Sifts vs. Sorts
Did you know that, as of December 2023, Roca Sorters have processed more than 470 million cards to date?
Sellers and collectors are using Rocas to sift and sort their Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic: The Gathering, and Pokémon cards in order to digitize and organize their prized collections and expand their businesses. Roca by TCGplayer is the only card sorting robot on the market that can both sift AND sort cards, and with more than fifty unique sorting and sifting options available across three different card games, there are plenty of ways to get your cards organized in a way that suits your needs.
So what is the difference between a sort and a sift anyways? Think of it like using a sand sieve at the beach. Kids and treasure hunters alike appreciate this gadget because it can easily separate the sand from the larger items, like shells, coins, and lost jewelry.
Sieve, courtesy of Shutterstock
Using the sieve to separate the valuable items from the unwanted items in the shortest possible amount of time is the equivalent of using a sift on the Roca. Now let’s say that you are a scientist and you do want to sort those small grains of sand…for science. You wouldn't want to let them slip through the sieve undetected. This is the value of a sort. A sort allows you to organize every single item in the batch in a particular way. It takes much less time to do this with the Roca at your service, but the principle is the same.
“You’ve told me what these functions do, but I really just want to get my cards in the machine. What option do I choose?”
All new Roca sorters will come preinstalled with two sift and two sort options to start you on your organizing journey: ‘Set, Name’, ‘Name, Set’, ‘Bulk Sift’, and ‘Price Sift, Set, Name’. Here is a short summary of how each of these work:
‘Set, Name’ - This is a sort that organizes cards in reverse chronological order (newest first) by Set, then in alphabetical order from A-Z by card name.
‘Name, Set’ - similar to ‘Set, Name’, but it organizes alphabetically by card name first, and then in reverse chronological order (newest first) by Set.
‘Bulk Sift’ - A fast and efficient way to sift out cards that are greater than or equal to a certain price point. For example, if you had a stack of 1,000 cards and you only wanted to work with cards that were priced $1.00 or more, you would enter $1.00 as your threshold and the Roca would sift out all cards priced $1.00 or more and place them into a pile for you. All other cards would be returned into their own pile, ready to be banished to a bulk box in the corner.
‘Price Sift, Set, Name’ - This is the best of both worlds. The ‘Price Sift’ portion of this option will do what Bulk Sift does – sift out all cards priced greater than or equal to a price threshold that you decide on. It will then take the valuable cards and sort them in reverse chronological order (newest first) by set, and then alphabetically from A-Z by card name.
No matter what option you decide upon, the Roca will digitize each card it touches (not just the valuable ones!) and input that card data into a CSV file for easy reference. Across the three games currently supported, there are sort options for color, type, set code, name, set, rarity, variant, and price. These options vary depending on the game. For more information about the available sort and sift options, please use the ‘Contact’ button at the bottom of the page to reach out to a Customer Support Specialist.