10 Best Baseball Card Value Apps [Expert Review]

Ryan Barone (@ballcardgenius, Card Expert) is a lifelong member of the hobby. He has been quoted in PSA Magazine, and his content has regularly been mentioned in “Quick Rips” (the Topps RIPPED Newsletter) and across other hobby publications. hello@ballcardgenius.com; Last Time Ago LLC dba Ballcard Genius.

---

Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As I am a part of the eBay Partner Network and other programs, if you follow these links and make a purchase, I’ll receive commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

It’s incredible to think that baseball cards have blown up to the point where we are talking hobby apps, and using the best tools possible to identify cards, appraise cards (or value cards you’re looking to track and purchase), scan them into your collection, or even pre-grade them.

So, here are 10 different apps to consider when it comes to doing more with your sports cards. (Note, I use baseball cards as the main example, but most of these cab be used for all trading cards, including other sports like basketball and football, non-sports like Pokemon, and more.)

For a quick hit, check out this video I just put together:

While there isn’t a “ranking” order I have tried to group these by app “type.” For instance, some of these are for reading and identifying cards, or even with checklists for cataloging your collection; others are for value lookups and appraisals, while some do a little of everything. (I’ve split out card selling apps and even those for centering into separate blog posts.)

Here is a bulleted list with links leading to the different websites (and mention of what the app is great for), and then details and app store links to follow:

• CollX
• Ludex
• Market Movers
• Cardbase
• Card Hedge
• NextGem
• TrueGrade
• Alt
• Beckett
• eBay

1. Sports Card Investor (or Market Movers)

4.9 stars and 23K ratings on the App Store, and 4.6 stars on 4.4K ratings on Google Play

“But baseball cards aren’t investments!” If you spend any time in any baseball card community, you’ve probably heard this point argued a time or two.

No matter your thoughts, you might still would like to have a clean, easy-to-use app to help you appraise your collection, right?

The Sports Card Investor app boasts big crisp images, tables of data showing recent sales, and historical popular card charts to allow you to easily view just how “up and down” a card’s value might be cruising.

There is, of course, the option to buy cards directly from the app as well thanks to the integrated eBay ads and listings as well.

A lot of data and buying options brought together into one place and presented through a clean interface.

2. CollX

4.5 stars and 7.3K ratings on the App Store, and 3.3 stars on 4K ratings on Google Play

CollX is probably the truest baseball card scanning app on this list, along with perhaps TrueGrade, which I’ll also add below. Anyway, I actually did a video on CollX, which I’ll let do most of the talking, but super easy and straightforward.

Grab a card, scan it with the app, the app reads and identifies the card based on its database, and you receive a value.

Now, no app is going to be perfect, and I do always recommend checking and double checking with multiple sources, but with a clean interface and functionality, I have high hopes for this one.

Last, CollX is also an app for selling cards, and of course buying them! I have yet to make a purchase but hope to do so soon. I’ll certainly report back with details once that happens.

Take a look:

@ballcardgenius

Reply to @positivewaveskeertyeet #greenscreen Just tried out the @collxapp! Really cool and fun.

♬ Aggresive Urban Trap Beat / Hard Rap Instrumental – EMolluskBeats

@ballcardgenius

Starting to play around with @nextgemapp and like it a lot so far. Anyone else?

♬ original sound – ballcardgenius

6. Ludex

4.6 stars on 2.4K ratings on the App Store and 4.5 stars on 1.9K ratings on Google Play

New to the mix is Ludex, which is tagged as a “…sports and trading card scanning app that accurately identifies and tracks the value of your card collection.” I recently took the app for a spin and loved how easy it was to get started, and how quickly the app scanned and identified my cards.

Read More: Collx vs. Ludex Scanner App Review

The process is simple—grab a card, click the “Scan Card” button, line up the card for the scan, click the button as if you were taking a picture, and a few seconds after the app reads and identifies the card, you see something like this. Clean, clear, and informative:

Once scanned, you can view the card’s pricing report, which will take you to a list of recent sales with clickable eBay links if you wanted to verify past sales. You can also add the card to your portfolio, and as you can see from the image above, select a different parallel in case the card was misidentified.

While I did hit a couple of roadblocks when scanning numbered cards, I’m hopeful the AI only gets smarter and smarter from this point forward, with more and more cards added to the database.

