Scan for a Deal

What Scan for a Deal does

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Tap the center camera action when you are researching a card. Before a camera opens, choose Check a card's price. The durable deal tools also remain available from More → Vault → Scan for a Deal:

• Buy or Trade — see acquisition math and keep Buy, Trade, Watch, and Pass decisions together.
• Price Check Only — identify and price without adding anything.

Each purpose has an explicit Single and Batch option. The installed app and mobile browsers use the phone's full-detail rear still camera for every front and back, including Batch; RocketVault never turns a lower-resolution WebView preview frame into the upload. Desktop Batch keeps a continuous viewfinder open for scanner-style work. Before every shot, choose Portrait or Landscape for that individual image; a landscape front can use a portrait back.

For a one-card Price Check, RocketVault keeps one camera session open: the viewfinder says Front image, advances to Back image after the first shutter, then shows the complete pair for one Use both images or Retake pair decision. RocketVault does not make you reopen the camera between sides.

Durable Add, Buy, Watch, and Trade flows save the front photo to the device immediately, then ask for the matching back. RocketVault will not price or action the scan until both sides are present: the front supplies the player and design, while the back supplies the card number, copyright year, product line, and serial/parallel evidence needed to select trustworthy comps. RocketVault then layers in:

• Card identity, including visible slab company and overall grade
• Whether the card is already in your vault
• RocketVault Pricing with an evidence-confidence label
• Your maximum offer after fees, shipping, supplies, and target ROI
• Candidate parallels with price differences
• The cheapest conservatively matched active online listing, when it was checked, and a refresh action
• Progress for catalog sets you explicitly choose to track
• A purpose-specific action bar for deal and price-check decisions, with an Add to Vault escape hatch when you decide to keep the card

Every scan shows a labeled progress bar: Upload → Identify → Match → Price → Market → Finish. Batch scans also show their queue position, thumbnail, detected identity as soon as it is known, and the exact current or failed stage. A failure stays on the device and can be retried from that stage. Batch processing keeps full-size photos on the device until each card is sent, so every card remains recoverable if a mobile upload is interrupted. In the installed iPhone app, photos are written one at a time to app-owned storage and transferred as files to a short-lived, private RocketVault upload before identification starts. The app retries temporary connection failures and checks the exact byte count sent. RocketVault then verifies each file's owner, size, type, and storage generation before it enters the visual-AI or pricing flow. Capture previews preserve the complete photo frame instead of cropping the top and bottom to a square.

Scan for a Deal, manual-shutter batch mode, table carts, show sessions, max-offer math, and the raw-to-graded value ladder are available on every plan.

Weak signal and offline behavior

The front is written to the device as soon as it is captured; the back completes that same durable record before identification starts. If the venue connection drops, the scan shows as waiting and processes when the app returns to the foreground or connectivity comes back. Refreshing or backgrounding the browser does not discard the queue. Open More → Vault → Scan for a Deal → Saved scans to see every local photo, its state, and a direct Continue scan action. The number beside Scan for a Deal in More counts this same visible list. An active show is also retried to the server on every foreground and online transition using the same idempotency key.

If an earlier deal-scan batch contains multiple completed cards you already own, choose Add all ready cards to Vault from the processing queue. The cards are uploaded to server-backed, listable inventory together while scans that still need a back photo or review remain recoverable on the device.

Camera capture and photo-library selection use the same front/back quality check. If a blocking blur, glare, exposure, resolution, or side-pair warning is found, choose Cancel to retake the pair or explicitly continue. Continuing records the override with the durable scan. The server checks both sides again for Add, Buy, Watch, and Trade; saved targets and shared second-opinion pages show when photo quality needs review or an override was recorded.

Install RocketVault to your home screen before a show when possible. Mobile browsers can evict website storage after long periods of disuse; starting a show session displays an install reminder for that reason.

Reading the result

High-confidence exact pricing shows a point estimate. Thin or old evidence shows a range. When identity is strong but no exact catalog or marketplace match exists, RocketVault keeps a bounded conservative value visible as a clearly labeled estimate; it never presents that fallback as an exact RocketVault Pricing match. A low-confidence identity, slab company, overall grade, poor-glare capture, or suspected wrong-product match still suppresses money until you confirm the read. If no usable value can be calculated, the result explains that directly and offers Try pricing again instead of showing blank money.

Quick Price preserves the small back-of-card text at higher resolution. If the first identity read is still uncertain, RocketVault automatically performs one higher-detail reread before matching or pricing. If that reread cannot establish a reliable identity, catalog, ownership, marketplace, and pricing lookups stop; the result names the capture problem and asks you to retake the affected image or confirm the card details. It never substitutes a generic fallback price for an unidentified card.

Card identity uses a reasoned visual read, and exact-parallel selection uses a deeper reasoned comparison against the closed catalog candidate list. After the deterministic pricing engine selects its evidence and price, an independent reviewer checks the images, identity, selected parallel, price source, market context, and relevant player context. The reviewer may approve the result or route it to verification, but it cannot invent a new parallel or price outside the deterministic candidate set. Reviewer corrections begin in shadow mode so RocketVault can measure disagreements before allowing them to change customer money automatically.

Tap the comp count beside the confidence label to inspect the individual sales, prices, dates, conditions, and source links behind the estimate.

The max offer uses:

net proceeds = comp value - marketplace fee - order fee
             - promoted-listing fee - shipping - supplies

max offer = net proceeds / (1 + target ROI)

Use the 25%, 50%, or 100% ROI chips during a negotiation. Change the defaults under Settings → Acquisition; the worked example there updates with your numbers.

