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.
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Both CollX and Ludex are great sports card scanner options for anyone trying to value and organize their collection. While Ludex did significantly better at scanning and recognizing 90s insert cards, I do like the smoothness of the CollX experience and the different ways to visualize your collection. I was impressed that both picked up numbered parallel variations, and could even identify refractors.
Here are the 40 cards I scanned with each app: 10 vintage, 10 junk wax era rookies, 10 90s inserts, and 10 modern cards. I attempted to mix in numbered parallels and different variations to trust both apps.
- “CORRECT” means the app identified the card perfectly
- “INCORRECT” means the app misidentified the card
- “UNKNOWN” means the app wasn’t able to identify the card at all
In most cases, the “INCORRECT” card was identified as a very close parallel or “reprint.” For example, Ludex incorrectly identified the 1984 Donruss Tony Gwynn as a 1994 Donruss Anniversary “1984”—which looks exactly the same.
In other cases, the card was incorrectly identified simply because it didn’t recognize the type of parallel. For example, while Ludex mostly identified the 1996 Stadium Club Hideo Nomo Power Streak correctly, it didn’t identify that it was the “Members Only” parallel.
@ballcardgenius Testing out the CollX app with some junk wax rookies…good stuff! #greenscreenvideo #greenscreen
♬ original sound – ballcardgenius
Of course, we always want the right card in our collection and the value between two cards can differ srasticaly. The good thing is, even when a card is identified incorrectly, you have the option to select the right card (and value) before adding to your collection.
It’s really only when either app couldn’t identify the card at all that you had to do some searching to either find or manually add.
| CARD | COLLX | LUDEX |
|---|---|---|
| Tony Gwynn 1984 Donruss | CORRECT | INCORRECT |
| Dusty Baker 1975 Topps | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| George Brett 1984 Donruss | INCORRECT | CORRECT |
| Ozzie Smith 1981 Donruss | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Lou Pinella 1974 Topps | INCORRECT | CORRECT |
| Brooks Robinson 1973 Topps | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Tim Raines 1981 Topps | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Rollie Fingers 1971 Topps | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Johnny Bench 1969 Topps | UNKNOWN | INCORRECT |
| Johnny Bench 1968 Topps | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Barry Bonds 1987 Donruss | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Manny Ramirez 1992 Topps Gold Winner | CORRECT | INCORRECT |
| Larry Walker 1990 Leaf | INCORRECT | INCORRECT |
| Randy Johnson 1989 Topps | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Juan Gonzalez 1990 Donruss Rev Neg | INCORRECT | INCORRECT |
| Jose Canseco 1986 Donruss The Rookies | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Frank Thomas 1991 Topps Toys R’ Us | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Chipper Jones 1990 Classic Yellow | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Chipper Jones 1991 Classic Best | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Juan Gonzalez 1990 CMC | UNKNOWN | CORRECT |
| Rickey Henderson 2017 Topps Update | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Ronald Acuna 2020 Topps Chrome Refractor | CORRECT | INCORRECT |
| Josh Jung 2019 Donruss American Pride Bronze | INCORRECT | CORRECT |
| Bryce Harper 2015 Prizm RWB | CORRECT | INCORRECT |
| Rickey Henderson 2020 Allen Ginter Green Chrome /99 | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Ken Griffey Jr. 2022 Topps Archives | INCORRECT | CORRECT |
| Ramon Laureano 2021 Topps Gypsy Queen BW /50 | INCORRECT | CORRECT |
| Mike Trout 2021 Topps National Baseball Card Day | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Bryce Harper 2013 Topps Update US180 Red | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Matt Olson 2016 Stars & Stripes Crusade | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN |
| Barry Bonds 1999 Topps Lords of the Diamonds | UNKNOWN | CORRECT |
| Ivan Rodriguez 2000 Topps Hands of Gold | UNKNOWN | CORRECT |
| Ken Caminiti 1997 Topps Hobby Masters | UNKNOWN | CORRECT |
| Derek Jeter 2021 Topps Golden Anniversary | UNKNOWN | INCORRECT |
| Will Clark 1994 Flair Hot Gloves | UNKNOWN | CORRECT |
| Tim Salmon 1997 Select Tools of the Trade | UNKNOWN | CORRECT |
| Barry Bonds 1995 Donruss Long Ball Leaders | CORRECT | CORRECT |
| Frank Thomas 2001 Bowman’s Best Impact Players | UNKNOWN | CORRECT |
| Hideo Nomo 1996 Stadium Club Power Streak Members Only | UNKNOWN | INCORRECT |
| Barry Bonds 1997 Ultra Power Plus | CORRECT | CORRECT |
In the end, are either of these apps perfect? Of course not, nothing is. Especially during a time where each card has seemingly one hundred different parallels, mixed in with reissues and design similarities, it’s amazing these apps are as good as they are.
