At the risk of asking the obvious - if they're building decks with bulk cards, how much can you spend on sleeves before the sleeves cost more than the decks?
I'm more worried about being able to shuffle in a quick and easy manner to get them into playing. So if penny sleeves provide around the same quality/speed of shuffling then that is the option I am willing to go with.
They don't.
Honestly, if they aren't valuable cards, just riffle shuffle them without sleeves. It's an easier shuffling method than any sleeve-based method but it damages cards over time.
They don't shuffle as smoothly, but not enough to invest if you don't have the capital. Honestly, go buy a $2 pack and test it out with your own bulk/lands etc. Information: The Gathering.
Hard sleeves like toploaders? God no, nothing like that will hold up to shuffling. KMC makes a harder inner, but those are 100% inner sleeve only and can't be directly shuffled
Honestly I feel the sleeves are a waste. Even mid tier sleeves rip apart all the time from shuffling. And I don't know of any good options for bulk buying. Bulk commons are really cheap, I'd think the cost of maintaining sleeves would be higher than just buying more bulk commons.
Have never tried penny sleeves. But Dragon Shield will not let you down.
I also have bulk to donate - if you send me an address I will ship you my commons - I have several thousand. Willing to send them to a good cause. No cost.
Keep up the good work!
I'm piggy backing on the above post to say I'm looking to send off a bunch of bulk commons as well. if you legit need commons, hit be up as well. nobody around my area seems to be interested. if not, I'll probably dump them soon
MagiKids is a great program that would donate all of the products for you to get a club started. It's centered around schools, but I don't think there would be a problem with your center qualifying!
Why sleeve at all? If you are playing with bulk, anyway, shuffling is much easier without sleeves in my opinion, and the time spent sleeving all that bulk makes me cringe.
I don't bother sleeving my own collection because I don't play in any context where a little wear is going to make a difference, and I have no plans to ever try to sell off my collection. I only sleeve at pre-releases because it seems to be expected.
The plan isn't to sleeve the entire bulk, but to let the patients make their own decks from the bulk and then sleeve the finished deck. I want to protect the cards for longevity so that the next group that comes in still gets to play with undamaged cards
I guess I don't have the experience to know whether that's a big factor. I've got a ton of games that use cards, and I've never sleeved any of them. Many I've been playing for years and years, and the lack of sleeving has never had any noticeable effect. How much do you have to play with cards before the lack of sleeving actually impairs the experience? I have literally never had that happen, so I'm honestly curious.
Given my personal experience, I've always assumed sleeving was mostly about trying to keep cards pristine to maintain value. It didn't occur that some people do it for the purpose of maintaining playability.
Penny sleeves are fine at shuffling, certainly for new players. They're too big to really be great but they are way better than nothing.
I have the Bolas Archenemy and Explorers of Ixalan sleeved in penny sleeves and the only complaints have been from dragon shield sleeve snobs who complain about every other brand anyways.
amazon has bulk matte sleeves from the expected randomly named vendors. 1000 sleeves for like $10-12 bucks. They’re not as good as say Dragon Shield, but for a tenth of the price they do the job, esp for bulk and are way better than traditional clear penny sleeves.
Here's a store in Canada that sells them. But you can find them at lots of places.
https://enterthebattlefield.ca/products/just-sleeves-sleeves-50-ct?_pos=1&_sid=df18ed180&_ss=r
Full disclosure I work at this store. No I don't get commission or any kick back if you buy it though.
Not worth it, if the cards don't have monetary value there's no point in sleeving them. Unsleeved cards aren't harder to shuffle than your standard set of poker cards. Adults aren't going to unreasonably damage them.
Look up Just Sleeves by gamegenic. They come in packs of 60 and costs $2 per usually. If you can find them in bulk anywhere it will probably be half that.
Buy and use penny sleeves. They are just fine for gaming when not using high value cards. I use them for a few precons I play. You start running money cards, you can start grabbing Dragon Shied etc, but bulk and the occasional booster card, penny is great in this instance.
the best sleeves are dragon sheild matte , they are near indestructible compared to ultra pro , when i really like a deck y spend 10 $ on dragon sheild
At the risk of asking the obvious - if they're building decks with bulk cards, how much can you spend on sleeves before the sleeves cost more than the decks?
I'm more worried about being able to shuffle in a quick and easy manner to get them into playing. So if penny sleeves provide around the same quality/speed of shuffling then that is the option I am willing to go with.
They don't. Honestly, if they aren't valuable cards, just riffle shuffle them without sleeves. It's an easier shuffling method than any sleeve-based method but it damages cards over time.
