Getting Started with CardArk: The Complete User Guide

1. Signing in

CardArk uses Google sign-in — no passwords to remember. Click Sign in with Google in the top right, pick your Google account, and you're in. Your first 15 scan credits are already loaded, refreshed monthly on the free plan.

Everything you upload stays private to your account by default. You choose what (if anything) to make public later — see section 6.

2. Adding cards — four ways

There are four ways to get cards into your binder, pick whichever fits your situation:

A. Video scan (fastest for a stack): Go to Scan Cards → drop a video of yourself stacking or flipping cards. The AI extracts each unique card, identifies it, and prices it. One credit per 4 cards. Best for 20+ cards at once.

B. Individual photo upload: Same page, click 'Upload individual photos' and pick one or many. Same credit rate, higher accuracy per card because you control the framing.

C. Manual add: On your binder, click 'Add card' — type in name, set, condition, quantity. No credit cost, no image lookup. Fastest if you already know exactly what you have.

D. CSV / Excel bulk import (new): Got a spreadsheet from another tracker or eBay? Scan Cards → 'Bulk import CSV / Excel'. Drop the file, we auto-detect columns (Set Name, Card Name, Condition, Card Number, Quantity, Variant, Language, Grade, Purchase Price, Notes), and pull official images + prices for every row. Costs 1 credit per 25 rows — a 900-card list costs 36 credits.

3. Reviewing after a scan

Once a scan finishes, you'll land on the Review page showing every card the AI identified with a confidence flag. Green = high confidence, amber = probable, red = needs your eyes.

Click any card to open its full detail page — you can correct the name/set/number, swap the reference image from a list of official candidates, change condition, tick 'graded' with PSA/BGS/CGC/SGC grade, or delete it.

Anything you don't touch is treated as confirmed and shows up in your main Dashboard.

4. Understanding card prices

Every priced card shows a value derived from real recent sales — not asking prices, not AI guesses (unless we couldn't find any sales at all).

The number is a trimmed median of recent completed sales: we drop obvious outliers (both the £999 mislistings and the £1 scams) then take the middle value of what's left. That's the same standard used by every serious price guide.

On the card detail page you can see: the current price, base near-mint value, condition multiplier applied, price trend (%), and the recent sales that made up the median. Click 'Re-scan market price' to fetch a fresh number any time.

5. Organising your binder

The Dashboard is your master view. Filter by game, collection, or search by name. Sort by value, name, newest, or trend.

Collections: Create custom binders — 'Vintage Base Set', 'Sold on eBay', 'For trade only'. Every card can live in one collection at a time.

Checklists: A collection can also be a set checklist — mark which cards from a set (e.g. Base Set 102/102) you already own. Missing-card view shows the gaps.

Quantities: Instead of duplicating rows, cards have a quantity field. Each copy can even have its own condition — click 'Set per-copy conditions' on a card.

Serial numbers: For numbered cards (e.g. Alt Arts /100), fill in the serial_number field. It shows on the card tile as a badge.

6. Showcase — sharing your binder

Every collector can enable a public Showcase — a browsable, view-only version of your binder anyone with the link can see. No account needed for viewers.

In your binder header, click Showcase → toggle on → copy the link. Paste it in Discord, Reddit or X and it unfurls into a preview card with your top cards, total count and total value (unless you turn value display off in Settings).

Individual cards can also be flexed — on a card detail page, click Share and copy the /flex/ link. Same idea, just one card.

7. Community — Explore, Chase Deck and Trades

The Explore page (Community in the nav) shows every public collector's binder. Search across all binders at once, see the value leaderboard, and browse Top Movers (cards whose price shifted the most this week).

Chase Deck: heart any card in a public binder to add it to your personal Chase Deck (Trades page). You get an email the moment that card appears in another user's public binder — perfect for hunting a specific alt art.

Trade pings: found a card you want? Click Ping on the owner's binder. They get notified, and if they accept, contact info is exchanged.

Rivalry alerts: opt-in in Settings. If someone overtakes you on the value leaderboard (or vice versa), you get an email. Great for motivation.

8. Sales Ledger — tracking what you sell

When you sell a card, mark it as Sold on the card detail page — enter the sale price, and CardArk moves it into your Sales Ledger. Your binder still lets you keep the record without inflating your current value.

The Sales Ledger (top nav) shows every card sold, sale price vs market value, profit or loss per sale, and lifetime totals. If you entered a Purchase Price during CSV import or on the card, profit is calculated automatically.

It's a private ledger — nothing on it is public.

9. eBay integration (new)

Connect once: Settings → 'eBay seller account' → Connect. eBay's OAuth screen opens, click Accept, done. Your refresh token is encrypted and stored per user.

Live 'For Sale' data: on any card detail page you'll now see the cheapest active eBay listing with seller feedback, and a benchmark hint ('9% below CardArk's estimate — competition is fierce'). Use it to price your own listings intelligently.

Bulk draft listings: Binder → 'List on eBay' button → pick marketplace (UK/US/DE/AU/CA) → pick cards → pick your business policies (fulfillment, payment, return) → hit Create drafts. CardArk pushes unpublished drafts into your eBay Seller Hub with pre-filled title, description, condition, aspects, category and image. You review and publish yourself — CardArk never posts anything live.

First-time setup: you'll need business policies configured in eBay Seller Hub (2-min setup at https://www.ebay.com/sh/set/business-policies). CardArk will nudge you if any are missing.

10. Credits and billing

Free plan: 15 scan credits refreshed monthly. That's ~60 cards per month at 1 credit per 4 cards.

Collector Pass (£8.99 / month equivalent): 400 credits, valid 30 days. Roughly 1,600 cards.

Credit Top-up (£4.99): 150 credits, no expiry.

Billing runs on Stripe — no card number stored on CardArk. Buy from the Billing page or when a scan hits the credit floor.

Manual card adds and CSV imports have their own separate cost (manual = free, imports = 1 credit per 25 rows).

11. Settings you should visit

Head to Settings once you're set up:

Binder name — a public display name (e.g. 'Charizard Cave'). If you leave it blank, you show as 'Collector-XYZ' in public views.

Public binder toggle — hide your binder from Explore entirely if you prefer.

Show collection value — separate toggle to hide the value total on your showcase while keeping card prices visible.

Email preferences — leaderboard rivalry, chase matches, weekly digest.

eBay seller account — connect / disconnect.

Referral link — invite others, both of you get 10 free credits per signup.

12. Referral programme

Every user gets a unique invite link (Settings → Invite & earn). When a new collector signs up with your link, you both get 10 free scan credits.

Guards: invite must be used within 48 hours of signup, referrer must have been on CardArk for 7+ days, per-IP and per-day limits to stop abuse. Real invites work smoothly.

13. Privacy and safety

GPS and camera EXIF data is automatically stripped from every image you upload — nothing leaks your location.

Public views only ever expose card photos and public fields — never your personal notes, target sale prices, matched listings or purchase history.

Report a fake/abusive binder from any card's menu — it goes to the admin dashboard for review.

Delete your account any time by emailing hello@hiddenforge.co.uk.

14. Getting help

This Guides section (top nav) has 12 detailed articles on scanning, pricing, grading and selling.

For bugs or feature requests: hello@hiddenforge.co.uk.

For account or billing issues: also hello@hiddenforge.co.uk — real human reply within 48h.