Correcting a parallel, identity field, grader, or grade refreshes comps, max offer, the live listing, and the grade ladder together. Old money is never kept beside a corrected identity.

The parallel picker uses exact-parallel evidence rather than a name-only list. When you confirm a card's parallel, its approved front image becomes the preferred reference for that same set and parallel; otherwise RocketVault uses an exact catalog reference. It never substitutes an image from a different parallel in the set. When available, the picker shows distinguishing traits, the evidence source, and when that reference was updated. Use Report incorrect image when a reference does not match; the reported image is removed from the current decision while its text evidence remains available.

An active listing is a timestamped snapshot, not a reservation. It can sell, expire, or change after RocketVault checks it. Tap Refresh active listing before relying on it during a negotiation. If eBay is slow or rate limited, RocketVault Pricing and max-offer math remain available.

Track a set

When a catalog match exposes a numbered checklist, choose Track this set. RocketVault compares distinct checklist numbers with catalog-linked cards in your vault. Parallels do not inflate the checklist, archived or zero-quantity cards do not count, and a number you already own is called out.

The completion message appears only when the scanned number is the final missing checklist number and would become owned after you add it. Sets without a reliable numbered catalog checklist cannot be tracked, preventing a guessed completion claim. Choose Stop at any time to remove the tracking preference without changing your cards.

Acting on a card

Add or Buy

Add places the card in your vault. Buy also records quantity and an optional purchase price. A front and back are required before either action; purchase price and parallel confirmation can still be deferred at the table, and every deferred detail becomes a visible task in Needs attention.

A price of $0 is valid for a free card and is not treated as missing.

Watch and share

Watch saves immediately, then optionally accepts a table/dealer label and asking price. If the ask is above the cheapest matched active listing, RocketVault says so plainly.

The share button creates a link containing only the image, identity, comp snapshot, confidence, ask, and table label. It never exposes the owner’s vault, cost basis, margin, or max offer. Links expire after seven days by default. From scan history you can disable a link immediately or create a fresh link that invalidates the old one. A Watch item converts to a purchase with one tap.

Trade

Trade comparison only uses your active, trade-capable marketplace listings. Cash-only, reserved, paused, and closed listings are excluded. Each side shows its value source and confidence. Thin target comps produce a delta range instead of false precision.

Choose Suggest cards to trade to select the available card or bundle closest to the other side’s value. The suggestion never sends or accepts an offer: it replaces the current draft selection, then every card remains individually editable. Cards without a usable value are excluded, and the closest under- or over-value bundle is shown when no exact match exists.

The delta is context, not a verdict; condition, liquidity, scarcity, and preference still matter.

Table carts and exact cost basis

Start a show session, open a table cart, and scan each card you are holding. The header keeps item count, total comp value, and total max offer visible.

At settlement, enter the one lump sum you negotiated:

1. Cards with good comps use comp value as their allocation weight.
2. A card without a comp must get a rough value or be marked Freebie.
3. A freebie gets exactly $0 basis.
4. An exact per-card basis override is reserved first.
5. Every remaining cent is distributed proportionally using deterministic largest-remainder rounding.

The preview can be changed until commit. Allocated bases always sum to the negotiated total exactly, to the cent. The server keeps the table in Settling until every expected card arrives and the exact sum reconciles.

Batch mode

From Scan for a Deal, choose Batch. On a phone, tap Take photo for each full-detail still; on desktop, use the continuous manual-shutter viewfinder. There is no stability auto-trigger. Capture a front, then its matching back. Each front moves into the durable queue immediately; adding its back starts identification and releases the full images from page memory.

Done is enabled only after a complete pair, so an interrupted odd photo cannot be priced against the wrong card. If you close the camera after a front, that photo appears under Saved scans and resumes at the back-capture step. Failed and low-confidence scans sort ahead of clean results. Actions advance to the next card without forcing table-side typing.

Scanning never asks for a card show or assigns one automatically. After a card has been added, open its Card Detail → Card shows action to add or remove it from any show.

End-of-day reconciliation

The show summary tracks cards scanned and bought, open tables, spend, acquired comp value, projected post-fee margin, and best/lowest projected buys. It cannot close while a table is unsettled or an allocated card is still syncing.

Use Reconcile skipped details for legacy missing-back records, identity/parallel confirmations, and purchase data. Adding the back to a legacy scan re-runs identity and pricing before money is shown. That queue is resumable; closing the show summary does not delete unresolved card tasks.

Common edge cases

• No exact comp: a bounded fallback can appear as a labeled estimate. If RocketVault cannot calculate even that, no offer is shown; use a rough allocation value or mark the card as a freebie.
• Only one side captured: the scan remains in capture/recovery state and no comp or max offer is shown.
• Front and back are different cards: identity confidence is capped, pricing is suppressed, and the pair routes to review.
• All freebies: a $0 table settlement is valid.
• Manual bases exceed the deal: commit is blocked until overrides fit inside the total.
• Connection dies during commit: local photos and allocations stay queued. Idempotency IDs prevent duplicates on retry.
• Mobile storage is cleared before a table settles: the active show shell is retried to the server on foreground/online transitions; unsynced image blobs still depend on browser storage until their card writes finish.
• Unknown grader or unreadable grade: confirm manually before money appears.
• BGS subgrades: enter the overall grade, not a subgrade.
• PSA qualifier: keep qualifiers such as OC, MK, or ST with the grade.
• Live listing unavailable or sold after the check: sold comps and max offer still render; the timestamped active-listing block degrades independently and can be refreshed.
• Set has no numbered checklist: tracking is unavailable and RocketVault never claims the scan completes it.
• Shared link is forwarded later: expiry, disable, and rotation prevent indefinite access; an expired or revoked URL returns no card data.