DAN VAN TRAN
COLLECTORS
DAN VAN TRAN
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Dan Van Tran is the Chief Technology Officer at Collectors, a multibillion-dollar global leader in authentication and grading of collectibles, with brands like PSA, PCGS, and Beckett. He oversees an international engineering organization of 200 + professionals, modernising platforms and launching AI-powered innovations. A passionate collector himself, DVT holds one of the world’ s largest collections of Alex Morgan soccer cards. Additionally, he serves as member of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’ s Innovation Advisory Committee, advising on technology strategy and innovation ecosystem development for the State of New Jersey.
Computer vision with operational scale Dan reveals the difference between Collectors today and the organisation he joined is“ night and day”.
He expands:“ When I joined in 2021, technology largely supported the operation. And today, technology is the core part of the product.”
Collectors has transitioned from a legacy state with“ on-site monolithic architecture” and manual processes to a modern cloud platform – from
“ tech as a cost centre” to“ tech as a growth driver”. Culturally, Dan explains, AI has“ gone from an experiment” to“ something embedded in how the whole company works”.
There are three main areas where Collectors is applying ML and automation. First, in the grading operation itself, computer vision supports its graders with measurements and detections – for example surface defects, centring and signs of alteration or counterfeiting.
“ The expert always makes the call, but the machine makes them faster and more consistent,” Dan says.
Secondly, in operations: automating intake, tracking and logistics for the enormous physical volume moving through the firm’ s facilities.
“ Each of those 2.5 million cards is irreplaceable to its owner, and we want to treat it that way as we handle them,” Dan continues.
Thirdly, in the business: demand forecasting, fraud detection and pricing intelligence built on its data.
“ We’ re constantly training and evolving innovations like our PSA estimate model,” adds Dan,“ which tries to capture the price of a collectible, even if it hasn’ t been sold before.”
Expert AI agents and a cloud ecosystem Part of Collectors’ s technology transformation includes using an AI-driven cloud ecosystem.
“ The way I describe it, our digital experience used to be a building,”
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