Scanner TCG AI 2.0 Adds the Japanese Catalog
Release notes for Scanner TCG AI 2.0: browse Japanese sets in Explore, a collection value dashboard, a wishlist, graded card tracking and four-language search.
Key takeaways
- Explore now includes the Japanese catalog, so Japanese sets can be browsed card by card rather than only reached through a scan.
- The home screen leads with collection value instead of the scan button.
- Wishlist and graded card tracking are both in, with PSA, BGS and CGC recorded against the card.
- Search covers four card languages: English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.
- Prices continue to come from TCGplayer and Cardmarket, shown as two figures rather than one blended number.
What changed in 2.0
Version 2.0 is a structural release rather than a feature drop. The app was built around a single action, scanning a card, and everything else hung off that. As people started using it to manage collections rather than to check one card at a time, that shape stopped fitting. 2.0 reorganises the app around the collection, with scanning as one of the ways cards get into it.
The headline addition is the Japanese catalog. Everything else follows from the same idea: the app should be able to tell you about a card whether or not you are holding it.
Browse the Japanese catalog in Explore
Explore now covers Japanese sets alongside English ones. You can open an expansion, page through its card list, and open any card to see its details, rather than needing a physical copy in front of the camera.
This matters for two reasons that come up constantly. Japanese sets are structured differently from English ones, with smaller expansions on their own numbering and their own set codes, so a Japanese card cannot simply be looked up as if it were an English card with a translated name. And Japanese expansions generally arrive before their English counterparts, so browsing the Japanese catalog is how you see what is coming.
If you have not worked with Japanese cards before, Japanese vs English Pokémon cards covers the differences in numbering, rarity marks and print quality that make the two catalogues genuinely separate.
Search across four card languages
Card search now spans English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean printings. Each language is indexed against its own set data, which is the part that makes the results usable: a Japanese card resolves to its Japanese set and collector number instead of being force-matched to the nearest English entry.
Practically, this means a mixed collection stops being two collections. You can search the card you are holding regardless of where it was printed, and the entry you add records which printing it is.
A dashboard that leads with collection value
The home screen now opens on the value of what you own, drawn from the cards in your collection and the current market figures for each one.
Treat the number for what it is: a snapshot of a moving market, based on recent sales of similar cards, before fees and shipping. It is useful for insurance, for deciding what to sell, and for sanity-checking a trade. It is not a payout figure. The mechanics behind those prices are explained in how Pokémon card prices are actually set, and the way to read a single card’s value is in what is my Pokémon card worth.
Wishlist
Cards you want but do not own now have somewhere to live. Add anything from Explore or from a scan to a wishlist, and it stays there separately from your collection.
The obvious use is at a convention or a local shop, where the question is always whether you already own the card in front of you. The less obvious one is planning: a wishlist next to a collection total is a much more honest picture of what a set completion actually costs.
Graded cards tracked as their own entries
Slabs are recorded with their grading company and grade, so a PSA, BGS or CGC card sits in the collection as its own entry rather than as a nicer version of the raw card. That is the correct model, because a graded card and a raw card are different assets with different prices and different buyers.
If you are deciding whether a raw card is worth submitting, the cost structure is broken down in PSA vs CGC vs BGS grading costs. Grading fees are tiered by declared value and turnaround, and the fee is only part of the bill.
Scan with the camera or import from your gallery
Scanning still works two ways. Point the camera at a card and get an identification with a confidence score, or import photos you already took from your gallery and process them afterwards.
The second route exists because cataloguing rarely happens where the cards are. Photograph a stack under good light, import them later, and the result is the same. Either way you can set finish, condition and grade as you add the card, which is far cheaper than going back to fill it in.
If you are facing a shoebox or a shelf of binders, scan your whole collection in one session sets out a workflow that gets it done in a sitting.
Prices from TCGplayer and Cardmarket
Card details show figures from both TCGplayer and Cardmarket, in dollars and euros. We deliberately do not average them into a single number. They are two different markets with different buyers, shipping realities and condition standards, and presenting one blended figure would hide exactly the information that makes the pair useful.
Interface languages
The app interface is available in eighteen languages, which is separate from the four card languages in the catalog. One is what the buttons say, the other is which printings the app knows about, and they are worth keeping straight when reading the settings screen.
Known limitations
Some things are worth stating plainly.
Scan accuracy depends on the photo. Glare on holo foil, a tilted card and dim light are the three things that produce a wrong match or a low confidence score, and no amount of model quality fixes a photo with the artwork blown out.
Authenticity checking is a first filter, not a verdict. The app compares what it sees against catalog entries and flags what does not line up, but it cannot judge card stock or the core layer from an image. Anything valuable still deserves the physical checks in how to spot a fake Pokémon card.
Catalog coverage is not uniform. Older sets, regional promos and unusual distributions are the ones most likely to be missing or thin, and prices on cards that rarely sell are less reliable regardless of where they come from.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which card languages does Scanner TCG AI cover?
Search and catalog data cover English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean printings, each indexed against its own set structure and numbering. That means a Japanese card is matched to its Japanese set rather than to the nearest English equivalent. The app interface is separately available in eighteen languages.
Can I browse Japanese sets without scanning a card?
Yes. Explore includes Japanese expansions, so you can open a set, page through its card list and view any individual card without having a physical copy. This was the main addition in version 2.0.
How are graded cards handled?
A graded card is stored as its own entry with the grading company and grade attached, covering PSA, BGS and CGC. Keeping slabs separate from raw copies matters because they are priced by different buyers in a different market. A raw price tells you very little about what a graded copy sells for.
Where do the prices come from?
From TCGplayer and Cardmarket, shown as separate figures in dollars and euros rather than combined into one. The two reflect different markets with their own buyers, shipping costs and condition standards, so the pair is better read as a range than as a single value.