Sorting/shuffling machine for trading cards (sports, Magic, Pokemon, etc.)

[bristolcollect]

I work with a company that buys and sells millions of trading cards every year but the majority of these are sold for fractions of a penny if they're sold at all. From what I can see there are two options for this company to get more out of these cards, both of which are incredibly time-consuming and not worth the effort without the process being automated. I'm hoping someone here can help direct me towards a solution for either option that I'll detail below.

1. Often times the cards are purchased in large lots where boxes may contain cards primarily from the same year/set, i.e. 10,000 2012 Topps baseball cards, 20,000 2015 Upper Deck baseball cards, etc. The idea would be to take cards from various sources and shuffle them in a way that there is little or no consecutive duplication, basically creating "grab bags" of X number of cards per package. Think of shuffling 10 decks of playing cards simultaneously then dealing 10-card "hands" that are individually packaged. The trick is making sure those 10-card hands have a variety of cards instead of all from the same set.

2. This one is much more difficult but I can't imagine it wouldn't be possible given advances in OCR technology...same as option #1 but have the cards sorted by teams and then randomized.

Potential issue is handling/shuffling of the cards as they can't be damaged, so that needs to be addressed in any possible solution.

Any ideas feel free to contact me directly, whether individual engineer or corporate. I would especially be interested in hearing from anyone who has already built similar machines (xerox copiers, coupon sorters, etc).

 

[MintJulep]

Back of the envelope reality check:

1 second per card for the entire operation.
8 hours per day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year.

That's roughly 7 million cards.

7 million * 1 cent = $70,000

Does the payback seem worthwhile?

 

[bristolcollect]

Yes, because their sale price increases significantly in this scenario. You're also assuming there's only one machine...

Do you have a solution to offer?

 

[1gibson]

Have 10 piles, one off the top from each pile? Bulk shuffling just doesn't make any sense, it's double handling to shuffle, then pack 10 of them from the shuffled pile.

The mechanism to kick one (and only one) off the top would look like a paper feeder from a printer or copier. It could BE the paper feeder from a printer or copier. You could look at one of the machines that manufactures (prints) the cards and use the same mechanism.

Am I missing something, or are you reinventing the wheel a little bit here?

 

[zdas04]

Wouldn't any kind of categorization/re-ordering result in a lot of handling cards that are anything but homogeneous in size, surface finish, or thickness? Some of the cards are in sleeves to keep them mint or near-mint. The sleeves are all sorts of different sizes.

This sounds a lot like a check-sorting problem, except the checks all have an OCR code in the same place on every check. Your cards do not have such a thing.

You could put each one in a sleeve and have a person code it (I'm thinking about a process like the old keypunch machines). Once it is coded (maybe something like genre, year, set, gross characterization [something like whether or not it is "earth" in Magic], and condition). Then you could stack duplicates and assign a dollar value to each kind of card. Then you could assemble packs based on some price and/or condition algorithm.

Getting the software written, coding machines, and robotic storage/retrieval equipment is probably many millions of dollars and several false starts. I'm thinking that to get to where you want to be you will have to invent a number of brand new machines. Sounds like fun, but I cannot picture the business model that would fund it.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

 

[bristolcollect]

Definitely could be reinventing the wheel...had that epiphany after thinking about it for the last couple of days

Any idea where to find a machine or what something like that would be called? This is all new to me so all I can think of is Alibaba.

 

[bristolcollect]

@zdas04...What you're describing is WAY beyond what I'm trying to do, although it would be cool

1gibson actually hit it on the head that I was overthinking this...having 10 piles would be sufficient for this problem.

Now, if there is a feasible way to sort them by team, that would be great! Any suggestions there?

 

[KENAT]

While not exactly the same thing, how about looking at how mail or similar is sorted?

http://www.promailingequipment.com/articles/sorting-machines.html

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[zdas04]

KENAT,
That is a lot closer to what I'm picturing than my idea of a check sorter.

1gibson,
I think the cards are printed much like money is printed, on huge sheets that are relatively easy to handle with minimal edge issues and then cut to size late in the process.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

 

[MintJulep]

My thoughts on the process would be:

Start with an input stack.
Transfer one card off the stack into the entry position of the sorter.
Move that card to the scan position. Scan and categorize into one of however many categories you want + 1 (the +1 being "none of the above")
Move the card to the exit position of the sorter.
Pick the card off the exit position and place into appropriate bin.

Three position sorter, so each position always is occupied.

Separately, Pull cards out of sorted bins to make whatever packs make sense for you.

 

[bristolcollect]

Very cool, thanks for the responses!

Zdas04, I do like what Kenat suggested. Having multiple feeders (10) putting one card in a bin that will go down the line to be wrapped in packaging would be great. I imagine there are many used feeders that can be converted to do this.

MintJulep, sounds good!

Any recommendation for finding someone that can do this?

 

[MintJulep]

Just search for "custom automation equipment".

 

[bristolcollect]

Will do...thanks again!!

 

[KENAT]

Or you know, click on the link I provided.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[KENAT]

Or if you want multiple such vendors:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=mail+sorting+equipment

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[JStephen]

It seems to me this could all be handled with equipment similar to the bill-readers used on automated checkouts at Walmart, etc. The problem is, you basically need a one-off custom machine to do it, whereas those machines have been produced by the thousands.

Dare I suggest it, but ship a container or two to some far-off land where people work for $1 a day or whatever it is, and do it by hand.