In this category, we look at the top three best card sleeves that you’ll use if you want to either store your cards safely or play with them, without any fear of damage regardless of the table conditions. Top loaders are too pricey and take up too much space to protect every card you want to keep (in my opinion).

For example, I’m a big fan of sleeving every rookie card I get (as I detail in this post about How to Organize Your Baseball Cards in 11 Steps) For added protection, collectors with many slabs will buy cases designed to protect and carry your cards around. The absolute best Matte sleeves we’ve found are these Gamegenic sleeves, which have a Matte finish on both sides and still provide great clarity for the cards within.Our second favourite trading card sleeves is the non glare Pro-Matte sleeves from Ultra Pro. These are typically targetted to those who actually play the trading card game because of their non-glare and non-reflective material.

So, if sleeves are included in a Pokémon TCG product, you’d expect that they’re the best sleeves for Pokémon cards, right? If you’re trying to decide which grading company to go with, I put together a huge review post about the state of grading right now: The card storage device popularly known as penny sleeves are one of the most ubiquitous hobby accessories around. We did a whole in-depth look at ETB sleeves causing damage. The results are surprising (they can cause damage!). While penny sleeves offer an inexpensive way to store and protect your cards, putting a card in a penny sleeve is not without its risks. Some penny sleeves are a bit tight or stiff, and if you’re not careful you can damage a card trying to slide it into a penny sleeve.

Ultra PRO - Standard Soft Card Penny Sleeves features:

For an outer sleeve, we recommend Ultra Pro standard-size sleeves, and for top loaders, we recommend either Ultra Pro.

Quality control is a big concern for players and collectors investing in new card sleeves – and we’re pleased to say that we’ve never had any issues with Quiver sleeves. Acid-Free: If you’re serious about protecting your cards or have particularly valuable ones, you’ll want to buy penny sleeves that are explicitly marked as acid-free. Acid and similar chemicals may rub off on your cards and run the risk of discoloring or staining your cards if they’re stored in them over an extended period of time. Therefore, acid-free penny sleeves are generally the best option for collectors. We’ll also take you through the different types of sleeves in this article, because you may find that you need to sleeve and also protect with another piece of trading card equipment. Nobody said this was a cheap hobby okay!

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Inner Sleeves– Smaller, soft, snug sleeves with generally less than a 1mm gap on the sides and top. Used before outer sleeves for double-sleeving.

Most of us aim to collect Lorcana, even if we also want to play. To keep your cards in the best condition long-term it’s pretty simple and not too expensive. Most people just need the first two mentioned. Dragon Shield have created a sleeve that isn’t much different to its competitors, but have created a long lasting, durable sleeve with a brand that has a bunch of beastly dragons as their “colour code”. The playmats seem to be really nice high-quality art prints. They don’t have stitched edges, which would make them almost perfect. They don’t have zones, but they aren’t needed at all. Still one of the most well known and popular names when it comes to trading card protection and storage, I think it’s fair to say that Ultra Pro have been usurped a bit in terms of value and features when it comes to premium trading card sleeves. Some screw downs are just fine—if there’s a recessed space for the card to fit comfortably inside, you’re good.Some people like to use art sleeves – like the official Lorcana sleeves available – and use d sleeves to protect these. In this case, don’t use an inner sleeve. Just use the art sleeves and an oversize sleeve to double-sleeve slightly differently. But still, many of us in the trading card community still use it as its name. These sleeves are the cheapest of them all, but have so many uses. If, however, you’re using older cards that show some wear and tear, then the opaque version will be best for your games of Magic: The Gathering or Pokemon, for example. A new product from Ultra Pro, these card sleeves feature an angled corner cut that allows you to easily slide the card in the sleeve without risk of corner wear. They’re a little on the pricey side for 200 sleeves, but these Gamegenic sleeves have always proven to be reliable and practical for long game sessions.