I've been using sleeves, almost since I first got my hands on the core set, but I'm starting to get tempted to unsleeve my cards.

The colors are slightly better without the sleeves and they feel better in my hand.

Still I have not decided yet.

What's your take on sleeves? Do you use them? Anyone who has stopped useing them?

I always use sleeves for the card games I play a lot. That whay the stay in the same shape as I bought them.
They get damaged much easier other wise with shuffling and playing in my opinion.

DarthJalapeno said:

oddly enough, i use sleeves for LOTR but not AGoT. typically, though, i sleeve everything as it really does lengthen the life of my cards.

I always keep my decks sleeved in every TCG/LCG I play. I also keep my encounter decks sleeved. I use different colored backs for each of my decks and encounter decks so that I don't mix them up.

I don't use sleeves in deck-building games, such as Dominion.

I agree with madgoblin, and i keep sleeved all my cards except for the encounter decks.

no i dont- never have, probably never will. i had a big argument on a thread just like this months back with someone who shall remain unnamed. i wa trying to get through to them that it is actually possible to not be able to afford sleeves- even those penny sleeves. see i only just can afford to keep up with the pack and usually have to save up so i can buy them. once you add postage into that then im already slightly behind in being able to buy them on time….all this adds up to one thing- i can either have my cards unsleeved, or i can not have them at all….

besides- thing that annoys me is there seems to be this 'protection' patronisation thing going on from certain experienced players trying to convince new players that they HAVE TO buy sleeves lest they die a horrible death ( not anyone on this forum….dont get mad ) …something that ive only ever seen appear one other place….and that also involves the word 'protection'……only the latter is justified

now dont get me wrong- im not saying sleeves are bad- they are certainly a good idea, and my cards most certainly will be more ragged than if id sleeved them, but its still a personal choice

anyways- thats a long way of saying 'no'

rich

I get covers for all my cards.

richsabre said:

@rich: I got penny sleeves left over.

thanks - i think ill pass though…..now im started on the no sleeves path ill stick there as it means buying the sleeves in the future. besides i sort of like the au naturale feel haha

I don't. I'm just extremely careful about them and doing my best to avoid any damage or else to them.

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

they are pretty durable….more so than they look. ive been playing since over a year ago and the only cards showing wear to be concerned about are one the gandalfs and the entire set of road to rivendell which werent printed correctly in the first place….so thats 1 card in my entire collection that has came about through play (almost every day)

i guess it could be a problem if you look at your deck and see the back of a worn card and know whats coming….but ive trained myself out of doing that so even when a gandalf is sitting at the top i dont notice

i can understand sleeving for this reason though

I always used sleeves for my card games. Otherwise, I found them to get worn and ragged, as was the case when I first played Star Wars CCG and didn't use sleeves. Once I noticed what was happening, I've used sleeves ever since.

richsabre said:

Road to Rivendell set is printed incorrectly? How so?

DarthJalapeno said:

Sorry for the misquoting, I blame computers!

i dont sleeve my cards…..i'd probably prefer too but since i'm constantly making new decks depending on if i'm playing solo or with friends and constantly shuffling the encounter decks together it would only be effective if i sleeved every card in my collection which is too much of a chore for me to bother with. I just try and keep them in as good as a condition as possible. so far the only noticeable wear on the cards is the edges

DarthJalapeno said:

all 4 sides of every card in the pack inc. encounter cards, all have slightly (but noticable) wear, as if they have been very hardly shuffled for a few months before being packed….not sure what happened but it takes so long to get them here in uk that i couldnt be bothered sending them back

rich

Sleeves indeed cost quite a lot (~7€ for 100 in my town), but I still sleeve any card game I play (well, not when the cards have a really strange size, like Domonion…).

I do realize it means I spent about 40€ on sleeves since the game started, but this ensures a long lifespan for my cards (which will eventually be unavailable), so I find this is very necessary.

What kind of sleeves do you guys use?

The only "penny sleeves" I can imagine are the ones that are just like card-sized plastic baggies, but I can't imagine those doing too much to protect the cards. I'm on the fence about this because I want to preserve my cards but I don't really want the trouble/expense. Collecting all these LOTR cards from ground zero is pricey enough.

shipwreck said:

i use FFG's sleeves, they are the best i've found, and you can find them for really low prices online.

shipwreck said:

Ultra Pro penny sleeves for me. Yes, they are very thin, but for example, I've played 3,400+ games of WWE Raw Deal since getting that game in August 2008, haven't had to replace a single sleeve and certainly the cards inside have no sign of wear on them because they've been sleeved. I can't even imagine what they would look like without sleeves. Of course, I can say that without them being in sleeves, I wouldn't have played the game nearly as much. Not only do sleeves make shuffling easier, you can also shuffle more stress-free, knowing the edges and corners won't take any damage.

If a game uses these Magic-sized cards, like LotR LCG does, I use penny sleeves. There is no need for more expensive premium sleeves IMO, extra money is wasted since penny sleeves do the job for a lot less. It's only the non-Magic-size cards, like games that use FFG's mini and medium-sized cards (picked up Descent 2.0 this week), penny sleeves don't work with those, so for those games, have to grab more specialized sleeves, Arcane Tinmen sleeves being my sleeve of choice here (for the same price as FFG sleeves, I get 100 AT sleeves in a pack, vs 50 sleeves from FFG).

I use Ultra Pro premiums.

I like the texture of the harder plastic, and I also use the ones that are completely clear for a uniform feel and they are much easier to cleave together to do a shuffle

I used to use the FFG sleeves, with the special Lord of the Rings pictures on the back, but i have goine back to using Ultro Pro 66mm ones.

I don't think the FFG ones fit very well… there are sizeable gaps around all four edges of the card, and because the inside of the sleeve is white, you get an ugly white border around all of the cards. A lot of the card art is very dark and black, so having a white border around it doesnt look good.

The Ultra Pro 66mm ones fit absolutely perfect, and they also seem a bit sturdier

Always. I sleeve everything…even though I play both solo and multi…I simply change some cards and that's easily done…my collector attitude speaks for myself I'm afraid…I consider it a mistreatment on a piece of art not sleeving them. I use only Dragonshield, green for encounter cards and purple for player cards…

I sleeve all my cards in FFG sleeves. I didn't sleeve at first, but after a few games I noticed some wear and tear at the corners on some of the cards. To me, the feel and the quality of these cards doesn't seem as good as Magic cards, which I've rarely sleeved in the years that I've played. It also makes shuffling easier so there's that too.

i use Dragon Shields.. I think they are but far the best sleeve and also the best fit for LCG cards… FFG sleeves are to tall and I have to spend an hour slicing the top off each sleeve.