The record scanner for the crate

Scan the cover.
See the value.

CrateScan recognises the cover in your camera on the phone itself and compares it with 7,028 records whose prices come from completed auctions. You see the value before you flip the sleeve.

Recognition runs on your phone
7,028 records with sold prices
No account, no ads

Not in the store yet — the newsletter tells you when it lands.

Recognised record with 93 per cent match, estimated value 256 euro, asking price 20 euro and a green BUY verdict

Live scan

Hold it over the sleeve.

The camera image becomes a numeric fingerprint on your phone and is compared with every reference cover in the app. From 82 per cent similarity the record counts as recognised.

The comparison runs in the background, so the live preview stays smooth. A confident match goes straight into your finds.

Live scanner with a highlighted sleeve and the match Midnight Quarry Glass Weather (fictional sample record) at 93 per cent

When it is unsure

No confident guessing.

Below the 82 per cent mark CrateScan does not pretend. It lists the closest candidates with their match value and their price, so you pick the right pressing yourself.

Still nothing? Type the artist or title and search the whole base by hand.

Result sheet with a 71 per cent match and a list of three candidate pressings with their values

Covers stay quiet.
Auctions don’t.

Every record in the base rests on an average of 30 completed auctions.

Your buy rule

BUY only when it pays you.

You set the two numbers: the minimum profit in euro and how many times the value has to beat the asking price. Out of the box that is 15 euro and factor 2.

Type the asking price and you get a green BUY or a red SKIP — with the reason next to it.

Buy rule dialog with minimum margin of 15 euro and minimum value-to-price ratio of 2.0

Your finds

The whole crate at a glance.

Every saved find keeps its title, estimated value, asking price and verdict — plus the total of everything you picked up today.

The list lives on your phone, not in an account, and goes away when you uninstall the app.

Finds list with six records, their values, asking prices and BUY or SKIP labels plus an estimated total

The difference

Deciding while the seller watches.

Typing every sleeve into a search boxCamera over the cover, answer in the app
No signal in the hall, no pricesRecognition and prices work offline
Asking prices say nothing about valuePrices from auctions someone actually paid
Gut feeling on what counts as a bargainYour own margin rule decides
Photos of your finds land on someone's serverCamera frames are read on the phone and stay there

What is in the app.

Live cover scan

The camera keeps running while the comparison happens in the background.

Search the base

Type an artist or title and browse all 7,028 records with value and number of sales.

Saves itself

A confident match lands in your finds without another tap.

Your margin rule

Minimum profit and minimum value-to-price ratio, stored on the phone.

One download, then offline

The recognition model comes once on first launch and is checked by checksum. The price base ships with the app.

No account, no ads

The app uses the camera and local storage. Nothing else, nobody to sign up with.

7,028

records in the price base

8,950 €

highest value in the base

photos sent to a server

Quick questions.

Who is CrateScan for?

For anyone standing in front of a crate with a decision to make: flea markets, record fairs, house clearances, a box from the attic. It is most useful when there are more sleeves than time.

What does CrateScan cost?

Nothing. There are no in-app purchases and no subscription built into the app. Should that ever change, the store page will say so.

How does CrateScan make money?

At the moment it does not. There is no advertising SDK, no analytics and no data being sold — the app only asks for the camera and its own local storage.

How does the recognition actually work?

A small image model (MobileCLIP2-S2) turns the camera frame into 512 numbers on your phone and compares them with the same kind of fingerprint for every record in the base. The closest hit above 82 per cent similarity is shown as recognised, below that you get candidates. The picture itself is never sent anywhere.

Does the app talk to a server?

Once. On the first launch it downloads the recognition model (about 143 MB) from our own server and verifies it by size and checksum. That download carries no data about you beyond the IP address any download needs. After that the app works with no connection at all.

Where do the values come from?

From completed auctions in euro: each record in the base carries the price it fetched and how many bids backed it, on average around 30. The base is a snapshot that ships with the app, so it shows no live prices.

How reliable is the value?

It is a bearing, not an appraisal. Condition, pressing and edition move the real price enormously, and a sleeve that is not in the base is unknown, not worthless. Use it to decide what deserves a closer look.

Which language does the app speak?

The app interface is English only — that is what the screenshots on this page show. This website is also available in German.

Where can I get it?

Not yet anywhere. CrateScan is not published in Google Play or the App Store at this point. The newsletter is the fastest way to hear when it is.

CrateScan is on its way.

The app is finished enough to dig with, but it is not in a store yet. Leave your address and you will hear about it first.

Free, without ads and without an account — that is the plan for the release too.

Scan the cover.See the value.