View Single Post
Old 12-05-2020, 09:03 PM   #1
JimTullis
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Default Card Sleeve Review (Long Post)

While preparing for the arrival of Car Wars 6th edition I decided to check out available sleeve options.

It is important to remember that Steve Jackson Games has decided to use the Mini European Card Size standard for the cards in Car Wars.
This is the same size they use for Munchkin Treasure Hunt. IT is not the size they use for normal Munchkin or the size for Illuminati.
Any Mini American sleeves you have for games such as the Star Wars X-Wing First Edition Upgrades will be too small.

SW X-Wing 1st ed Upgrades are 40mm x 63mm, Munchkin Treasure Hunt are 44mm x 68mm. Car Wars Upgrades should also be 44mm x 68mm.


I bought the following sleeves to try to determine which ones I would like better for Car Wars. BG stands for Board Game.
Advertised sizes are internal, Measured sizes are external, subtract 1mm from width and 1/2mm from height to get internal sizes.
I bought the following sleeves to try to determine which ones I would like better for Car Wars. BG stands for Board Game.
Advertised sizes are internal, Measured sizes are external, subtract 1mm from width and 1/2mm from height to get internal sizes.


Brand      Name     Advertised Measured Thickness Notes          P roduct Number
Dragon Shield -        -       -      115    (See Arcane Tinmen)
Fantasy Flight  BG Mini Euro 44x68    46x72   100                   FFS02
Ultimate Guard BG Mini Euro 46x71    46x72   115     Supreme        UGD010076
Ultimate Guard BG Mini Euro 46x71    46x71    15     Premium (very soft) UGD010277
Arcane Tinmen  BG Small    44x68    46x73    80     Standard 100ct bag  AT-10404
Arcane Tinmen  BG Small    44x68    46x71    80     Non-Glare 50ct box  AT-10424


In Standard Size cards I'm partial Dragon Shield for anything that I shuffle.
I feel that Fantasy Flight Sleeves are comparable to Dragon Shield in quality BUT they are usually a tad taller than necessary.
I've also used Fantasy Flight frequently for the X-Wing standard sized cards and the X-Wing Mini American cards.
Their Mini European sleeves seem to be the same quality.

I hadn't previously bought any Ultimate Guard sleeves. I do enjoy their deck boxes though.
Honestly I couldn't really tell much difference between the UG Supreme sleeves and the FFG sleeves.
Other than the UG Supreme were microscopically smaller which is not bad since both sizes easily hold the cards.
BUT the Ultimate Guard Premium sleeves are SOFT SLEEVES, about what MTG players call Penny Sleeves.
You would have a very hard time shuffling these and I'm not sure they would actualy protect your cards that well.

Arcane Tinmen make a Board Game sleeve line which are slightly less heavy than their Dragon Shield line.
Their Mini European sleeves are called “Small” and their “Mini” sleeves are Mini American.
Arcane Tinmen now have two different Board Game Sleeve materials; Standard and Non-Glare. Non-Glare are a tad softer feeling.
Standard come in bags of 100, Non-Glare come in boxes of 50 with room to hold 50 sleeved cards in the box.
These sleeves are a tiny bit thinner than the FFG and UG Supreme Sleeves. I don't think I would want to shuffle them very often.
Not because they are bad sleeves, but I don't think you can slide shuffle them well, only riffle shuffling.

Since you probably won't be shuffling the Build Cards, the Arcane Tinmen sleeves are probably good enough.
I would suggest the Fantasy Flight or Ultimate Guard Supreme for the Damage Decks though.

The only binder pages I can find that will hold Mini Euro sized sleeves are the UltraPro 16 pocket Platinum Mini American pages (#84781).
They advertise a size of 41x63 but measure 50x70. Almost all of the Mini Euro sleeves hang out the top of the pocket.
This could be a problem at the top of the page where the sleeve is not supported by the page.

UltimateGuard now make a “deck box” that will hold about 60 sleeved Mini cards, either continent (UGD010491).
I'll probably use one of these for the damage decks.

I did not buy any UltraPro sleeves for review. They make awesome Binder Pages, and OK Deck Boxes, But I generally dislike their sleeves.
Once again, since you are not likely to shuffle the build cards often they may be good enough.
I do note that they have a Standard version and a LITE version.
I could not tell from online pictures if they have the Hologram on the sleeves.
The Hologram sometimes blocks card text on some of their full sized sleeves.
JimTullis is offline   Reply With Quote