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Two weeks ago, Pokémon TCG YouTuber okJLUVpublished a videoabout recent efforts to examine booster packs with X-ray scanning, including a case study from Industrial Inspection & Consulting, a company that offers industrial CT scanning services to test and analyze products, machine components, and more recently, sealed Pokémon boosters.
CT scanning compiles a 3D model from 2D X-ray “slices,” which can be sifted through to examine an object’s interior. In itsCCG scanning case study, II&C explored whether CT scanning could be used to look inside sealed CCG products, managing to successfully identify a first edition Hypno from the Pokémon TCG Fossil set after placing it between other cards to simulate a booster pack.
From there, II&C moved on to scanning actual sealed booster packs and booster kits, where it was also “able to extract the shape of the Pokémon due to slight density differences in the cards and foils.” According to II&C, okJLUV’s video brought an immediate explosion of attention, with the company’s web traffic spiking over 17,000% as it received “endless requests to scan packs and kits from collectors, investors, and card stores.”
On Pokémon card investing subreddits,collectors reassured themselvesthat there’d be minimal ramifications, noting that CT scanning is so expensive that it’d prevent widespread access. Days later, II&C announced that, in response to the high demand, it would be offeringCT card scanning services, having “worked around the clock to develop a reliable method to provide an affordable cost per pack for CT scanning.” Collectors can request a quote to have their boosters X-rayed starting at $75 per pack.
To learn more, and to work through some of the lingering childhood trauma from the time my brother convinced me to trade him my base set Charizard so he could sell it for a measly 35 bucks, I asked II&C why CT scanning booster packs is suddenly feasible. Answering via email, II&C said there’s nothing particularly new about its technology or methods.
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“We have worked on products deployed to outer space and the depths of the ocean,” II&C said. “Because we have seen almost every type of product there wasn’t much technical refining for this process.” The company’s main innovation, it says, was making the process affordable.
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“Because it’s expensive technology to operate and manage,” II&C said, “most who may have considered it were unable to find a value proposition to make it worthwhile.”
At $75 a scan—almost twenty times the cost of a current-day Pokémon TCG booster pack—II&C’s card scanning is probably outside the casual collector’s budget. Even so, II&C was unprepared for the scale of response. “One colleague jokingly bet another $100 that we would have 10 requests over the next week,” II&C said. “We had 10 requests in the first two hours.”
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