Titan said:

This is how I feel as well. Also, with all the money I sink into games I think it helps to see em

wear and tear a bit so I see my "monies worth" manifesting itself in time.

So, I started buying the FFG clear gaming sleeves and I absolutely love them...however, my local game store (and even another that I occasionally frequent) keeps running out of them (I have called 4 times over the last month and a half) and they consistently tell me that it is not their fault but FFs. Apparently FFG does not consistently print and ship these sleeves. I am so frustrated at waiting for these sleeves that I am either going to start using another brand that I can readily get per each expansion pack, or I am going to not use them at all. Thanks a lot FFG for not consistently making your product available to me...I mean, really? I would buy at least 2 packs a month if you guys would produce them regularly. Marketing lesson 101: if it sells really well, keep producing it and make sure it gets to your local game stores on time. You guys are really annoying me in this regard.

On a positive note: what an awesome game this is! Give me card sleeves!

I'm also waiting for my sleeves for more than a month...

I hear you man...perhaps I was a little harsh on the company in my previous post, but my goodness, too long is too long...we need our sleeves!

I find the Clear Ultra Pro premium card protectors superior to the FFG sleeves. They are stiffer and have a better tactile feel in my hand. (just my opinion of course)

Try them out guys!

i like to have some refreshments when i play a game . some snacks. i usually never spill my drink. only when i play with no sleeves. or your friends are into the cheesies and you figure they have the common sense to wipe their hands clean before getting them all over your cards. no. also the edges of the cards get white from shuffling so much. i'll risk playing without sleeves once and a while, but to protect your investments , go with sleeves.

gatharion said:

Since I posted this I had a friend give me a bunch of black-backed sleeves he just had lying around so now all of my encounter cards are also sleeved. Down the road I might get more sleeves for the player cards, but it's not a priority.

out of curiosity why would you want to use sleeved covers at all? The back card art is pretty cool. .I am using clear ones.

booored said:

I was given black ones. That's why. I bought green ones for the Heroes so they'd be visually distinctive. If I were to buy sleeves for my my player cards, they'd probably be clear.

I use colored sleeves for the different decks and clear ones for the encounter cards. mostly you should consider sleeves if you consider your investment important. thinking back to the early days of card games I have the nuclear war games and they are easy to distinguish by level of grime go back set by set. even clean hands will leave some trace behind and grubby little cheeto encrusted gamer hands will certanly leave marks.

@ OP

If you dont like sleeves, why would you want to use them?

Magic players use sleeves since a single card can easily cost a bucket full of monnies. Damage on cards hurt the resell value. Your individual LotR cards don't have any high value whatsoever because every card is "fixed". (Due to the nature of how the core set is layed out this isnt entirely true). Normal play will never damage your cards to a point where you can tell them apart by looking at the backside. So if you dont like them theres no reason at all to use them. And when you spill cola over your sleeved cards theyre game over as though as they were unsleeved.

I like sleeves, I like the look and feel, I like how I can tell decks apart by using different colours. Its an expensive fun though, sleeving 3 decks (in decent sleeves) costs as much as a new expansion...

I saw this thread and some others like it a few weeks after getting the core set. The argument that normal shuffling will damage your cards ate away at me but I didn't do anything. I had never used sleeves before (played 3 previous card games) so I wasn't sure how necessary it was. When I finally got an Adventure Pack and boy did I see a difference. So I talked to my local game store about what they thought would be the best sleeves and they said to go with FFG sleeves. So I ordered 12 packs and sleeved my entire LotR library and now I just want to throw my thoughts out there for others who are considering sleeves.

Expense: FFG sleeves are expensive. At $3.00 a pack, it was gonna be $36 to sleeve all my cards. That's almost like getting a second core set. But my game store gave me a discount so each pack was about $2.50 instead, knocking the price down to $30.

Shuffling: This was my biggest concern and is still my biggest gripe. When you shuffle, it's possible that the bottom corner of one sleeve will slide into the top of another sleeve so that when you try to slide the two stacks together you the cards get stuck. The trick to this is to try to shuffle the stacks along a straight edge instead of corners. It takes some practice, but I don't find it too big of a pain. In fact, if you don't get the sleeves stuck in each other, shuffling is actually a whole lot smoother. I really like it.

Space: I store my cards in the core set box with the insert inverted to form two rows. All my cards fit in one row before sleeves. After sleeves they almost take up half of the second row. I don't think it's a big deal, but if you're tight on space, it's something to consider.

Stacking: My cards are freshly sleeved and still in the stage where the slightest nudge will send the stack sliding all over. This can be annoying, but I think it doesn't bother me because psychologically I'm forcing myself to be happy with my purchase. Another thing I hadn't understood from previous posts is that the cards don't lie flat. I'd read this but didn't quite get the concept. Let's say you're OCD like me and all your cards have to face the same direction at all times. Also, you want the orientation of your sleeves the same. Well if the bottom of all the sleeved cards are lined up, that end is actually taller than the top end of the cards. If I understand correctly, this will go away in time, but it was something I wasn't expecting. If you don't care which way your cards face I don't think you'll have this issue.

Luster: The sleeves reflect light really well. Sometimes I find myself having to tilt my cards in different directions to try and read my card because my overhead lights are being reflected right at my eyes. Not a deal-breaker, but again, something I didn't anticipate.

Size: The FFG sleeves are a bit larger than the card, as has been mentioned. I was expecting a much tighter fit. There is about a millimeter or so on the tops and sides if you shove the card all the way into the sleeve. I have no problem with this, and it may even be a part of why shuffling is easier. I don't know.

Well, those are some thoughts from a customer new to sleeves. All in all I'm really happy with my purchase and would recommend sleeves.

Budgernaut said:

Best sleeves hands down are dragon shields. Nothing comes close for thickness and awesomeness. Many people will use double or even triple sleeves of ultra or ffg sleeves.. no need with DS. I recently got 1000 FFG sleeves for my coc collection and found them extremely bad. They are thin, and really long, hanging so far off then end of the card .. like nearly 5mm. DS are a perfect fit and so thick and luxurious.

If your not sleeping your cards you are foolish. End of story. No matter how careful you are, you will damage them one day though accident, and even if you do not ... witch you will, the simple act of shuffling and handling will warp and chip the edges. This is not possible for this to not to happen. If people say you can they are either lying, do not play often with the cards often or just idiots. Also if you play with more people than yourself, like say a few mates come over and this game hits the table... well no one is as careful with other peoples toys are you are with your own.

If you have all the sets so far you are already around 200 bucks. It amazes me the some people will not sleeve, yo already spent the money, it is only a few bucks more to sleeve. If your some kind of bum with out a job and can not afford to sleeve then stop being a waste on society and go get some work.

A cheaper option for some would be to get the extremely good ultrapro binders. You can place the cards in there, then sleeves are you play. This adds up to your game setup time, but means you only need like a few hundred (2-4 boxes) of dragons shields for an entire solo collection.

Protects your cards, makes shuffling easier, imo look better and feels better ... sleeves are a no brainier.

Regardless of resale value, I like to protect things that I buy. At first I didn't sleeve my cards, but after 5 or so plays, I definitely saw a bit of wear on some of my cards. I like the aesthetic appeal of the cards, and would hopefully like to get several years of use out of them. In my opinion, Dragonshields are the way to go.