12-05-2020, 09:03 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Feb 2013
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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. |
12-07-2020, 02:06 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Springfield, IL
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Re: Card Sleeve Review (Long Post)
Thanks for this! I am going to sleeve my cards, and this will help immensely.
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12-08-2020, 02:24 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Nov 2012
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Re: Card Sleeve Review (Long Post)
Mayday Games makes sleeves that are 45x68.
#7035 are the regular sleeves, and #7050 are the premium sleeves. Premium sleeves are 125% thicker. The #7035 are 100 to a pack vs #7080 you get only 50. Either are less than $2.00 a pack. I prefer the thinner sleeves for the shorter stack they create, and I find that I don't replace them often for splitting. |
12-13-2020, 12:13 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Feb 2013
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Re: Card Sleeve Review (Long Post)
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I had forgotten about Mayday sleeves. There are so many companies... I've used Mayday sleeves in the past, but they weren't exiting to me. If you like them then that is what matters. Two Questions... Have you used any of their Mini sleeves? Have you measured their Mini European sleeves? I find that some of the companies use different standards for their "board game" sleeves than for their MTG sleeves. And almost all of the companies advertised size is different from their actual size (mostly being a tiny bit bigger). |
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12-15-2020, 01:23 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Nov 2012
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Re: Card Sleeve Review (Long Post)
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12-15-2020, 09:24 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Feb 2013
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Re: Card Sleeve Review (Long Post)
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Those sleeves don't seem like they will have any extra coverage at the top if they are 68mm externally. Thanks for measuring them. How do they feel? Do you play MTG? Would you sleeve a deck of MTG in that type of material? |
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12-18-2020, 02:01 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Nov 2012
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Re: Card Sleeve Review (Long Post)
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02-11-2021, 08:29 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Feb 2013
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Re: Card Sleeve Review (Long Post)
Concerning Card count...
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From the PDFS I get... PER COLOR 331 build cards 1 sequence card 4 status cards COLORLESS 12 damage cards 6 checkpoint cards 4 scenario cards 82 hazards |
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02-12-2021, 08:00 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Chicagoland Area, Illinois
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Re: Card Sleeve Review (Long Post)
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I show that is an increase of 173 cards from the Kickstarter number - but I'm hardly complaining! |
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02-12-2021, 08:13 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Feb 2013
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Re: Card Sleeve Review (Long Post)
My math from the kickstarter was probably off.
I think I was originally estimating about 320 per color. I am surprised at the number of Hazard Cards though. That seems like a lot for a 3x3 board. Hopefully there is a lot of variety. |
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