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Four kinds of sleeves and what they do
There are four kinds of sleeves, and they do completely different things. Penny sleeves protect the surface in storage. Deck protectors can be shuffled and hide the back of the card. Perfect fit sleeves go inside the deck protector for double protection. Outer sleeves go on the outside. Sleeves are also called card sleeves or card protectors. Unfortunately, manufacturers call several of them standard sleeves, so go by what is in the pack, not by the name.
Penny sleeves
Use them when the card is going to stay put. That means loose cards in a box, inside a toploader, cards you sell or ship, and anything you have not decided what to do with yet. They cannot be shuffled, so they do not belong in a deck.
Thin, soft and clear, open at the short end. Sold in packs of 100. Protects against dust, grease and scratches, but cannot be shuffled because the sleeves stick to each other.
- Standard soft, penny sleeve. The basic version. What you put bulk and single cards in.
- Platinum or premium. Thicker, clearer plastic. Worth the money for cards you photograph, sell or ship.
- Tall. Longer format for tall cards and for booster wrappers you collect.
- Resealable, team bag. With a seal, for cards in toploaders or for keeping sets together.
Deck protectors
Use them when the cards are going to be played. That means in a deck you shuffle, at tournaments where every card must look the same from the back, and in a deck you carry with you. They are unnecessary on cards that are only stored, since they cost several times more than a penny sleeve.
Thicker and stiffer, built to be shuffled hundreds of times. The back is coloured or opaque, because tournament rules require every card in the deck to look the same from the back. Sold in packs of 100 for standard-size and 60 for Japanese.
| Matte | Easiest to shuffle, no glare. |
|---|---|
| Glossy, gloss | Clearer and cheaper, but slides more in the hand. |
| Non-glare | Extra matte surface, for photos and streaming. |
| Matte dual | Matte surface with one colour on the back and another on the inside. Premium finish. |
| Opaque back | Fully covering, so nothing shows through. Ultra Pro's Eclipse is the clearest example. |
The lines by brand: Dragon Shield has Matte, Classic, Matte Non-Glare and Matte Dual. Ultra Pro has PRO-Matte, PRO-Gloss, Eclipse and APEX. Ultimate Guard has Katana and Cortex. Gamegenic has Prime and Matte Prime. KMC has Hyper Mat.
Perfect fit sleeves
A tight-fitting sleeve put on the card before the deck protector, known as double sleeving. The card is protected from both ends and dust cannot get into the corners. It is standard among competitive players with expensive decks.
- Top-loading. Opening at the top, the simplest.
- Side-loading. Opening on the side, so it ends up inside the deck protector when the card is turned. The most common choice.
- Sealable. Adhesive flap that closes the sleeve completely. Mostly for collectors.
- Thick inner. For thick cards and cards with inserted material.
The brands' names for the same thing: Dragon Shield Perfect Fit, Ultra Pro PRO-Fit, Ultimate Guard Precise-Fit, KMC Perfect Size.
Outer sleeves
Go outside the deck protector in triple-sleeved decks. Used by players with very expensive cards who also want the deck protector to stay new. Dragon Shield calls them Outer Sleeves.
Ultra Pro's sleeves: what the names mean
Ultra Pro makes sleeves for every layer, from the penny sleeve closest to the card to the deck protector on the outside. All their sleeves are made of PVC-free polypropylene, and the name tells you which layer they are for.
Penny Sleeves, Premium and Platinum
Penny Sleeves are Ultra Pro's original: thin, clear and acid-free, for standard-size cards up to 35pt. They protect against dust, dirt and grease from your hands and are the layer closest to the card in a toploader. Premium Card Sleeves are thicker than Penny Sleeves, and Platinum Series Card Protector Sleeves are made of the same thick material as the Platinum binder pages.
