If the auction is already well past every recent sale and most of that climb came from one or two bidders, be careful. If ten different bidders pushed it there, it’s more likely the card is just hot right now.

Warning signs across a seller’s auctions

One auction rarely tells you much. The stronger evidence shows up when you look at several of the same seller’s listings.

6. The same bidder keeps showing up

Open the bid histories on four or five of the seller’s current or recently ended auctions. If the same masked name with the same low feedback score shows up on most of them, bidding early and losing, that’s the pattern you’re looking for. Masked names are short and two people can share one, so the feedback score and the bidding behavior matter as much as the name.

7. “Sold” cards come back

An auction ends with a winner, and a few weeks later the same card is listed again. With a graded card you can check this. Every slab has a certification number on the label. Search that number on eBay’s sold listings and on Google. If one cert number shows up in two listings, it’s the same physical card. Reused photos are the other giveaway, down to the same background and the same glare on the slab.

8. A Second Chance Offer after you lose

A Second Chance Offer lets a seller sell the item to a losing bidder at that bidder’s last bid. eBay allows it when the winner didn’t pay, when the reserve wasn’t met, or when the seller has more of the same item. Lots of these are legitimate. If you lose to a low-feedback bidder and get an offer at your top bid a day later, and you’ve seen other signs on this list, treat it with suspicion.

What isn’t a red flag on its own

• Low feedback: new collectors start at zero. Everyone did.
• Bidding wars: a rookie card the week a player breaks out will get bid up by real people.
• A relist: buyers who don’t pay are common, and one relisted card proves nothing.
• A Second Chance Offer: the seller may really have a second copy, or the winner may not have paid.

What you’re looking for is several of these signs together, repeated across more than one auction from the same seller.

How to protect yourself

The best defense doesn’t involve catching anyone. A shill can only raise what you pay if you keep raising your bid.

• Decide your maximum before the auction. Base it on comps, then bid it once, close to the end. Don’t place an early bid and then nudge it up every time someone passes you. That’s exactly the behavior price probing feeds on.
• Check sold comps first. Same card, same grade, recent sales. eBay’s sold filter and 130point both work.
• Look at a few of the seller’s other auctions. Thirty seconds per bid history is enough to spot a repeat bidder.
• Look at fixed-price listings. If an auction runs away, the same card is often listed as Buy It Now by someone else.

How to report eBay shill bidding

eBay’s policy says it has systems that monitor bidding patterns and that you “don’t need to report” suspected shill bidding. If you’ve seen a clear pattern, you can still use the report option on the listing page. Take screenshots of the bid histories first, because they’re your evidence and listings end.

Keep it between you and eBay. Don’t post a seller’s name on social media or in a forum with an accusation attached. You’re working from masked names and patterns, and you could be wrong.

Shill bidding on Whatnot

Live auctions move fast, which makes shill bidding on Whatnot harder to spot. You can’t sit with a bid history for ten minutes. Whatnot defines it as a bid “with no real intent to buy, only to push the price up,” whether it’s placed by the seller, a friend, an employee or a stream moderator. In July 2026 Whatnot wrote that it looks at account and device connections, bidding patterns and cancellations, and restricts or bans accounts it catches.

The same habits help. Know your number before the card comes up. Watch whether the same few usernames bid on everything in a seller’s show and never seem to win. If something looks off, report it to Whatnot instead of calling it out in the chat.

Quick checklist before you bid

• I know recent sold prices for this card in this grade.
• I’ve decided my maximum and I’ll bid it once, near the end.
• I opened the bid history and checked who’s driving the price.
• No low-feedback bidder is placing a run of small bids under the leader.
• I checked two or three of the seller’s other auctions for the same bidder.
• For a slab, I searched the cert number to see if the card “sold” recently.

FAQ

Is shill bidding illegal?

It can be. eBay says it’s illegal in many places and can carry severe penalties. The details depend on where you live. It’s against eBay’s and Whatnot’s rules either way.

Can eBay detect shill bidding?

eBay says it has “a number of systems in place to detect and monitor bidding patterns and practices.” It doesn’t say how they work. eBay can see account details that buyers can’t, so it’s in a better position to connect a shill to a seller than you are.

Can I get my money back if I won a shilled auction?

Probably not for the overpayment alone. eBay’s Money Back Guarantee is built for items that don’t arrive or don’t match the listing, not for a high final price. If you think you were shilled, report it with your screenshots and contact eBay support. If you haven’t paid yet, talk to eBay before you decide anything, because walking away from an auction you won can count against your account.

Can a seller’s friend bid on their auction?

Bidding to push the price up is shill bidding, whoever does it. eBay allows buying from someone you know if the intent is real, and says Buy It Now is fine for that. The safe route is for the seller to list the card at a fixed price for the friend.

The post Shill Bidding on eBay: How to Spot It on Card Auctions appeared first on Rorz Cards.