SaaS

Sell collectors an app that tracks their cards' value

A phone app for Pokémon and other trading card collectors. It scans their cards, looks up current prices, and charts what the whole collection is worth, like a stock portfolio. Collectors pay a monthly subscription.

The hard part: making the card scanner reliable across thousands of card versions, then standing out from other collector apps.

Setup 2 weeksRuns $50/moYour time A few hours a weekReadiness Readiness 50 out of 100Some detailHow we score thisNeeds ClaudeSupabase

Who pays

Card collectors pay a subscription to see their collection's value and how it changes over time. One poster reports an app like this at $15,075 in monthly recurring revenue, with 2,432 active subscribers. Those are the poster's own figures. The source does not give that app's price, so any price you set is a suggestion to test.

How to build it

  1. Pick one card game first

    Start with one game, such as Pokémon, and choose a card price data service that covers its cards and updates prices regularly.

  2. Build the card scanner

    Use Claude Code or Cursor to build a phone app that takes a photo of a card and matches it to the right card in the price service's catalog. Let users fix wrong matches by hand.

  3. Store each user's collection

    Save each user's cards in Supabase, then add a daily job that pulls fresh prices for every card someone owns.

  4. Chart the collection's value

    Show the total collection value as a line chart over time, plus the biggest gainers and losers, the way a stock portfolio app does.

  5. Add a paid subscription

    Keep scanning free for a few cards and put full collections and price history behind an in-app subscription through the App Store and Google Play.

  6. Show up where collectors gather

    Post collection value screenshots and short videos in collector communities on Reddit, TikTok, and X, with a link to download the app.

Sources on X

  • evgenyeyt · Oct 20, 2026

    evgenyeyt describes an app where adults track their Pokémon cards like a stock portfolio, built from a card price data service, a scanner, and charts, and calls it a 1 week build. The poster reports $29,857 in the last 30 days, $15,075 MRR, 2,432 active subscribers, 25k users, and a founding date of May 2026. All of these are the poster's own claims.

Ideas are curated from public posts and untested by us. Read the full note.