First of all, this isn't a complaint! I'm using a couple of inexpensive USB desktop readers to read the serial numbers from similarly inexpensive NFC stickers.

These are the commonly available type that return the serial number only, and appear as USB keyboards to the host device (Raspberry Pi variants in this case)

I thought I'd roll the dice on a ring, but it looks as if I'm thwarted by a combination of the cheapness of the reader and comparatively small antenna.

So my question is, are there any specific models of USB readers that present as a keyboard / HID and that could read and return the serial number in the same way?

There are no guarantees of course, just looking for some guidance, or even general terms in the specification that would be useful to filter on.