Meet Scanner #5

At this point, I think I should just tell people that I'm collecting scanners 😀 Scanner #4, which I got in 2016, is showing signs of age...well, not so much age, but use. To say I've run 10,000 scans through it is probably an underestimation. I use my scanners hard, and I use them every single day. (I don't just scan cards, but also comics, magazines, stamps, coins, historical documents, and all kinds of other stuff. Anything flat is likely to be scanned.)

So, I put up a thread on the Trading Card Database seeking advice on CCD scanners. I have not had a good CCD scanner for a while, I went with the cheapest ones available locally. The link posted by Finestkind showed me exactly what I needed- the Epson V600 was going to be my next scanner. I did a little price research and, low and behold, it was on sale...$50 off the normal $230 on Best Buy. I talk about it with my brother and he goes to order it for me...except Best Buy is sold out. Amazon had it, same price, so within a 20 minute span I went from figuring out which scanner I wanted to get, to having a copy of it on it's way to me! That was around Midnight on Thursday into Friday...we went with the cheapest shipping possible, which was free. it was due to get here around Thursday or Friday of this coming week, but I didn't waste much time- I started instantly going through my "To be scanned" boxes, which is everything that was already on the Database- and pulling out all the Finests, mirror foils and etched foils.

You probably remember me grumbling about scanning those kinds of cards, especially the mirror foils, which are annoying at best, soul-crushing at worst. I wanted to get them scanned before the scanner got full of dust. Of course, with this weekend being Daytona weekend, I didn't work on it all day every day, I watched the races, well, I watched the Truck and Cup races. The Xfinity race I mostly listened to and only looked up to watch the final few laps. (it was one of the most boring races ever) I don't know how many are left to do in each style, but not as many as I feared...still a few week's worth to get scanned. Or more, if I get too frustrated.

A massive 4-hour sorting session Sunday night got me finished- I think- (hopefully didn't miss any boxes) although I didn't finish until around 3AM. I ended the night sorting the cards out into stacks of type- Finest style was the largest, as I had most of the 1993-94, 1994-95, 1997-98 and 1999-00 Finest sets left to do, and almost all of 1997-98 Bowman's Best, a set I have completed, ahead of me as well. Foils were almost as high but thankfully not as many, and as I mentioned I also pulled Etched foil. Think the Metal and Black Diamond sets. I didn't have as many of them left ahead of me, and I really like that style of card. I also pulled Holograms, partial holograms (think the second and third year of SPx) and partial foil. (where half the card is foil and half is regular printed). 1999-00 Ovation and Hardcourt are the two big sets there. I realized, when doing that sort, that it is probably the last time I will sort through my yet-to-be-scanned cards. I've gone through them all at least 4 times previously, but now all the "special" cards have been pulled out meaning it's now just normal cards, nothing that needs to be scanned by itself. It's kind a strange feeling to realize how close I actually am to finishing the scanning project...while it will NOT be in 2019, it MIGHT be in 2020, or 2021 as I've been predicting for a while. (my original prediction was 2016)  I'm at or beyond the 3/4ths mark, but after I finish all these foils and finests, the hard stuff will be done and it will be a lot of smooth sailing, easy to do cards, and a lot of early 1990s NBA...an era that I favor heavily, so the scanning will be fun and fast.

I wake up Monday to the Scanner already being here! That is way faster than I expected! I got done just in the nick of time. I wasn't quite ready yet- I had a wave of scans already made and waiting to be edited- but I jumped right into the new scanner anyway!

It's pulling fantastic scans. I daresay this might be the best scanner I've owned. While my original- a birthday present from my brother in 2005- has always been my favorite, this one has the benefit of 14 years of technological advances, and is pulling great scans out of cards. Take a look:

Notice how you can even read the foil name! That's something that has always been hard to capture on scans. I chose a card from this set because it scans with terrible lines across it on most scanners. And it wasn't just a random fluke, either...

 Upper Deck's modern releases usually scan with lines over faces. Not here.

 I had to try out a card from my favorite NBA set, too, and it did fine!

Even pulled a good scan of the Bazooka card! They usually scan very badly.

Would you look at that, it can even handle neons!

Mirror foils are still not fun, though, at least I'm getting good scans out of them...with effort. No matter how hard I try they still have all kinds of dust on them that I have to remove with PhotoScape.

After making a few test scans, the first thing I did was tackle the clear plastic cards from UD Glass. They are too thick for the CIS scanner to get, but the CCD scanner? No problem.

These cards have all been waiting for scans for quite a while...we're talking years!

Here's a scan of the same McGrady clear card that I made with scanner #4 specifically for this post:

Note how it's blurry, appearing out of focus. That's because the image is printed on the back of the clear plastic, and it's too far away from the scanner tray on the CIS scanner. Scroll up and see it on the CCD scanner, which can handle depth. It's so much better!

I figured the best test for the new scanner would be a modern Prizm (Refractor) from Panini...just about the hardest cards to pull a decent scan from. This scan that comes next is from Scanner #4, which is the one that DOESN'T put lines on the Prizms...at least not as much as scanner #3.

Here is the same card, scanned on the new scanner...

MUCH, much better!

I've already made 66 scans with the new scanner, and by the time this goes live, I will surely have pushed it past 75. I am deviating from the norm, in that I decided to scan ALL the foils and Finests, etc. before I edit them. Normally I scan and edit three "pages", which is 9 cards per page, before I scan more. I have decided to scan them all now, and work on them as I feel like it. This allows me to get them scanned when the scanner is still new and as clean as it can possibly be, but it also allows me to maintain my sanity but not just editing mirror foils all day ever day. Although I will get them all scanned in a few days' time, I will be curious to find out how long it takes me to finish them. I know the plan is to work on them regularly, but it's very easy to get burned out on them, too. So I may move on and work on normal cards and then go back to the foils/finests. Time will tell.