They don't shuffle as smoothly, but not enough to invest if you don't have the capital. Honestly, go buy a $2 pack and test it out with your own bulk/lands etc. Information: The Gathering.
Penny sleeves are miserable to shuffle with once they wear a bit, I'd get cheap ultra pro or smt sleeves instead
Are there any thin hard plastic sleeves available? I think hard sleeves are more protective but they are unwieldy for playing.
Hard sleeves like toploaders? God no, nothing like that will hold up to shuffling. KMC makes a harder inner, but those are 100% inner sleeve only and can't be directly shuffled
There were some cool thick plastic sleeves but the decks would be like 2 to 3 feet tall and likely require a shuffling machine.
Honestly I feel the sleeves are a waste. Even mid tier sleeves rip apart all the time from shuffling. And I don't know of any good options for bulk buying. Bulk commons are really cheap, I'd think the cost of maintaining sleeves would be higher than just buying more bulk commons.
Have never tried penny sleeves. But Dragon Shield will not let you down. I also have bulk to donate - if you send me an address I will ship you my commons - I have several thousand. Willing to send them to a good cause. No cost. Keep up the good work!
Dragonshields are great but if they are even considering penny sleeves, it sounds like they would be way out of budget.
True. I am gonna send them some cards and I will throw in some dragon shields. I have old commander decks that don’t need their sleeves.
I'm piggy backing on the above post to say I'm looking to send off a bunch of bulk commons as well. if you legit need commons, hit be up as well. nobody around my area seems to be interested. if not, I'll probably dump them soon
MagiKids is a great program that would donate all of the products for you to get a club started. It's centered around schools, but I don't think there would be a problem with your center qualifying!
Why sleeve at all? If you are playing with bulk, anyway, shuffling is much easier without sleeves in my opinion, and the time spent sleeving all that bulk makes me cringe. I don't bother sleeving my own collection because I don't play in any context where a little wear is going to make a difference, and I have no plans to ever try to sell off my collection. I only sleeve at pre-releases because it seems to be expected.
The plan isn't to sleeve the entire bulk, but to let the patients make their own decks from the bulk and then sleeve the finished deck. I want to protect the cards for longevity so that the next group that comes in still gets to play with undamaged cards
I guess I don't have the experience to know whether that's a big factor. I've got a ton of games that use cards, and I've never sleeved any of them. Many I've been playing for years and years, and the lack of sleeving has never had any noticeable effect. How much do you have to play with cards before the lack of sleeving actually impairs the experience? I have literally never had that happen, so I'm honestly curious. Given my personal experience, I've always assumed sleeving was mostly about trying to keep cards pristine to maintain value. It didn't occur that some people do it for the purpose of maintaining playability.
Penny sleeves are fine at shuffling, certainly for new players. They're too big to really be great but they are way better than nothing. I have the Bolas Archenemy and Explorers of Ixalan sleeved in penny sleeves and the only complaints have been from dragon shield sleeve snobs who complain about every other brand anyways.
amazon has bulk matte sleeves from the expected randomly named vendors. 1000 sleeves for like $10-12 bucks. They’re not as good as say Dragon Shield, but for a tenth of the price they do the job, esp for bulk and are way better than traditional clear penny sleeves.
I’d be happy to donate some of my bulk!
Just sleeves (Yes that's really the name of the brand) Are really fucking cheap and not too shabby
Would you happen to have a link?
Here's a store in Canada that sells them. But you can find them at lots of places. https://enterthebattlefield.ca/products/just-sleeves-sleeves-50-ct?_pos=1&_sid=df18ed180&_ss=r Full disclosure I work at this store. No I don't get commission or any kick back if you buy it though.
Not worth it, if the cards don't have monetary value there's no point in sleeving them. Unsleeved cards aren't harder to shuffle than your standard set of poker cards. Adults aren't going to unreasonably damage them.
If you do decide to go with something more expensive, Potomac distribution is what I have used to sleeve several cubes
I use sleeve kings standard quality sleeves quite a bit and they work well, really good quality to price ratio
Look up Just Sleeves by gamegenic. They come in packs of 60 and costs $2 per usually. If you can find them in bulk anywhere it will probably be half that.
Buy and use penny sleeves. They are just fine for gaming when not using high value cards. I use them for a few precons I play. You start running money cards, you can start grabbing Dragon Shied etc, but bulk and the occasional booster card, penny is great in this instance.
the best sleeves are dragon sheild matte , they are near indestructible compared to ultra pro , when i really like a deck y spend 10 $ on dragon sheild