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Author Topic: Card Sleeves in Bulk?  (Read 1323 times)

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jonvs

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Card Sleeves in Bulk?
« on: December 29, 2018, 01:10:54 pm »
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Hi friends!

I wanted to ask this community about card sleeves. I know I'm not the first to raise the topic; I looked at some of the old threads, but a warning dialogue suggested I start a new thread because the newest thread hadn't been updated in almost 2 years.

I have quite a few Dominion cards: Base Set (1st ed. + updates), Intrigue (1st ed. + updates), Seaside, Prosperity, Dark Ages, Empires, and several promos, for a total of 2,621 cards (well, originally, anyway ... I may have lost a Copper or two at some point). I've been saving up to try to buy sleeves, because some of the more commonly used cards are showing their age, and I don't want someone spilling their drink (for example) and ruining my investment.

I live in England now, and I've found a website that's selling the Mayday sleeves in groups of 500 for £8.50, which could get me 3,000 sleeves for £56; that's significantly cheaper than anywhere else I've seen. What concerns me is that the ratings for Mayday sleeves seem abysmal overall. Lots of people are saying they don't shuffle well, some are the wrong size, some crack at the corners, and some come with creases that make them unusable. Admittedly, there are a few positive reviews, so it could just be the classic case of the vocal minority flooding the Internet with criticism while millions of satisfied customers forget to comment.

Basically what I want to know is whether you think it's worth the £56 to sleeve all my cards and get a few dud sleeves (or perhaps all duds, if they really are terrible), or whether I should save up the few hundred pounds I'd probably need in order to sleeve them with premium sleeves.

As for alternatives, the results are not encouraging, and I'd appreciate suggestions. I've been looking at SleeveDominion.com, and they seem reasonably priced but they've been completely out of stock for months now, so I don't want to pin all my hopes on a restock. Fantasy Flight sleeves are the highest rated but look to cost a fortune (around £200 for all my cards), and lots of other manufacturers don't make the right size sleeves at all.

I'd appreciate any advice!
- J.
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crj

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Re: Card Sleeves in Bulk?
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2018, 01:43:04 pm »
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I don't sleeve Dominion, but for games I do sleeve, I use Ultra Pro ProMatte, in clear and in in a variety of colours. They were recommended to me by friends who play Magic: The Gathering and I can see why!

The bad news is that, from GamesLore 2,650 of them would cost £100.20 (including their 5% discount for orders over £100). )-8
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jonvs

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Re: Card Sleeves in Bulk?
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2018, 02:50:41 pm »
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I don't sleeve Dominion, but for games I do sleeve, I use Ultra Pro ProMatte, in clear and in in a variety of colours. They were recommended to me by friends who play Magic: The Gathering and I can see why! The bad news is that, from GamesLore 2,650 of them would cost £100.20 (including their 5% discount for orders over £100). )-8
Unfortunately, it looks like they aren't the right size for Dominion cards anyway (too wide and not tall enough). :(
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crj

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Re: Card Sleeves in Bulk?
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2018, 03:19:31 pm »
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They do a whole bunch of different dimensions. (My personal stock contains five!)
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ackmondual

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Re: Card Sleeves in Bulk?
« Reply #4 on: January 01, 2019, 09:41:17 pm »
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I live in England now, and I've found a website that's selling the Mayday sleeves in groups of 500 for £8.50, which could get me 3,000 sleeves for £56; that's significantly cheaper than anywhere else I've seen.
I used Mayday brand sleeves before, around 2009-ish time period.  They came in packs of 100 or 50, depending on if you wanted "standard thickness" or "premium thickness".  They were roughly $2.25 per pack of 100 or $2.50 for the pack of 50.  Fantasy Flight Games' sleeves only come in "premium" thickness respectively.  Probably ditto for the Ultra Pros.  Others like "penny sleeves" are standard thickness. 

Hmm, it sounds like they've gone through a slight discount.

I used the standard thickness for my copy of Dominion (1st edit. base game), but premiums for Thunderstone, and its first 3 expansions)

What concerns me is that the ratings for Mayday sleeves seem abysmal overall. Lots of people are saying they don't shuffle well,
As someone who's a poor shuffler, I found they shuffle BETTER.  However, that's b/c I use "pile shuffling" where you separate the deck into 2, and "smush" them back together.  As opposed to what they do at casinos, "flicking them" into the same pile with their thumbs

some are the wrong size,
I have gotten some that were a bit too tight.  Out of every 50, 0 to 2.  Average 0.85 per pack or so.  When you sleeve your set, account for this by making sure you have an extra pack's worth to compensate for any defects.

THIS IS ONE AREA WHERE MAYDAY TOOK HEAT.  On one hand, those supporting them said that the sort of consistency isn't easy to do.  OTOH, others countered bs.  In between, they had errors, but were able to fix them, or about to.  Those who got frustrated with having to contact them did get free replacements, but it can be disruptive where you thought you had enough, only not, and had to wait for those replacements to come in before being able to play games.  Plus, some folks who got frustrated with all the replacements would no longer be repeat customers.  Furthermore, you'd think it'd cost Mayday more to ship extra sleeves to the people who requested them, rather than adapt a "baker's dozen" mentality of putting maybe 51 or 52 per pack to take care of any such issues up front.

some crack at the corners,
I personally don't recall encountering this.  That said, some of the corners on them premiums were a more deadly combo of rigid and SHARP

and some come with creases that make them unusable.
I personally don't recall encountering this either. 


Admittedly, there are a few positive reviews, so it could just be the classic case of the vocal minority flooding the Internet with criticism while millions of satisfied customers forget to comment.
FWIW, I've ran into both camps...

Those who were critics of them would rather just spend the extra money for FFG, Ultra Pros, or just go with thinner sleeves like the "penny sleeves".  One of them, at a meet up, announced that he had extra packs of May Day sleeves, and were just straight up giving them away.  Just come on by and claim them!

Those who liked them, or otherwise didn't have anything against them continued to buy their sleeves (although some of them didn't sleeve that many things, so their purchases were more limited).

.

Me... I didn't mind getting all in on that "sleeving craze" back then, but nowadays, I don't bother with sleeving anymore.  One exception I've made was to get sleeves for Glory To Rome.  That game will forever be out of print (at least I'm not holding my breath on it) :(
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