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Magic: The Gathering

MTG card scanner for the printing you actually own

A Magic card's name says little about its price. The set, frame, finish and language decide it. SnapCard matches one photo to the card and its printing, then lists recent sales from eBay, Goldin, Heritage, PWCC and Pristine beside a condition estimate on the PSA scale.

An MTG card scanner identifies a Magic: The Gathering card from a photo and returns what that printing has recently sold for. Read the printing before the price. A popular card can exist in a dozen sets and treatments, from a deck reprint worth pocket change to a serialized copy that sells for four figures, and only the set code tells them apart.

Scan a Magic card

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Diagram of a Magic: The Gathering card marking the set symbol, info line, frame, foil and serial number that decide its price

How to scan a Magic card

One card per photo. A clean, flat sleeve is fine; a scratched toploader is not.

  1. 1

    Photograph the front

    Square to the camera, with no glare across the bottom left corner. That corner carries the set code and collector number on any card printed since mid-2014.

  2. 2

    Confirm the printing

    Compare the set and number in the match with the card in your hand. Foil, etched, borderless and showcase versions are separate entries with separate sales.

  3. 3

    Read the sales

    Completed sales appear raw and graded, each with its platform and date. The condition estimate shows whether the card is worth a grading fee.

Where a Magic card tells you which printing it is

Cards from Magic 2015 onward carry an info line in the bottom left corner. Older cards have to be read from the set symbol, the border and the frame.

123/5000123 RABC • EN12345
  1. 1

    Set symbol

    At the right end of the type line. Its color is the rarity: black for common, silver for uncommon, gold for rare and orange-red for mythic rare, a tier that began with Shards of Alara in October 2008.

  2. 2

    Info line

    Collector number, rarity letter, set code and language. Magic 2015 introduced it in July 2014. Since March of the Machine in 2023 the number has four digits and the rarity letter comes first.

  3. 3

    Frame and art

    Borderless, showcase, extended-art and retro-frame versions of one card are different printings. The art crop and the frame shape give them away even when the name and text match.

  4. 4

    Finish

    Foils were first inserted at random in Urza's Legacy in February 1999, and the earliest carry a small shooting star in the lower left. Etched and other special foils trade apart from the regular foil.

  5. 5

    Serial number

    Serialized cards arrived with The Brothers' War in November 2022: 63 schematic artifacts, 500 numbered copies each, in Collector Boosters only. The number sits at the lower left of the art.

Drawn layout of a modern Magic card. Positions follow the frame in use since Magic 2015; the set code ABC and the numbers are placeholders.

Why one Magic card has ten prices

Wizards of the Coast reprints popular cards constantly, and each reprint is its own printing in the market. A copy from a recent Commander precon and a borderless foil from a Collector Booster play identically and sell at very different prices, so a scanner that stops at the card name gives you an answer you cannot use.

Vintage cards add a second problem. Alpha, Beta, Unlimited and Revised carry no set symbol at all. Alpha and Beta have black borders, with Alpha's corners visibly rounder than Beta's; Unlimited and Revised have white borders. Those four are priced as different cards.

What separates one Magic printing from another
DifferenceHow to spot itEffect on price
Core-set editionBorder color and corner shape on cards with no set symbolAlpha and Beta copies sell at a large multiple of Revised
FinishShine under a tilted light; a star mark on the earliest foilsVaries by card; a foil rare usually sells above the non-foil
TreatmentFrame shape and art cropCollector Booster treatments usually sell above the regular frame
LanguageLanguage code on the info lineJapanese and other non-English printings have their own buyers
SerializationA printed number such as 123/500 on the artThe scarcest version of any card that has one

Sold prices from eBay and auction houses

SnapCard's values come from completed sales on eBay, Goldin, Heritage Auctions, PWCC and Pristine Auction. That is where graded Magic, Reserved List cards and early foils change hands, and where a real sale price is on record.

Most day-to-day trading in Magic singles runs through store marketplaces such as TCGplayer and Card Kingdom, and SnapCard does not read those. For a card that sells for a few dollars, the store's market price is the better reference. For anything you might grade, insure or put up at auction, the completed sales are.

Near Mint at the store, PSA at the grader

Stores sell raw Magic singles by Near Mint, Lightly Played, Moderately Played, Heavily Played and Damaged. Graders use a 1 to 10 scale. The estimate in SnapCard is on the PSA scale, so it answers a grading question: whether a dual land or an early foil would come back high enough to justify the fee.

It does not tell you which store bucket a card belongs in, and a card a store calls Near Mint can still miss PSA 9 on centering alone.

Before you send a Magic card to a grader

Measure the centering first. PSA allows about 60/40 on the front for a 9 and 55/45 for a 10, and many older cards were cut further off than that.

Limits worth knowing

The scanner is built for identifying and pricing one card at a time. A few things a single photo cannot settle:

  • One card per scan, front plus an optional back; there is no binder-page or bulk mode
  • Foil can be missed under flat light, so tilt the card until the shine shows and check that the match says foil
  • Counterfeits of Reserved List cards exist, and a photo cannot test card stock or the light test
  • Store marketplace prices, including TCGplayer and Card Kingdom, are not in the sales list
Info line added, with Magic 2015
2014
First mythic rares, Shards of Alara
2008
First random foils, Urza's Legacy
1999
Sale sources: eBay and four auction houses
5

MTG card scanner questions

Is there a free MTG card scanner app?

SnapCard is free to download on iPhone and needs no account. SnapCard Pro, at $7.99 a week or $39.99 a year, removes the scan limit and adds the full condition analysis, the collection manager and iCloud sync.

how do i know what set my magic card is from

On cards printed since mid-2014, read the three-letter set code on the bottom left info line. On older cards, the set symbol at the end of the type line names the set. Alpha, Beta, Unlimited and Revised have no symbol and are told apart by border color and corner shape.

does the scanner tell foil from non-foil magic cards

It returns the printing it matches, and foil printings are listed separately. Foil is the detail a photo most often misses in flat light, so tilt the card until it shines and confirm the match.

Can it scan graded Magic cards in a slab?

Yes. Point the camera at a PSA, BGS, SGC or CGC slab and it reads the company, grade and cert number from the label, then prices the card from graded sales at that grade.

does snapcard use tcgplayer prices

No. Its sales come from eBay, Goldin, Heritage Auctions, PWCC and Pristine Auction. Check a store market price as well before selling an inexpensive card.

can it scan japanese magic cards

It recognizes many non-English printings, but sales records for them are thinner. Compare the language code on the info line with the match before trusting the number.

Check the printing, then the price

Scan the card, confirm the set code and finish, and read what that exact printing has sold for.

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