Two letters is enough. A name, a set, or a collector number like 199/165.
Founder of Zukan · Collector since the Base Set
Alex has collected trading cards since the first Pokémon Base Set reached Europe, and has spent as much time cataloguing them as playing with them. Binders sorted three different ways, spreadsheets that died at row 400, a shoebox that turned out to hold the best card he owned: he has lived every pattern this blog writes about.
He started Zukan after failing to find an app that did one simple thing: name the exact printing of a card and show a price he could check, with its source and its date. Zukan is a scanner and collection tracker for iPhone and Android, with twenty games, on-device reading, no ads and no trackers.
On this blog he writes about card prices, the craft of keeping a collection and the tools for it, backed by what the marketplaces and the grading companies actually publish rather than by collector folklore.
Best apps & alternativesBest card scanner apps: the six things a scanner must get right, from naming the exact printing to showing where a price comes from, and an honest comparison of Zukan, Collectr, Dex, Cardonaut, TCGplayer and Delver Lens.
Card pricesWhy card prices change: reprints, rotation, tournament results, grading populations, currency, seasons and social hype, each explained with what it does to a price and how fast. Read the move before you react to it.
Best apps & alternativesCard collection tracker, spreadsheet or app: the columns a spreadsheet needs, the row count where it dies, what an app fixes and what it costs you, and the setup that gives you the best of both.
CollectingFirst edition Pokémon cards explained: the 1st Edition stamp, the shadowless layout, the unlimited print and the later date lines, how to tell them apart in ten seconds, and the price gap between them.
Card pricesIs grading worth it: what PSA, Beckett and CGC do, what it costs, how much a 10 adds against a 9, and the simple calculation that tells you whether a given card should go in a holder.
CollectingPokémon card rarity symbols explained: the circle, diamond and star, the black, silver and gold stars of Scarlet & Violet, secret rares numbered above the set, promos, and the Japanese letters. What each one means for the price.
Card pricesCardmarket vs TCGplayer: two markets, two currencies, two ways of computing a price. Why the figures differ by 20 to 40 percent, what each number actually measures, and which one applies to you.
CollectingHow to organise a card collection: what to sleeve, what goes in a binder and what in a box, the one sort order that never needs redoing, and the catalogue that makes it possible to find a card in ten seconds.
Card pricesHow much is my Pokémon card worth: identify the exact printing, judge the condition, then read a marketplace figure with its date. The method, the traps, and the free tools.
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Zukan names it, prices it from dated market data, and counts it in your collection. Free, on iPhone and Android.
