My new scanner. Best $60 I've ever spent!!

**the 'stache** · 09-01-2012, 12:41 AM

I've been wanting to get a scanner for a while for my card collection. Obviously, I wanted something that could equally handle raw cards (modern and vintage), as well as graded cards, and in one touch cases and top loaders.

I did some research, and based on the feedback of many on different sites, I decided on a Canon Canoscan 8400F. This flatbed scanner met the requirements I had. 1.) It had to have a charge-coupled device (CCD) scanning element. Your average all-in-one scanner/fax/printer will have a CIS element, made for text documents. The CCD allows for clear scanning of elements with some depth to them, important especially for BGS slabs. Second, I wanted a cold cathode fluorescent lamp for the lighting souce. LED light sources tend to cause streaking, especially on metallic-looking cards, or heavily reflective cards.

I get it yesterday, downloaded the driver and software from the Canon website, and got cracking. Let me just say, also, that Canon's email support was top notch. I contacted them three times overnight and got quick, courteous, and helpful responses each time within the hour.

This scanner is 8 years old guys. It cost me $45 plus about $16 for shipping. I'm adding a one year warranty through Ebay.

It goes without saying I am thrilled with this scanner. I scanned at 300 dpi, and used Photoshop CS to do some slight tweaking of color saturation (typically on darker cards), and used a less than 1 point unmask filter. I resized the cards, and saved them as .png file types. That's it. The scanner cropped all the cards for me (obviously, in the future, I'll put a lighter piece of paper behind the darker cards so the edges stand out more.

The results, I think, are spectacular:

Raw cards are no problem, vintage or modern:

Want to do a scan of a card in a top loader? It comes out great:

Thick jersey cards are no problem, either. They scan beautifully:

What about cards in one touch hard cases? They come out perfect once again, regardless if the card is a vintage card, or a modern card:

But often the hardest thing for a card collector to scan are the graded cards. They, too, come out beautifully. PSA...BGS...doesn't matter:

It rare that something exceeds my expectations, but this scanner has just blown me away. I bought an 8 year old used scanner, and Canon answered my every question. I think they now have a customer for life.

If anybody is looking for a way to scan their cards, this is it, gang. These things will pop up on Ebay, and they're an inexpensive solution.

I am a happy collector tonight!

**Anthony** · 09-01-2012, 01:01 PM

great quality for such a cheap price! nice pickup! looking forward to see some more of your collection :D

**joee5** · 09-01-2012, 01:08 PM

looks and sounds as if you got yourself a great deal there

**spuds1961** · 09-02-2012, 10:23 AM

Beautiful scans,and the cards ain't bad either,nice investment that will surely make your money back.

**jdawg** · 09-02-2012, 10:27 AM

i have a canon mx439...and im loving it..i used to have to scan a card then crop it then onto the next...well my new one now i can put 8 cards down evenly spaced and it scans them all and auto crops them all individually and saves them..so its getting a heck of alot easier for me sto scan my common inserts and such just incase i can find someone who wants them lol

**the 'stache** · 03-06-2013, 04:52 PM

Just bumping this thread up to help anybody looking for a really affordable scanner for their card collection. I've had this now for over 6 months, and I'm scanning like mad. And as you can see from these raw cards I got in the mail just today, the CanoScan is still knocking them out of the park. There's 2 on the 'Bay right now for $65 delivered. Can't beat that.

I hope this thread helps a fellow forum member out. I throw everything I can at it, and it just laughs, and asks for more. And as I mentioned before, when I first got the scanner, I had a million questions. I emailed Canon support, told them I'd bought this thing used, and they answered every single question I had, and quickly (like within an hour or two, even overnight). That's how you build loyalty.

If only Topps treated their customers as well...

**Clemson2012** · 03-06-2013, 05:02 PM

Nice scans might have the get me one

**cwazzy** · 03-06-2013, 05:26 PM

I got an Epson Perfection V30. It has the CCD element and is AWESOME for vintage. But it has LED lighting and is TERRIBLE for anything shiny. Wish I would have known about the Canon when I got it. It would have worked better for my modern cards and saved me $30. Oh well. You live and learn.