Scanning the unscannable

 The difficulty in scanning chrome and mirror foil cards is well known. Ever since I began the process of scanning my entire collection back in 2009 they have been sucking the fun out of the project, completely taken away my enjoyment of chrome style cards, and have been basically soul crushing. 

Not anymore. I've figured out a way to make them still annoying but palatable. 

I knew that laying them directly on the scanner leads to darker scans, and I knew that scanning inside a holder of some sort worked better- but trapped dust. So I got to thinking and I tried holding them above the scanner tray. It worked, but my fingers blocked off part of the scan. The idea was sound but the execution not so much. Thinking even more, I remembered that I had a suction cup in a light up ghost I use for Halloween decorations. It worked!

I was a little nervous about putting a suction cup onto the cards, but I tested it with some damaged duplicates and it didn't hurt them at all. 

It works very well. These scans are not perfect but better than if I had scanned them directly on the tray. To be sure, I scanned them the normal way too.

The Zuccarello and Clingan scanned much better, the Ingram about the same and the Henderson is slightly better in the new way. 

It also works with Chrome cards

It doesn't work as well with the Select cards because they have a lot of curve in them, but it's still better than straight on the tray. 

There are some drawbacks. I can only do one card at a time, instead of 9, and my arm got tired holding it steady and I had to reject a few scans due to my hand moving and them not being perfectly square. I feel like the tradeoff is worth it though. Some of the Chrome cards are so badly naturally curved that I couldn't do them using this process at all, they will still have to be done the old way, on the glass with the lid closed. Still, having to do some that way instead of all is a massive improvement. 

I have also found it's best to work with the light off and to take them up as soon as the scanner finishes the card itself, not waiting for the scanner to get all the way to the end of the tray. The light reflects on the cards if you do that. That's much more of a problem with the curved Chrome style cards than it was on the mirror foil cards that were not curved. 

Just to test it I also tried it on a card that is not full mirror foil but has a foil aspect. 

That's a big difference! Interestingly, I also tested it on silver and gold foil but it doesn't make anywhere near as much difference as it does with color foil, like the blue here. I don't think the difference is enough to make it worth the extra effort, honestly. Those I think I will still scan the traditional way. 

One thing I should mention- I think this will not work with every scanner. I have a high end scanner that can handle depth, where some scanners only scan what's touching the screen. I don't think they will work. I can't remember for sure but I think mine is a CCD type. I don't remember what that stands for either. 

So, while they are still not very fun, it IS a lot better than it once was.