Company:TCG Machines
 Headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, Canada | |
| Type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Automation, robotics |
| Founded | January 2, 2015; 8 years ago in Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Founder | Graeme Gordon |
| Headquarters | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
Area served | North America |
Key people | Graeme Gordon (CEO)
Daniel Kusler (CPO) Stephen Baker (CTO) |
| Products | PhyzBatch-9000 |
| Services | Trading card scanning, batch-sorting, digitally cataloging, and online inventory services |
Number of employees | 20 (2022) |
| Website | tcgmachines.com |
History
Founding (2015-2016)
The company was incorporated federally on January 2, 2015 by Graeme Gordon. A lifelong player of the Magic: The Gathering card game, Gordon completed a multi-day effort to sort through his personal card collection and realized there must be businesses which required card sorting services on a much larger scale.[1][2][3] In the Summer of 2016, Gordon independently conducted market research, making phone calls to 200 comic and game stores across eight Canadian provinces and 30 American states.[4] The feedback from Gordon's phone survey was decidedly positive, with more than 90% of the store owners he contacted indicating they would be interested in acquiring an automated card sorter.[2]
A mechanical engineer, Gordon was employed in Alberta's oil and gas industry as a designer of automated drilling equipment.[5] Gordon indicated to his Engineering Manager, Daniel Kusler, that he intended to leave his position so that he could pursue the business opportunity in the trading card industry which he had confirmed through his phone survey. In September 2016, Gordon left his oil and gas career, registered TCG Machines Inc. as an extra-provincial corporation in the Province of Alberta, and began working full-time to develop a trading card sorting machine.[6][7][2][3] Kusler remained in close contact with Gordon throughout product development, eventually joining TCG Machines full-time as Chief Product Officer in 2021.[2]
PhyzBatch-9000 - Alpha Prototype (2016-2020)
In 2016, Gordon applied for a $10,000 grant through Alberta Innovates to hire his roommate, an electrical engineer, to design and prototype the circuit-boards required to control the machine.[4] Gordon spent the remainder of 2016 and all of 2017 iterating through proof-of-concept prototypes. By the Summer of 2018, Gordon had developed a working machine, dubbed the "Alpha Prototype", which he used to conduct product demonstrations for several local game stores in Calgary.[8] Following a demonstration, Phoenix Comics NW agreed to test the new machine at their establishment, and the Alpha Prototype began operation in a commercial environment in the Fall of 2018.[4][3][8] Between 2018 and 2020, Phoenix Comics processed one-million Magic: The Gathering cards using the Alpha Prototype.[3]
PhyzBatch-9000 - Beta Trial Prototypes (2020-2021)
In 2020, based on the success of the Alpha Prototype, Gordon applied for a $100,000 grant through Alberta Innovates to build eight Beta Trial Prototype machines.[4][5][3][8] The Beta Trial machines were distributed to customers across Alberta to further vet the technology prior to a commercial release of the PhyzBatch-9000.[5]
On May 29, 2020, TCG Machines filed for patent protection of the novel aspects of their technology, which include rapid card quality assessment and holographic optical element (i.e. foil card) detection.[6][7]
PhyzBatch-9000 - Early Production (2021-2023)
In January, 2021, Stephen Baker joined TCG Machines as the first full-time employee. On Star Wars Day, Gordon and Baker commercially launched the PhyzBatch-9000, making it available for order through the company's website.[5] The launch was a success, garnering 50 pre-orders over the first 30 days following its start.[5] In the Summer of 2021, TCG Machines moved its headquarters to the Shedpoint coworking facility in Calgary. In the Fall of 2021, Dan Kusler joined TCG Machines full-time to help lead production.[2] In the fourth quarter of the year, the PhyzBatch-9000 was submitted to the CSA Group and received product certification for use in Canada and the United States. TCG Machines ended 2021 with a staff of five full-time employees.[5][7]