PRO-Fit
PRO-Fit is Ultra Pro's perfect fit, a tight perfect fit sleeve for double-sleeved decks that can also be used on its own. Side-loading PRO-Fit Standard works well for cards such as Magic and Pokémon, and Ultra Pro recommends it inside a 35pt magnetic card holder when the card is taken out often. Ultra Pro advises against it on sports cards with sharp corners, since the tight fit can damage the corners. PRO-Fit Small is only for Yu-Gi-Oh! and other Japanese-size cards.
PRO-Gloss and PRO-Matte
Deck protectors in the same material and with the same textured, matte back that stops the sleeves sticking to each other. The difference is in the front. PRO-Gloss is high-gloss and shows the card most clearly, while PRO-Matte is matte and gives less glare during play. Both carry Ultra Pro's holographic mark and come in many colours.
APEX
APEX is Ultra Pro's deck protector with a newer plastic blend that is meant to shuffle more easily and last longer. The back has a textured print, often with licensed artwork, and the front is glossy and clear so that foil cards show. A pack contains 105 sleeves.
Deck Protector with artwork and Gallery Series
Ultra Pro's licensed deck protectors with Pokémon and Magic artwork are sold in packs of 65. The artwork is printed with a technique Ultra Pro calls ChromaFusion, which is meant to stop the print from flaking. Gallery Series is the same sleeve with artwork across the whole back.
Thick Card Sleeves and Team Bags
Thick Card Sleeves are a soft sleeve for cards and holders up to 130pt – that is, the thick card's penny sleeve before it goes into a thicker toploader. Team Bags are resealable bags, 3 3/8 × 3 7/8 inches, for a set of cards or a toploader. Both are acid-free and PVC-free.
Thickness in microns
Ultra Pro states the thickness of its sleeves. Penny Sleeves are 45 microns, and Premium Card Sleeves and PRO-Fit are 50 microns. PRO-Gloss, PRO-Matte, Eclipse and sleeves with artwork have a 90 micron clear front and a 120 micron back. Dragon Shield states 120 microns for Matte and Classic and 60 microns for Perfect Fit. The difference explains why a penny sleeve cannot be shuffled and a deck protector can.
Eclipse and ChromaFusion
Eclipse differs from PRO-Matte in how the back is made. Ultra Pro fuses two layers with a technique they call ChromaFusion, so the back becomes fully opaque and does not flake. The same technique is used on their sleeves with artwork, and Ultra Pro states that it gives their strongest seam.
Dragon Shield's sleeves: Matte, Classic, Perfect Fit and Outer
Matte and Classic
Matte is Dragon Shield's deck protector with a textured, matte back and the line they are best known for. Classic is their original sleeve with a smooth back without texture. Classic gives a firmer shuffle and can be slippery when new, and Dragon Shield themselves write that it scratches more easily than the textured ones.
Perfect Fit
Dragon Shield's perfect fit sleeve comes in four kinds. The top-loading one covers the top edge of the card and protects best. The side-loading one is quicker to put on but protects less, according to Dragon Shield. Sealable closes the card on all four sides without glue and can be opened again, but makes the deck noticeably thicker. Thick Inner is almost twice as thick as regular Perfect Fit and easier to handle.
Outer Sleeves Matte
Outer Sleeves Matte go over a card that already has a standard-size sleeve. They are used for double or triple sleeving and to protect art sleeves that would otherwise flake or crack. The back is matte and textured like Dragon Shield's Matte.
KMC's sleeves: Perfect Size and Perfect Size Hard
KMC is a Japanese manufacturer of sleeves, and Perfect Size is the brand's perfect fit sleeve for double sleeving. It is thin and fits tightly around the card, so the card does not move in the outer sleeve and the edges get an extra layer. Perfect Size for standard-size measures 64 × 89 mm and then goes into a regular standard-size sleeve.
Perfect Size
The clear Perfect Size is sold in packs of 100 and the black one in packs of 80. The black one is used by players who want the deck to look uniform through the outer sleeve, and as a way to tell decks apart.
