Hello, Arkhamites

I'm planning to get Arkham Horror, But wanted to know if anyone has used the Fantasy Flight card protectors for the cards in the game. If you do use them, can you give me your opinion on them? I use cards protectors on all of my hobby and boards game, but the only experience with FFG's card sleeves are for Colossal Arena. They work great and some how all the cards and bet tokens fit in the original box.

so, what is your opinion on using the FFG sleeves for Arkham Horror?

I've sleeved my cards with another company's sleeves. However, the small sleeves (63x41mm) are the same thickness as FFG's (100 microns I think it was measured), and come in packets of 100 (and are cheaper), instead of 50 like FFG.

I had "fun" sleeving my 691 small cards in one sitting. All my large cards have been sleeved from day 1.

I'll look into cheaper sleeves. What are the measurements for the cards? The site doesn't say anything about the sizes of the cards in the games. you think they would...

Can't remember the actual size for the large cards, I use penny sleeves for those. Small cards measure IIRC 64x42mm, but FFG's sleeves for 63x41mm cards fit them (they even list Arkham Horror as one of the example games), ditto for Arcane Tinmen 63x41mm sleeves. Some have mentioned trouble fitting the cards into Mayday Games' 63x41mm sleeves, others haven't had issues.

For the ultimate card-sleeve list:

www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/ffg-supply/PDF/ffg-supplies-guide.pdf

that guide is perfect. thanks for the help.

Hello,

I've used the FFG sleeves on all my Arkham Horror cards - both sizes.

Pros:

This may not apply to you, but I've got fat fingers and find shuffling pretty messy and difficult. I find the sleeved cards extremely easy to shuffle - and shuflle well.

Again this may not apply to you, but I tend to get sweaty hands, plus I live in a fairly confined space with very young children. The risk for marked or damaged cards for me is higher than I'd like - so sleeves it is.

Cons:

The sleeves are quite slippery at first and the larger decks (Gate, Mythos, Common, Unique, Spell) are quite easy to topple over. It has become less of a problem over time though.

The sleeved cards will not fit back into the box with the insert, so creative storage solutions are needed.

Overall, I'm really happy with the FFG sleeves on my Arkham Horror cards. Hope this helps.

TheWagon said:

I've always been of this mind myself, sleeved cards are easier to shuffle.

TheWagon said:

Heh, my Talisman's Adventure deck is 288 cards, all sleeved, standing at 15,5 cm (that's 6" and change) tall. Hasn't toppled over once. For the larger cards, I have penny sleeves, which add only minimal thickness (though compounded since there are 208 cards in my Mythos deck), but no worries toppling it over.

TheWagon said:

Depends on how/where you arrenge them.

I am considering sleeving.... was wondering if anyone has a solution for plastic protectors for the investigators and AOs?

Dam said:

I understand penny sleeves are thinner than FFG sleeves, but the OP was asking about FFG sleeves. In my experience, with newly sleeved cards using the FFG sleeves, the taller decks in Arkham Horror tended to have several cards slide off the top of the deck during setup or when drawing. However, with repeated shuffling and handling, the cards now seem to 'stick' together just nicely.

That's quite a feat to stack your sleeved Talisman cards so high, especially as I understand they are the smaller sized cards. So perhaps it is all down to me just being clumsy.

Dam said:

TheWagon said:

Depends on how/where you arrenge them.

You can store all components plus FFG sleeved cards back into box with insert (just base game)? Wow, how do you do it?

DoctorDR said:

You might look at this.

http://www.clearbags.com/catalog/product/view/id/518

B5X7NF 5 1/8 BY 7 1/16

I called and asked them to mail me 2 orders via normal mail, otherwise their shipping was too high.

Penny sleeves (for large cards) are indeed not thick at all, but I think even with thicker FFG sleeves, the additional height+width of the large cards compared to the small cards should make the decks more stable. FFG sleeves are 100 microns IIRC, the Arcane Tinmen sleeves I used of the small cards are 80 microns (somebody measured them, they are just numbers to me TBH), so while slightly thinner, not a heckuva lot. Early on, even my AT sleeves were slick, but they weren't that slick that they were sliding off just from drawing the top card. Main stacking issue was that the bottom end tends to be thicker than the top end (bottom end being the closed end), so the decks originally tended to tilt a bit, but they balanced themselves out.

