Capture cards

Before you capture

• Use bright, even light and a solid, uncluttered background.
• Photograph one card at a time, with the full card inside the frame.
• Capture or upload both the front and the back of each card — CardSense needs both sides to auto-fill the best details.
• Don't worry about perfect details during capture. Review and corrections come later.

Add cards on the web

Open Capture from the sidebar. On desktop, you'll see a drop zone with a camera action beneath it. In a mobile browser, use Take photos or Choose photos.

For spreadsheets, open Loose ends → Import.

• Take photos — opens your device camera to shoot each card live.
• When you enter card details and take front-and-back photos manually, CardZen saves the card, its batch, and its purchase link together. If the final save is interrupted, choose Retry save — your photos stay in place and the retry will not create a duplicate card.
• Choose photos — available in a mobile browser so you can add existing front and back images from your device.
• Drop front + back photos — on desktop, drag image files onto the drop zone (or click it to browse). Add both sides for each card so CardSense can pair them. The Pair front & back tray opens on the same page, right below the drop zone — no separate page to visit.
• Photos stay unpaired until you choose the order you shot them in or pair them yourself. The order buttons and Create cards wait until every photo has uploaded. An arrangement you have started is kept when you come back.
• On desktop, drag a photo onto another front or back to swap them. Use Swap, Remove back, Unpair, and Front only for other corrections. Create cards stays visible while you review; final cropping and card reading continue in batch review after you create the cards.
• During live camera capture, each completed front-and-back pair is saved in browser storage before you move to the next card. When browser storage is available, returning to the same capture session after a reload restores unsaved pairs.
• In a mobile browser, Capture offers both Take front + back photos and Upload existing photos.
• Capturing for a specific purchase? Open the purchase and choose Capture cards — the capture flow opens with that purchase's batch selected, and captured cards link their cost to the purchase automatically.
• Capture progress, status, and error notices automatically adjust to your light or dark display theme.

Quick Scan in the iPhone app

Quick Scan is made for a stack: scan every front, then scan every back in the same order — no need to flip or reorder the stack.

• After Save places a pair in the upload queue, its photos stay on the iPhone and temporary connection problems retry automatically.
• If Save cannot reach CardZen to open or create the batch, keep the review screen open and try again when you're back online.

1. 1Open Capture in the CardZen iPhone app and choose Quick Scan.
2. 2Before starting, choose Vertical or Horizontal. Adjust the frame so one full card fits inside it.
3. 3Start auto-scan, then hold each card still in the frame. The outline confirms detection and CardZen captures automatically. If the frame turns amber, straighten the card and let it settle, or choose Snap to capture manually.
4. 4Scan every front without changing the stack's order, then choose Backs.
5. 5Scan backs in the same order you scanned fronts: the first card's back first, flipping each card over individually as you go.
6. 6Review the front-and-back pairs. Scan any missing backs or remove an incorrect pair before saving.
7. 7Choose Save. If a pair cannot be saved, it stays in review so you can try Save again without duplicating pairs that already succeeded.

Step-by-step web capture

• If your browser blocks camera access, the capture screen offers Try camera again and Upload photos instead.
• If CardZen cannot confirm that a card saved, check the batch before retrying so you do not create a duplicate.

1. 1On the web, open Capture. If you haven't picked a batch first, CardZen creates one automatically for this session.
2. 2Leave "Auto-crop photos for eBay" turned on at the top of the screen, unless you're shooting on a busy background.
3. 3Drop the front and back photos for each card onto the drop zone.
4. 4The "Pair front & back" tray opens right below the drop zone — photos stream in there as they upload, and CardSense reads player, year, set, card number, sport, team, and parallel in the background.
5. 5Need more photos? The drop zone stays on the page — drop again and the new photos join the same tray. You never leave the page to add more.
6. 6In the tray, pick how you shot the cards (front-back-front-back, or all fronts then all backs) or drag photos to pair them, then choose Create cards to jump to the batch and review what CardSense read.

Auto-crop and eBay-ready images

• After you capture a card, CardZen automatically creates three eBay-ready images: a tightly cropped front, a tightly cropped back, and a combined front-and-back image — each squared on a clean neutral background. You'll see these as the FRONT, BACK, and EBAY thumbnails on the card editor.
• Auto-crop finds the card and straightens it, even on a dark background, as long as the background is a single solid color.
• When you upload from a fixed setup where the card doesn't move between shots, CardZen can use the side with clearer edges to guide the other side's crop. Photos taken on your phone are cropped one side at a time, since the card gets picked up and flipped between the two shots.
• For the cleanest results, shoot on a solid, uncluttered surface. Busy backgrounds, hands, or a card stand in frame can throw off the crop.
• Turn "Auto-crop photos for eBay" off at the top of the Capture screen if you'd rather upload photos as shot — they're still squared for eBay, and the pairing screen shows each photo whole.
• When auto-crop can't get a confident tight crop (a busy background or an off-angle shot), the card shows a passive "Check photo crop" note in batch review and the card editor. It never blocks listing — it's just a nudge to glance at the eBay photo before it goes live, and retake it if the crop looks off.

After capture

Captured cards land in a batch. Open the batch to review the AI-read fields, set condition and price, and finish the intake.

Cards that have already used a scan continue through CardSense, including the card that uses your last scan. Only unpaid cards are held for more scans.

In the mobile app, completing a capture for an existing awaiting card moves it into review in its batch, even without running CardSense. Adding your own front and back photos from card details also completes an awaiting placeholder: it moves into review in its open batch, or inventory without one. Replacing photos on a card already past Awaiting photos keeps its current stage.

If you're photographing a package you bought, open its purchase batch first and capture there — your photos complete the waiting cards and the purchase cost links automatically.

Retake photos

Use Retake when a photo is blurry, cropped, too dark, or shows the wrong side. Retaking keeps the card record and its details but replaces the image used for review and listing.

A card imported from an eBay purchase may temporarily show the seller's photo and a Stock photo label. Choose Fix to upload your own front photo. Replace any other purchase-listing photos before publishing. When you add both front and back photos to a placeholder, the same card moves into review with its purchase and cost intact; without a batch, it moves into inventory.