Calgary robotics company TCG Machines has reached a major milestone, with its global fleet of PhyzBatch-9000 machines collectively sorting more than one billion trading cards.
That represents approximately 2,000 tonnes of cards. Stacked vertically, the company says the billion-card collection would rise 321 kilometres—well beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
“At TCG Machines, we build tools to help people run profitable trading card businesses,” said founder and CEO Graeme Gordon. “Today, our robots hit a mind-blowing milestone: they have sorted over a billion cards.”
The achievement reflects a dramatic period of growth for the Calgary company.
When Calgary.tech first covered TCG Machines in 2023, its machines had sorted more than 89 million cards and the company had shipped just over 100 units.
TCG Machines now has more than 450 card-sorting robots operating across 24 countries. Together, the machines process approximately two million cards—or four tonnes of cardboard—each day.
The company’s flagship PhyzBatch-9000 helps trading-card businesses scan, appraise, digitally catalogue, and physically sort large inventories. According to TCG Machines, the system can process more than 3,000 cards per hour.
Its patented card-recognition technology supports popular games including Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, Disney Lorcana, One Piece, and Riftbound.
The idea originated after Gordon spent three days sorting his own Magic card collection. What began as a joking suggestion from a roommate eventually became a business after Gordon surveyed hundreds of game stores and discovered widespread demand for an automated solution.
TCG Machines shipped its first commercial PhyzBatch-9000 in 2022. Since then, the Calgary manufacturer says it has doubled—or more than doubled—its revenue for six consecutive years and expects to repeat the feat in 2026.
The company recently hired its 40th full-time employee and moved into a dedicated 15,000-square-foot Calgary facility designed to accommodate its growing team and increase production capacity.
The machines are helping retailers contend with an industry that produces tens of billions of new trading cards each year, according to Gordon.
The one-billion-card milestone suggests the Calgary-built solution is keeping pace—and turning what began as one collector’s tedious weekend project into a rapidly growing global robotics business.
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