Pokémon card scanner: exact set, value range, and condition from one photo

Set symbol and collector number

On a modern card the collector number sits bottom-left, written as the card's position over the set size: 100/101 for the Gold Star Charizard in EX Dragon Frontiers, a secret-numbered card that sits past the set's official count of 101. Next to it is the set symbol, a small icon unique to each expansion. Together those two facts name one printing and no other.

Cards since Sword & Shield carry a regulation mark, a single letter in a box that says which rotation the card belongs to, and Scarlet & Violet added a three-letter set code beside it. CardLens reads all of it, then confirms the match against the artwork, which is how two cards with the same number in different languages are told apart.

Holo, reverse holo, and the rarity symbol

The small shape beside the number tells you the printed rarity: a circle for common, a diamond for uncommon, a star for rare. Scarlet & Violet expanded the ladder with Double Rare, Ultra Rare, Illustration Rare, Special Illustration Rare, and Hyper Rare, each with its own star marks. The finish is a separate question. A reverse holo has the foil pattern on everything except the artwork; a holo has it on the artwork alone.

The same card number can exist as a non-holo, a reverse holo, and a holo, and in older sets the price gap between them can be large. So the scanner reports the finish next to the number rather than folding it into the name.

Every Pokémon rarity symbol, explained

Base Set, 1st Edition, and shadowless

Vintage cards carry their own tells. Base Set has no set symbol at all, which is itself the identifier. A 1st Edition stamp sits at the lower-left corner of the artwork on the earliest print run. Shadowless cards lack the drop shadow on the right edge of the art frame, and the 1999-2000 copyright line marks the last unlimited print.

These are the differences a beginner misses and a buyer checks first. The scanner catalogs them as distinct printings, so a shadowless Charizard is never valued as an unlimited one.

How to tell 1st Edition and shadowless cards

Japanese cards and promos

Japanese cards use their own numbering, including promo numbers like 227/S-P for the Pikachu from the 2021 Pokémon Stamp Box, a card that was never printed in English. The catalog holds Japanese printings for Pokémon alongside English ones, and the match names the language, because collectors who buy from Japan price the two markets separately.

Black-star promos, McDonald's cards, Prerelease stamps, and Pokémon Center exclusives all get their own entry. If a card exists only as a promo, the match says which promo.