I'm looking to start sleeving the encounter cards of my burgeoning collection and I'm wondering: For those of you who keep their encounter cards stored sleeved, what's a quality sleeve that isn't too expensive?

I don't sleeve my encounter cards, but I've found Mayday standards to be perfectly adequate even for my player cards. Their Black Friday sale is unfortunately over, but Mayday offers good sales pretty often throughout the year.

I will say that I have only bought three kinds of sleeves so far.

1. Mayday Sleeves (both kinds - I think it is regular and premium)

2. Dragon Shield Sleeves

3. The LOTR Eye of Sauron Sleeves

Mayday Sleeves

In my experience these split along the seam all the time.

Dragon Shield Sleeves

I have had no problems with these sleeves whatsoever. I don't think a single one has split and I've been using them regularly for over a year. Granted, they are expensive so I've typically just requested them as gifts.

Eye of Sauron Sleeves

These seem to split occasionally, but they are still relatively new so I'm still figuring out just how reliable they are.

Mayday 63.5 x 88mm standard sleeves. They come in a 100-pack, and if you get them on one of Mayday's 40% off sales -- which come up a couple of times a year -- then they're quite affordable. I've found that they do the trick and last surprisingly well given their light weight, but keep in mind that they are not premium sleeves and will eventually tear or split.

I used to sleeve the encounter cards in higher quality sleeves (FFG and Dragon Shield), but the cost was too much. Now I used Penny Sleeves. Honestly, you just don't spend that much time handling or shuffling the encounter deck compared to player cards. Sure they break occasionally and don't fit tightly around the cards,but the price is right and it really doesn't affect game play that much.

I use Ultra Pro: Card Sleeves (2 5/8 x 3 5/8) for all my games. At that price, when they break or get to old, you just replace them.

I must say that they last quite long for such low priced sleeves.

http://www.meeplemart.com/store/p/26006-Ultra-Pro-Card-Sleeves-2-5/8-x-3-5/8.aspx

For encounter sets just ultra pro penny sleeves here. Really cheap, good enough quality and perfectly adequate. Not a "perfect" fit as slightly bigger but good enough.

Shuffle well and play good too.

Very happy with them.

I also use Mayday premium sleeves for all my encounter cards. They work pretty well and are easy to shuffle with.

They aren't the best ever but they are pretty good for their price.