Q&A: Scanners on the Small Side Why are business-card scanners more than $100 while you can find larger photo and paper scanners for much less? A good business card scanner can be expensive, but it is hardware designed for a single purpose (capturing the information displayed on small cardboard rectangles) and usually comes with dedicated software for sorting, searching and storing the card images. Some programs can also automatically transfer the scanned information into your computer's address book. It is possible, however, to find discounts from online stores that bring the price down to well under $100 for some models. If you do not care about software, you can just as easily scan several business cards at once on a regular scanner and separate the cards into individual images with the scanner's image-capture program. Another option for smartphone owners is to invest in a scanning app that uses the phone's camera to import and sort contact information from business cards. These apps, usually less than $10 in the assorted online app stores, are available for most major phone platforms, including Android, BlackBerry, iOS and Windows Phone.