Perfect Size Hard
Hard is the thicker version and has the same dimensions, 64 × 89 mm. It gives the card a stiffer layer inside the outer sleeve, and KMC sells it as extra protection for cards that are played often. The pack contains 50, fewer than the regular one, because each sleeve is thicker. Keep in mind that a thicker perfect fit sleeve makes the deck slightly thicker, which matters in a tight deck box.
Ultimate Guard's sleeves: Classic and Precise-Fit
Classic Sleeves
Classic is Ultimate Guard's simple, thin sleeve for standard-size cards. It measures 66 × 93 mm, loads from the top and is made of extra clear plastic that protects against scratches and dirt. Ultimate Guard describes it as good-value protection, both for cards that are played and for cards that are archived or shipped, and it also comes in a resealable version. For games with a lot of shuffling, many choose a thicker sleeve with a matte surface. Classic is not made for Japanese cards.
Precise-Fit
Precise-Fit is Ultimate Guard's perfect fit sleeve for double sleeving. It measures 64 × 89 mm, fits tightly around the card and is made to fit in the brand's own outer sleeves, Katana and Cortex. According to Ultimate Guard, sleeves from other brands may fit less well. The material is extra clear, so the card's image shows through both layers.
Precise-Fit comes top-loading and side-loading, and also in a resealable version. Because of the tight fit, it is not intended for sports cards with sharp corners.
The sizes
Check the size before you buy, not after. If you play Pokémon, Magic, Lorcana or One Piece, or collect sports cards, you need standard size. If you play Yu-Gi-Oh!, you need Japanese size, and the two are not interchangeable.
| Standard | 63 × 88 mm for game cards and 63.5 × 88.9 mm for sports cards; the same sleeves fit both. Pokémon, Magic, Lorcana, One Piece, Star Wars: Unlimited, sports cards. Sold in packs of 100. |
|---|---|
| Japanese, small | 59 × 86 mm. Yu-Gi-Oh!, Cardfight Vanguard. Sold in packs of 60. |
| Tall | Longer format for booster wrappers and odd cards. |
| Oversized | For jumbo cards from collection boxes. |
The trap that costs the most money: Japanese Pokémon cards are standard size, while Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! cards are not. The word Japanese on a sleeve refers to the size, not to where the cards were printed.
How many do you need
Count by the deck, not by the collection. Sleeves for storage are bought in packs of a thousand as the collection grows; sleeves for play are bought per deck with a margin for replacements.
A 60-card Pokémon or Magic deck needs a pack of 100, and you want a margin since sleeves wear out and get replaced. If you play with perfect fit sleeves, you need just as many of those. A 100-card Commander deck therefore needs two packs if you double sleeve.
When to replace sleeves
Deck protectors wear, and white marks on the edges show up quickly, which at a tournament can be taken as marked cards. Replace them when the edges start to whiten or when a sleeve has gone cloudy. For cards that are only in storage, the sleeve rarely needs replacing.
Sleeves ranked by protection
- Double sleeved with outer sleeve. Perfect fit, deck protector and outer sleeve. The most protection there is for a card in play.
- Double sleeved. Perfect fit inside a deck protector. The most common protection for expensive game cards.
- Deck protector. Stiff sleeve with a coloured back, built to be shuffled and played with.
- Perfect fit alone. Snug fit, but too thin to play with.
- Penny sleeve. The basic protection for storage. Cheapest per card.
- No sleeve. The card gets scratched by its neighbours before long.
How to choose sleeves, step by step
- Decide the job. Play, store or ship.
- Check the size. Standard 63 × 88 mm (sports cards 63.5 × 88.9 mm), Japanese 59 × 86 mm.
- Choose the surface. Matte shuffles more evenly, glossy slides faster.
- Count how many. A sleeved deck needs more sleeves than the deck has cards, since a few always get damaged.
- Buy the same line for the whole deck. The backs must be identical at tournaments.
Read more about the brands and how to protect your cards properly.
Shop: sleeves at Bangerpack.
Written by us who run Bangerpack. Range and prices change continuously. What applies when you read this is shown in the category.