As for arranging, currently, no I am not fitting everything but KH into the AH base game box (but couldn't do that regardless of sleeves or no sleeves). When I had AH + DH + DP, those I kept in just the base box.

Dam,

Just curious as to how often you play that you need to sleeve your cards. I'm guessing that the "'regular wear and tear" causes the cards to fade or warp.

The Professor

My girlfriend wont let me sleeve them now - she says she likes them how they are and they are meant to look old and worn.

The Professor said:

I'm at 104 plays, sleeved the small cards after 96 plays (large cards from day one). Especially the edges on the small cards are prone to getting scuffed, leaving you certain cards that you know what they are and where they are (I had a Whisky and Shotgun that way from day one also had an Ally with an edge wear). Sleeves also makes shuffling easier, don't have to worry about the cards, with sleeves they slide between one another more smoothly than without sleeves (IMO). Other games that I've sleeved are Talisman (shuffled after 41 plays), again, small cards are the key component so getting wear and tear is bad and Middle-Earth Quest (after about 20 plays I think, but the decks see multiple shuffles per game adding to the wear).

Dam,

Thanks! Would you recommend ordering from FFG, or do you prefer another supplier? The guide provided by FFG appears quite comprehensive ~ I take it that it includes the sizes necessary for all of the cards?

The Professor

I'm a sleeving-cheapo, so I went with another supplier, since they had sleeves cheaper even with 100x in a packet (FFG has 50). As long as you know the sizes you need, I think any supplier that has those size sleeves will do (though some people have had trouble with Mayday games sleeves).

The Professor said:

That depends entirely on what kind of sleeves you want. FFG sleeves are nice quality and are thick (a positive thing in my opinion). Other suppliers' sleeves are probably the thinner kind, penny sleeves essentially. That's why you get more in a pack with theirs. It all depends on what type of sleeves you want.

The Professor said:

All the sizes are color-coded, so yes, it tells you the sizes.

Brine said:

Like I said, some measured the thickness of the small sleeves from several manufacturers, FFG's are 100 microns, Arcane Tinmen 80, Mayday's 40 microns. Could I tell the difference between 100 and 80 microns? No idea. But FFG has 50 sleeves in their packs and AT has 100, Mayday also 100. At least around here, ATs even with double the number of sleeves and 20% less thickness are cheaper than FFGs.

Thread mentioning the thickness of sleeves:

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

(page 4, if the link doesn't take you to the right page)

DoctorDR said:

I've plastified (hope this exist in English, haha... anyway, melting a thermoplastic resin over them as a protection shell) AOs, Investigators, Heralds and Guardians. Best way to protect them almost forever. In case something goes wrong... well, the sheets will probably have been destroyed even without plastification, so no regret at all.

As far as the other cards is concerned, I'm using the Ultrapro card protectors (Yu-gi-oh size). Green for the Mythos cards, black for the OW encounters, transparent for the Locations and the small cards (they suit perfectly half of a "normal" sleeve once you tunr them on the side, so it's quite rapid cutting away the part of the sleeve you don't need and have the small card protected).

Everything sleeved since day 1, I'm a little maniac on these things

Although I must confess I haven't been able to find anything that prevented monsters being consumed by the intense gaming

I've sleeved all of the smaller cards using the FF sleeves, and I'm pretty happy with it. I still haven't sleeved the larger cards though, as I'm still debating on whether to get the FF sleeves or another, cheaper product to save money. I haven't sleeved anything else I've owned, so I don't really have any comparison to figure out if I'd be okay with thinner sleeves or not.

Thank you, everyone! I'm thinking seriously about sleeving now

Julia said:

wow. that is cool. is it a glossy finish or matt?

DoctorDR said:

Well, I can't say it's glossy, but definitely it's not matt. It's just like watching at sheets through a very very very clean and very very very thin glass. No difference with the original one, but a small shield that protects the card from eveything. Having no open side, every sheet is almost immune from anything normally damaging cards.

Julia said:

I've developed a clear packing tape cut that pretty much solves the problem. No more wear and tear.

My suggestion above for the 5x7 investigator sheets works fine too. At $5 for a hundred, its pretty cost effective too.

mageith said:

To protect the corners / borders or the whole token? Sounds good anyway!