Hi,

Because people are always asking about this kind of thing, I thought I would share the solutions I have used so far in protecting my AH gaming bits and pieces. The tokens part needs fleshing out because I am yet to find an answer that I like - or enough advice to be able to implement one of those options! I hope this is of some use, to somebody:

Sleeving Cards

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I use the FFG cards. They are nice and sturdy and guaranteed to fit. I originally tried some of the much cheaper Mayday sleeves but found them to be horribly flimsy. However, Mayday now do Standard Chimera and Chimera Mini size card sleeves, and although they are flimsy, they fit tightly enough so as it isn't going to matter. A pack of Mayday Chimera sleeves is cheaper than FFG sleeves and contains twice as many (100 vs 50). Also, thinner sleeves keep the physical size of your deck down; a stack of FFG sleeved cards is way bigger than a stack of Mayday sleeved ones. I have already sleeved too many cards FFG. It's too late for me to turn back. Maybe you can still be saved before you reach the point where you have paid more for FFG sleeves than you did your house... Still, the FFG ones are nicer though.

(1) Ancient One cards (Mythos cards, Gate cards etc.)

*Fantasy Flight Games Standard American card Sleeves (the green ones, come in 50s)

(2) Investigator Cards (Spells, Common items etc.)

*Fantasy Flight Games Mini American card sleeves (the yellow ones, come in 50s)

(3) Great Old Ones and Character Sheets (the massive cards)

*Genuine large Polyprotec large postcard sleeves 7 x 5 inch (came in 100)

Do an ebay search if you struggle. They are sealed on three sides and don't have a thumb hole thing. They fit pretty well and offer good protection. They do have a visible edge to them on the three sides where they have been put together. Ultra Pro do offer similar things, but according to my research they are either really, really chunky or thin, like comic book wrappings. So I opted for the above.

(4) Heralds

*Genuine large Polyprotec large postcard sleeves 7 x 5 inch (came in 100)

FFG, realising that the 7 x 5 inch cards weren't challenging enough to sleeve, cunningly opted for the bizarre card size of 4 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches. Brilliant. They don't fit very well as they move about inside, but it's the only sleeving solution I have found, so far.

Stands

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*I use the stands from Tomb: Cryptmaster (by AEG)

It's much nicer to play Arkham Horror using stands. I didn't originally because the stands included with the game have nasty, sharp teeth that will slowly devour investigators and monsters alike. Solutions suggested to me have been to engineer your own stands (folded paperclips?) or to file out the teeth on the stands that come with the game. I recommend getting hold of some of the stands from AEG's Tomb, or Tomb: Cryptmaster. I contacted AEG and asked them for some extra stands that I could use. Their stands don't have teeth and don't compress the tokens. They just hang on by friction. AEG kindly sent me out a batch to use - free of charge! And when they didn't turn up they then sent me another batch - again free of charge! I now have enough stands to prop up my monsters, gates and investigators. AEG rock! I don't know why FFG don't offer alternative, non-damaging stands, but this was the best solution I found so far.

Other sources may include (I can't vouch for these):

*The original, 1985 Arkham Horror (had a different type of stands, apparently)

*Star Wars: Jedi Unleashed

Tokens

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To be honest, I haven't got as far as working this out. Possible solutions that people have suggested:

*Print your own tokens to degrade in lieu of the proper ones (a lot of work!)

*Sticky backed plastic (don't know if this would work as the tokens are very thick)

*Varnish the tokens (haven't tried this)

*Use a PVA glue mixture to seal the edges (haven't tried this, but it would only protect the edges)

*Roll dice against a chart to randomize the monsters instead of shuffling them (I didn't want to do this as it would alter the probabilities and be a pain)

P.S. Forgive any typos, it is getting late...

Agent of Cthulhu said:

I recently found and ordered these 4-5/8" x 7-1/2" sleeves meant for post cards:

http://www.the2buds.com/susllgpc.htm

Seems like with a slight trim they should fit the Herald cards pretty well. I'll post again when I get them in few days.

I'm considering getting different color sleeves for the different expansions (5 colors + clear to cover 7 expansions, but I'll make do) to help add/remove expansions in my game. My first thought was that we'd have to draw from the bottom, but on the other hand I think seeing an expansion card coming will add some tension and suspense to the entire round moving towards that extra scary and evil event. :-)

I know I can get hold of of standard sleeves (live in Europe), but the mini sleeves might be an issue. Looked at amazon.co.uk and amazon.de, but no luck. If any Europeans have experiences tracking down those sleeves, please share.

I still don't know what box to keep my cards in, after they grow considerably in size. What do you have or want for yourself? Specific product names are extra welcome.

lolholm said:

Sure! You can buy all FFG sleeves here . It's an italian store, but they ship worldwide

Oh no. My plan is foiled. I hadn't noticed that the mini's only come in Clear.

Thanks for the tip though, I may need to order sleeves from Italy. Flown across the continent to preserve my Arkham Horror game. :-)

You're welcome ;-) and yep, only clear sleeves were produced for minis, unfortunately

Did a little overview for my own sake. It's quite a little investment to protect your Arkham Horror investment.

