Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Video Game Value UPC Scanner

We've added a UPC Scanner to PriceCharting using your mobile phone camera.

You can scan any UPC barcode for a video game and quickly find the value.

Here's how it works:

Click UPC Button Near Search Box



Scan a Barcode

You may be asked to grant permissions for PriceCharting to use your camera. Choose 'yes'. This is required so we can see what game you are scanning with your phone.




See Game Value




The tool is only available on mobile devices because they have built in cameras. The tool is still in testing phase, so please give us your feedback. How accurate is it for you? How quick is it? Etc.



Some Tips for Using UPC Scanner

  • Works best with good lighting.
  • You get best results with a high quality camera that takes good close up shots.

34 comments :

Unknown said...

Is this only Apple? I don't see the app in Google.

Xenosns said...

Works on Android through the browser just fine on my galaxy s9, used it just few days ago.

JJ said...

@anonymous - We do not have an app. This feature is on our website for all users to use on any mobile device.

You will need to visit PriceCharting.com to use it (not available on this blog).

You can read how to make our website behave like an app on your phone though.
https://www.pricecharting.com/faq#mobile-app

TohkaYatogami69 said...

Too bad my camera is ded...

JJ said...

@TohkaYatogami69 - Sounds like a good excuse to get a new phone ;)

Unknown said...

@jj GOt it, thanks :)

Anonymous said...

Awesome update you guys <3

vekst said...

Cool feature. Worked well for 90% of the games I tried, but it doesn't seem to pick up random obscure games (such as Boogie for the PS2) and also couldn't get it working for the Google Chrome iPhone app (but I assume its something in my settings). Overall I can't wait to see this improved and used!

JJ said...

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Glad you like the feature and it works well overall.

@vekst - Some of the more obscure UPC codes might not be in our system. We add new UPC codes every week for the most commonly searched UPCs that we don't have plus new releases. Hopefully this feature will help us find more of those missing ones too.

What happens when you try to use it on the iphone Chrome app? Could you send me a screenshot so I can look into it?

vekst said...

@JJ https://i.imgur.com/U6II6Mr.png

JJ said...

@vekst - Thank you. I'll look into that. I'm guessing the app doesn't have some permission that is needed.

vekst said...

@JJ Yeah, seems like. Normally something would pop up asking if Chrome could use the camera but doesn't happen here. In the meantime though I'll use Safari if I need to scan something. Thanks for looking into it!

bartyz said...

i don't have the button near search box for scan :(

Alia parker said...

nice

Anonymous said...

I've been using the scanner for a while now and I have just recently upgraded my phone to the s20 and now the scanner has stopped working.

Tyiral77 said...

I have been using this feature for a while but I recently updated my phone and now the scanner has stopped working.

Tyiral77 said...

I have been using this feature for a while but I recently updated my phone and now the scanner has stopped working.

JJ said...

@Tyiral77 - What phone do you have? I'll look into this and see what might be going on.

Tyiral77 said...

S20+ it seems to work just fine on every other app that uses the camera as a scanner.

Tyiral77 said...

I have an s20+. A coworker also is having the issue and she just got the newer iPhone.

JJ said...

@tyiral77 - Can you visit this page and see if it works for you.
https://serratus.github.io/quaggaJS/examples/live_w_locator.html

That page is a test of the code we use to do the UPC scanning. Let me know if you see your video input on that page or if you get an error message.

Tyiral77 said...

It asked for access to my camera but its not showing anything else

Tyiral77 said...

Visited the page it asked permission to use my camera but no picture or anything came up.

JJ said...

@Tyiral77 - It sounds like Chrome (or whatever browser you are using) doesn't have camera permissions.

You can try the suggestions here to change permissions on an S20.
https://thedroidguy.com/change-galaxy-s20-app-permissions-1122824

Tyiral77 said...

I've been using Google on my last Android as well and no issues. Checked all the settings and permissions and everything is check to let the app use the camera but it is still not working. But every other upc scanner works just fine.

JJ said...

@Tyiral77 - I'll look into this more and see if there is another solution. Our UPC scanner is through a web app instead of through a native app. My guess is that is the difference between other apps working.

We do not have a native app, just a web app.

I'll look around to see if there is another solution.

Unknown said...

The example test page works good. The pricecharting page scans the upc but then just hangs. Any ideas?

JJ said...

@unknown - So you see the image in your scanner and the UPC symbol is found and scanned but then the page never loads? Can you send me some screenshots to sales@vgpc dot com so I can see exactly what is going on?

Unknown said...

Just got a Google Pixel 6. The UPC scanner rarely works for me. The green box is always jumping around as if it can't find it.

JJ said...

@unknown - I'm sorry to hear about this problem. Does the image appear blurry to you when you try to scan?

Anonymous said...

Tried it on an s21 but the image was too blurry to make out the lines enough to scan the barcode. Switched over to a camera app and the barcode lines were crystal clear bold and easily visible. Makes no sense unless you guys are trying to save bandwidth or something?

Anonymous said...

@anonymous - It is not a bandwidth savings issue. It is a known issue with some newer phones and the capability to switch between cameras in some apps. Since our site is a web app, we depend on the camera choices via the browser. It doesn’t look like the camera is switched over correctly and unfortunately any changes we’ve tried to make to fix that don’t work. We’ve played around with several different solutions, but none of them work. Sorry for this problem with the UPC scanner in Android. Hopefully we can find a solution or finish developing the Android app.

Anonymous said...

this isn't working on Samsung galaxy tab s6 in browser. it opens, however the screen in the box is blank, white and sometimes black. unable to view barcade.

JJ Hendricks said...

@anonymous - Sorry for any problem. That sounds like a website permissions problem. If you see blank or black it means the site isn't granted permissions to use the camera. Depending on what browser you use the steps can be different, but you can search "grant camera permissions" and the browser name and you should see some step by step directions to fix that.

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