The PhyzBatch-9000 was initially anticipated to start delivery in 2021, but the 2021–2023 global supply chain crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant production delays.[7] The first production model PhyzBatch-9000s were delivered to customers in June 2022.[6] In August 2022, TCG machines was awarded $75,000 in funding from the National Research Council Canada (NRC)'s Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) to help improve their production processes. In December 2022, TCG Machines was awarded another $75,000 in funding through NRC-IRAP to expand their development team and improve upon their existing suite of software. The company ended 2022 with 20 employees on staff.[5][7]
In February 2023, TCG Machines deployed their 100th machine.[6][3] On July 2, 2023 TCG Machines' distributed fleet of PhyzBatch-9000s surpassed a collective total of 100-million trading cards processed.[9][8] By August 1, 2023 the company had more than 150 machines deployed.[5][8]
Global Expansion and Sports Cards (2023-present)
TCG Machines has one PhyzBatch-9000 operating in Germany on a prototype basis, and plans to make the PhyzBatch-9000 available in the European Union.[7][3] The company has cited Australia and Japan as being other high priority markets.[7][1]
TCG Machines has stated that they are developing software which will enable the PhyzBatch-9000 to process sports cards by 2024.[4][5][9] In an August 2023 interview, CEO Graeme Gordon identified the annual value of the sports card market as being around $6 billion, making it worthwhile for the company to pursue.[8]
Trading Cards Supported
TCG Machines currently only supports trading card games, but has announced their intention to expand into sports cards in 2024.
| Trading Card Name | Producer | Owner(s) | Supported Since | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magic: The Gathering | Wizards of the Coast | Hasbro | 2018 | [4] |
| Pokémon Trading Card Game | The Pokémon Company | Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures | 2021 | [10] |
| Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game | Konami | Konami | Planned | [11] |
| Disney Lorcana | Ravensburger | The Walt Disney Company | Planned | [11] |
| Flesh and Blood | Legend Story Studios | Legend Story Studios | Planned | [11] |
Technology
Conveyance
The PhyzBatch-9000 is a roller based system, similar to that of punched card sorters, differentiating it from other commercial card sorting machines which are based on a Cartesian coordinate robot system.[2] By utilizing rollers, the PhyzBatch-9000 is able to achieve sorting speeds exceeding 60 cards per minute.[5][9][6]
Recognition
To identify specific cards, the PhyzBatch-9000 utilizes cameras and optical sensors in combination with proprietary computer vision techniques.[2] TCG Machines uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to increase the accuracy and speed with which trading cards may be recognized.[5][9][6]
TCG Machines has patents pending for rapid card quality assessment and holographic optical element (i.e. foil card) detection.[6][7] The ability to differentiate between foil, or holofoil, cards and their regular counterparts allows the PhyzBatch-9000 to assign the appropriate value to cards based upon their foil, or non-foil, characteristic.[7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named:1 - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Gupta, Boshika (2023-06-09). "Collectibles for sale: How a card-sorting machine is revolutionizing trading cards". CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/card-sorting-machine-trading-cards-collectibles-1.6867781.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Mercer, David (2023-06-09). "How a card-sorting machine is revolutionizing trading cards". CBC News. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLAFkuxBsTY.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named:2 - ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named:7 - ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named:4 - ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named:0 - ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Patton, Julie (2023-08-01). "A Calgary man built a machine to sort trading cards. Now with 150 machines sold, he has sorted 100M cards.". Calgary Citizen. https://calgarycitizen.com/p/calgary-man-creates-card-sorter.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named:8 - ↑ Gordon, Graeme (2021-10-12). "Pokémon – Gotta Sort 'Em All". https://tcgmachines.com/blog/pokemon-gotta-sort-em-all.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "100 Million Magic and Pokémon Cards Sorted" (in en). 2023-07-07. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2023-07-07/100-million-magic-and-pokemon-cards-sorted/.200079.
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