hey,

Doesanyone have any experience with both ffg sleeves and with ultra pro sleeves? I have ultra pro at the moment and I consider changing them for colored ffg sleeves. How would you guys compare the two brands? I am interested in durability, fitting of the cards and overall quality of the production of the sleeves.

All feedback would be very much welcome and appreciated. :-)

The two are both very good quality. I have LOTR LCG sleeved in FFG sleeves, though I went with UP on Netrunner since the UP Deck Protectors are a little tighter fit (FFG is longer) and I had some packs of FFG be inconsistent in their length. No big deal in a cooperative game but I wanted complete uniformity in competitive ones. Though who knows, might have been just bad luck, but it happened a few times.

I'd say that there is absolutely no reason to switch out if you already have sleeves purchased, but if you're curious, buy a single pack and check them out.

For some reason (probably due to high demand for other products) FFG hasn't been able to completely stock all of their card sleeves. Being that both are of comperable quality, I've had to go Ultra-pro. I think if you can find what you're looking for, though, there is little quality difference.

I bought some black FFG sleeves back when I was sleeving up my AGOT cards when I first got into the game about a year ago; the other sleeves I used were Ultra Pro. The FFG sleeves were just a little bit longer, and I found that this made them much harder to shuffle than the Ultra Pro sleeves. I use the FFG sleeves for some things that don't need shuffling (Agendas and House cards in AGOT, Hero cards in LotR), but I use Ultra Pro sleeves for everything else.

I have also jumped to the Ultra Pro sleeves. They are great.

I have used both and find that Ultra Pro have a more consistent fit and a more consistent color (if buying various packs of the same color). Also, FFG sleeves have a "slick" feel that I don't care for. It is unfortunate because I love some of the artwork!

I don't own any FFG sleeves, although my friend does.

I prefer Ultra-Pro, although there isn't much in it.

The Ultr-Pro seem to fit slightly more snug and, more importantly, have a little texture on their back, both of which makes them easier to shuffle, and a little less likely to collapse when stacked.

Isolater said:

I prefer Ultra-Pro in every situation that doesn't involve their little hologram covering up card data, which has really only been an issue for me with X-Wing pilot cards. I solved it by having the hologram on the back of the card, but it just didn't feel right (transparent sleeves). I got my first set of FFG american-sized sleeves to replace them with, and the UltraPros had a much better fit, but since they're just cards that have game data and never get shuffled at all ever, it's not that huge of a deal.

I've been putting the Ultra-Pro on the other way around for Netrunner - hologram on the back. It may look funky, and I can only use that brand then, but they're so sturdy and rigid. I've got a mix of those (hologram on the inside where possible) and general coloured sleeves for other LCGs. Where there are special cards (house, heroes etc.) which don't go into the decks I use plain colours, and fancy picture sleeves for the actively used decks. They're pricey, though, so mostly I stick to UP if I like the art on the back.

I've played competitive Magic so I've had my hands on more sleeves than I care to count.

Ultra Pro's are perfect for Magic because they're consistently sized (usually! I have had issues with this before) more importantly they're tough and durable.

Actually, my favorite sleeves for Magic are Dragon Shields because their durability surpasses Ultra Pro by far.

But this is a question about FFG sleeves.

From the sleeves I've seen so far (I just bought Return of the Jedi movie poster art for the purposes of sleeving my X-Wing minis cards, and I've seen the cool lightsaber art sleeves) my initial reaction was "Wow are these things thin and light."

I don't think they're very durable, so in an 8 round Magic tournament that involves any amount of tutoring or fetching, I think you may start to see problems really quick.

But, I also bought the small clear sleeves (the yellow one, I forget the size name) again for the purposes of sleeving my X-Wing minis, and those are some nice sleeves!

Anyway, there's my $0.02

I too have been a magic player for many years and I aggresively riffle shuffle my cards. I need a sleeve that stands up to such punishment.

I use Dragon Shield sleeves for my magic cards and have tried using Ultra Pro a few times and always feel like they fall apart too easily. Since then I have avoided the UP sleeves like the plague.

I have all of my FFG games sleeved in FFG sleeves and am very happy about it. I can count on their durability.

Note: I do not riffle shuffle the small "yellow" sleeves. haha.

I used to use only Ultra pro - now I only use FFG sleeves.

I have only ever used the clear sleeves for both, nothing with coloured backs.

I prefer the extra length that the FFG sleeves give for protecting the top of the card (particularly when looking through cards that are boxed) and the thickness feels better to me. Also that ultra pro dot really began to annoy me, particularly as they have moved the position of it over the years and they do come off over time. Had very few splits from either company.

In the 1990s ultra pro were easily the best choice, now there are several good sleeves and to some extent it's a personal choice what you prefer.

I've also used Mayday which are fine, although there can be differences in size sometimes even within the same pack.

Related question, but how would you guys compare the sizing inconsistency of UP vs. FFG? I bought a few packs of UP sleeves for Netrunner, and my issue with them is the length is very often inconsistent between packs. This inconsistency would be the primary reason I would want to be switching from one to the other, so I ask if the FFG sleeves have the same problem.

Thanks for any insight anyone is able to provide.

In my experience with the FFG clear sleeves (I don't have any experience with UP sleeves, though) they are very consistent in sizing. I haven't noticed any out of the 10 packs I've bought that have been significantly different in any dimension. Very uniform. Only thing is they seem a bit longer than they need to be, but it doesn't affect usage (shuffling, etc.)

MavericK96 said:

Cool, thank you for the insight. Will have to pick up FFG sleeves at some point, then.

I used UP sleeves since back in the Star Wars CCG days. I recently switched to FFG because I have not experienced sizing issues with their sleevs like I have with UP and Mayday sleeves.

I have been buying hundreds of the Silver Sleeves lately to re-sleeve my Thunderstone/Nightfall/Star Trek DBGs/FFG LCGs/ and a few other Deck-building games. The FFG sleeves seem to hold up better to repeated shuffling. I am currently getting enough sleeves to re-sleeve my Dominion game and expansions because the MayDay sleeves have worn out to fast.