Data came from: http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com. Prices from the Italian shop (no shipment or other extras included).

Not sure if this is of interest to anyone, just thought I'd share it. Please share comments and corrections. :-)

Note. There are some cards that the wiki did not list as either type and in expansions I have not seen in person, such as Difficulty cards. Those are not included.

...and once sleeved (like I just finished doing this weekend), I'm commissioning the work for a series of card holders. We've priced out the prototypes and while they'll cost the same, the subsequent ones will be a fraction of the cost. Once they're created, I'll post them for view and see if anyone wants to make a purchase. I figure, if I could design dice through Chessex which sold 1,000+ in a few weeks (and since that time ColtsFan has carried the banner, raising the total number sold to over 3,500!), I'm sure there's a number of folks interested in card holders designed and created by another AH player,

The Professor

Good thing I use Arcane Tinmen sleeves for small cards and penny sleeves for large cards. Both types come in packs of 100 and are still cheaper than FFG's. Tallying up costs using my FLGS prices, I get €42 and change. Probably could get even cheaper buying bulk online, especially the small sleeves.

Professor,

your idea is very appealing to me. I'm not interested in boxes / stands for "normal sized cards" but for minis. Not properly for Arkham (they still stay properly in their original boxes when not in play) but as a general thing for other games having tons of minis and no proper space to hold them. In particular, the major pain are the 450 minicards from Twilight Imperium usually surfing in the box were I keep them, and every time we play it's a major issue to recreate the decks. So, in case in your projects there are stands for minis, yeah, count me in

JULIA

The idea now, is to have a display for the Arkham Encounter cards, along with the primary 8-card decks (Bless/Curse, Rail Pass, the various Memberships, etc.), the small decks (<8), including Magical Effect, Benefits, Detriments, Deputy of Arkham, etc., and the Corruption Deck/Black Goat Encounter Deck. Also, I'd have crafted a Dunwich display for the Dunwich Encounter Cards and the Dunwich Horror; a Kingsport display for Kingsport Encounter Cards, plus the "Changed" and "White Ship" cards. Finally, a stand to hold the GOO card (center), Other World Cards and Gate Tokens (left), Mythos Cards [stack, plus a place for the three different types : Environment, Headline, and Rumour] (right), and an area in front of the GOO for a Herald.

The idea for this stemmed from the notion that I need to utilize more vertical space, as horizontal table space is at a premium. My friend, an expert fabricator, took the idea and elaborated upon it, thinking of making street scenes, etc. on the side of the card holders. Anyway, once he has the prototype, I'll be more than happy to share what he's produced.

Uhm, it's seems less universal than I originally thought but it could be interesting. Keep us updated!

ShadyClip said:

Has anyone tried the BCW or other make of First Day Cover Sleeves - size 3 15/16 X 6 7/8 inches?

Agent of Cthulhu said:

I've found that the AH stands are quite adequate once you do away with those nasty plastic teeth and that's a very easy thing to do using a simple nail sandpaper. So far I've had no luck with the sleeves for the AOs, Heralds and Investigators though.

For AOs, Heralds, Investigators, Guardians and Institutions I use these: www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-Soft-Sleeves-100/dp/B002PNJSRG/ref=sr_1_2

The Heralds, Guardians and Institutions have room to spare, but it keeps everything nice and safe. They also hold the reference cards that come with Miskatonic Horror nicely. With the leftover sleeves from the pack of 100 it's easy to sleeve any homemade ref charts/flow charts.

Regarding the filing off the teeth in the normal Arkham Horror stands, has anyone actually done that? If so how did it turn out?

The card stands sound interesting. I've seen various home made solutions on BGG made from everything from lego to green wood.

I'm hoping these new ones will hold sleeved cards, GOOS etc.

Will check back for more later.

I'm not seeing the need to file down stands. The game comes with enough stands to permanently mount every investigator, and it's much easier and faster to have monsters lie flat (especially in the Sky and Outskirts).

Also, why use sleeves for Investigators and GOOs? If you're concerned about protection, why not just laminate them?

Jedit said:

YEEEEH!! That's the word I missed for all this time! Thank you Jedit! To laminate! That's what I did to all my Investigators and GOO. And it works.

Martsi said:

I took three quick photos of the stands after filing off their teeths. I hope that answers your doubts.

i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/Urfarah/Stand3-1.jpg

i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/Urfarah/Stand2-1.jpg

i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/Urfarah/Stand1.jpg

Also, The Original Cai, Jedit and Julia, thanks for the link and the suggestions about laminating the cards.

Urfarah said:

I assume you are actually saying that these still function as stands? You have not commented either way, but reading between the lines I think you would have made it clear if filing the teeth did not work.

Krawhitham said:

It's easier to simply show some more pictures and let you judge for yourself.

i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/Urfarah/Stand1-2.jpg

i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/Urfarah/Stand1-1.jpg

i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/Urfarah/Stand4.jpg

i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/Urfarah/Stand3-2.jpg

In case you prefer them to stand straighter, simply file one side and leave the other one intact. Since I didn't want to risk scratching the tokens, I prefered to file both sides.