My Collection: Comic Scanner

Review by eFreeware

Most comic collections start out orderly and end up as stacks. You buy a few issues, then a few boxes, and at some point you lose track of what you own, what you paid and what any of it might be worth. Keeping a written list is tedious, and typing issue numbers one by one into a spreadsheet is the kind of chore that never gets finished. That gap between owning comics and actually knowing what is in the boxes is the problem My Collection is built to close.

My Collection is a free app from HipComic, released in early 2023 and rated for general audiences. The idea is simple: you photograph a comic, and the app identifies it, works out a guide value and files it into your collection. There are no barcodes to hunt down, and nothing to type in by hand. For anyone with more than a short box or two, that difference in effort is the whole point.

Cataloging a box without typing every issue

The core job here is cataloging, and the app approaches it through image recognition rather than manual entry. You take a picture of a cover with your phone or tablet, and the software reads the volume and issue number from the image. The comic is then added to your collection automatically. No barcodes are involved, which matters because older issues often have none or have ones that are hard to scan.

What appeals to me about that approach is the pace it implies. Working through a long box of back issues is normally an evening of squinting at indicia and typing. If the recognition holds up on ordinary covers, the same job becomes a matter of photographing one book after another. The developer describes the image recognition as exclusive to the app, and calls My Collection the fastest way to organize and value a collection.

The practical benefit is not just tidiness. Once issues are in the system, you have a record of what you actually own, which is useful when you are standing in a shop trying to remember whether you already have issue 14 of something. A catalog you can trust is the foundation everything else in the app rests on.

Turning a pile of comics into a value figure

The second job is valuation. When a comic is recognized, the app provides a guide value for it, and those figures roll up into the collection as a whole. That gives you a running sense of what your holdings are worth rather than a vague guess based on what you paid years ago.

I would treat any guide value as a reference point rather than a price tag. Condition, market demand and the specifics of a sale all affect what a book actually fetches, and no scanning app changes that. But as a way to see which parts of a collection carry weight and which are bulk, a per-issue figure attached automatically at scan time is far more useful than no figure at all.

The collection is kept in one place, and the app works on phones and tablets as well as in a browser. That combination is worth noting: scanning happens on a mobile device, while browsing and reviewing a large collection is often more comfortable on a bigger screen. Having both paths into the same data means the catalog is not stranded on the device you happened to scan with.

What it takes to get scanning

Getting started is about as light as this kind of tool gets. You install the app, and the scanning happens through your device's camera, so a phone or tablet with a working camera is the main requirement. There is no separate scanner hardware and no barcode reader.

The app is free, with every feature unlocked and no cap on scans. Scans are unlimited, and nothing is locked behind a paid tier. The app carries no ads and offers no in-app purchases. For a utility you might use in bursts, that removes the usual hesitation about hitting a ceiling halfway through a collection.

One thing to keep in mind is how you take the photo. Clear, well-lit covers are the best way to photograph a comic. That is not a limitation unique to this app, but it is the habit that will make the difference between a smooth session and a frustrating one.

Where the app fits in a collector's routine

This is a tool for people who already own comics and want a clearer picture of them. If you have inherited a collection, bought a long box at an estate sale or simply accumulated years of issues without a system, the scan-and-file approach is the least painful way to get organized. It is also useful for sellers who need a quick inventory and a rough value before listing anything.

Long-time collectors with an existing spreadsheet may find the appeal is in the valuation layer rather than the cataloging itself, since the app attaches a guide value to each book as it is added. Casual readers with a handful of trade paperbacks probably do not need a dedicated collection manager at all; the value of an app like this scales with the size of the pile.

Reviews suggest a mixed reception rather than universal praise. The app sits at a 3.3 average from 650 ratings, with 239 written reviews, and has passed 100,000 installs. That is a healthy install base for a niche utility, and the rating suggests users see real utility alongside rough edges. The most recent update, from July 2026, is described simply as minor bug fixes, which points to a developer still tending to the app rather than abandoning it.

A free scanner for collectors with boxes to get through

My Collection is worth installing if you have a collection large enough to have lost track of. The combination of photo-based recognition, automatic guide values and a collection view that works on both the web and mobile covers the three things a collector actually needs: identification, valuation and a record. That it does all of this without ads or purchases is unusual for a free utility and makes it easy to try.

The caveats are the ones that come with the territory. Guide values are estimates rather than sale prices, and the app is a collection manager rather than a marketplace or a reading tool. The 3.3 rating is a fair signal that the experience is not flawless, but for the specific job of turning a stack of comics into an organized, valued list, the approach is sound and the price of entry is nothing.

If you have been meaning to catalog your comics for years and keep putting it off because of the typing, this is the app that removes that excuse. Photograph a box, see what you have, and decide what to do with it from there.

What's new in version 2.1.2

- Minor bug fixes