7. TrueGrade

3.3 stars and 70 ratings on the App Store, and 2.4 stars on 52 ratings on Google Play

While the apps presented so far all help you identify cards, price and/or catalog your collection, TrueGrade is different in that it is a card centering app, and one that offers scanning and evaluating your card for grading, primarily.

You’ll find the functionality is similar and expected (place the card as if you’re taking a photo, click, and wait) but there is certainly more direction given the app’s purpose is to provide a grade and condition rating.

For example, here are the image requirements and guidelines to ensure you get the most accurate grade as possible:

To see this in action, I scanned this Jarren Duran 2022 Topps Update Black /71. It’s not a card I’d grade given the centering isn’t perfect, but the corners and edges aren’t bad given the tough black border. (I was also curious how the surface would be graded given the photo comes with rainfall.)

After a few seconds of readings and calculations, the card received:

• 9.5 Corners
• 9.5 Edges
• 10 Surface
• 6.5 Centeredness

While I was thrown off by the 6.5 centeredness, I felt the grade was fairly accurate. Like all things, though (and as you’ll see me mention a number of times here) nothing is going to be perfect, so consider this an initial first step when deciding to grade or not to grade.

8. Alt

4.8 stars and 39 ratings on the App Store, and 3.7 stars on 61 ratings on Google Play

So, consider this a special entry because it’s not a true app, but I found it pretty cool and useful so wanted to share.

If you haven’t heard of Alt, it is many things, but most pertinent to this post is that is a marketplace where you can buy sports cards. Of course, you can also sell cards, and one tool Alt provides to help you do so is their “Instant pricer” tool.

Alt offers a new exchange (among other things) where you can buy and sell cards. It’s easy to use and has some nice data features (Learn more about Alt.)

If you’d like to give Alt a shot, you can grab a free $25 spending credit—simply visit this referral link, and sign up for an account. Then, once you make a deposit, you’ll receive $25 in promo credits to buy cards with, and I will as well.

At first, I thought it was going to be some sort of scanner, but all you need to do is upload a photo of your card. After a few seconds, you’re met with a new page of data, including the “Alt value” but also the “last sold price” along with a list of the most recent eBay sales.

In addition to the app, Alt is one of the better sites that have graded cards for sale.

9. eBay

4.7 stars and 124,000 ratings on the App Store, and 4.7 stars on 3,800,000 ratings on Google Play

Yes, still the king cad app for many reasons, and while there might be a lot to be said about buying and selling cards on the eBay platform, the app provides a few different ways to really zero in on a card’s value.

This includes looking at recently sold listings of similar cards to get an idea of how much a card is worth, or, if there aren’t any sold “comps” or comparisons, looking to see if there are any cards currently for sale on market.

One thing to point out is, if you’re looking at the trends of a card’s value, try not to get too invested in either the top sales price (as a seller) or the lowest sales price (as a buyer).

Meaning, unfortunately, not every eBay auction that ends with a high bidder or purchaser gets paid for, which means the price you might be seeing, let’s call it the outlier, might not be a great indicator of true worth or value.

Thus, if you’re able to take an average or see that the least few sales of a card all settled for around the same price or within a given range, you might be able to gain more confidence in that price being the “true” value.

So, eBay—a trusted name with a ton of data thanks to the volume of transactions, but some potentially misleading information stemming from non-paying bidders, and, one other consideration…

App Store
Google Play

10. Beckett

4.5 stars and 1,600 ratings on the App Store, and 3.1 stars on 714 ratings on Google Play

Another name you’ve probably heard a time or two, only this time, instead of the monthly subscription magazine you’d run and check the mail for, you have card values at your fingertips with the Beckett app.

You will still have to pay the monthly fee to access, but if you’re a regular Beckett user, and have found yourself consulting either the print or online guide from time to time, this app should make things a bit easier.

One thing to point out—Beckett value can vary greatly from the actual sold-for pricing that you’ll see on eBay and other apps. So, take this info as you will, (perhaps more to compare different cards) but the apps above might be more fluid and thus better indicators of true value of the cards you’re looking to buy or sell at the moment.

Beyond being able to price cards through the app, it has a card marketplace as well for buying and selling.

App Store
Google Play