Trading Card Sleeves

Card sleeves are the perfect deck protectors for anyone serious about trading card games. Here at Gathering Games, we stock a huge variety of card sleeves to meet any gamers needs, including premium deck sleeves such as Dragon Shield, high quality collection sleeves such as toploaders, and bulk storage sleeves such as penny sleeves. Whether you’re a veteran TCG player or a high end collector, we have everything right here. 

Top Picks for 2024

Dragon Shield Dual Matte is the latest addition to the premium Dragon Shield sleeves line. They provide a perfectly opaque card back that is designed for tournament play. They are perfect for anyone looking for the most premium feeling sleeves. 

Dragon Shield Perfect Fit Inner Sleeves are the ideal sleeve for anyone looking to double-sleeve their deck or the odd valuable card in their commander decks. They have a thin and clear design that still feels premium.

Ultra Pro Soft Penny Sleeves are the ideal sleeves for bulk card storage. While they don’t have the tightest fit or the most premium feel, they are some of the single most affordable sleeves available.

Card Sleeve Buying Guide

Size Guide

There are two sizes used for trading card sleeves:

1. Standard Size - perfect for Pokémon TCG, Magic: The Gathering, Flesh and Blood TCG, One Piece Card Game, Digimon Card Game, Dragon Ball Super Card Game, Battle Spirits Saga, UniVersus, Star Wars: Unlimited, Altered TCG and Disney Lorcana.

2. Japanese Size - perfect for Yu-Gi-Oh, Cardfight Vanguard, Weiss Schwarz and Shadowverse Evolve.

Which Sleeve To Pick

To protect a deck that sees regular play, the go-to sleeves are Dragon Shield. Their most premium sleeves are the Dual Matte Sleeves, universally tournament legal. A step down from this are the Dragon Shield Matte Sleeves, which are slightly cheaper but still an excellent choice for protecting a deck. Notably, Dragon Shield Matte Sleeves are not always tournament legal as the lighter coloured sleeves may be translucent. For tournament play, sleeves must be completely opaque.

For storage of high end cards and for posting out cards, toploaders are the best option for storage, as they give a hardback sleeve, providing the highest level of protection. We’d suggest using Ultra Pro Toploaders.

For bulk storage, penny sleeves are the best option, due to their unbeatable price. While lower in quality than other sleeves, they are the perfect balance of cost and protection for anyone with a sizable collection of cards. We recommend Ultra Pro Soft Penny Sleeves.

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Why Use Card Sleeves

Before the creation of TCG sleeves, most people played without any card protection. Since then, card sleeves have become the norm for a few key reasons.

Card value is highly dependent on the condition of the card. The closer the card is to the ‘pack fresh’ condition, the more valuable it will likely be. Regular play with cards that aren’t sleeved leads to significant wear and tear. Before the creation of card sleeves, valuable cards, such as the Black Lotus card from Magic: The Gathering and base set Charizard from Pokémon, would be played in decks causing them to become worn and torn. Most people did not predict how much value was being lost by not protecting their cards, but in the case of the Black Lotus, the difference between a mint condition and a poor condition version is now hundreds of thousands of pounds!

Another critical benefit of sleeving is how much easier it is to shuffle a deck, a crucial part of starting any game of a TCG. As sleeved cards have a smooth finish, they can quickly be weaved between each other, making shuffling a deck straightforward and quick, all while protecting them from the general wear and tear caused by shuffling.

In the early days of the TCG tournament scene, players did not sleeve their decks, as they did not exist. Currently, all significant TCGs require decks to be sleeved with opaque backed sleeves to participate in any competitive level tournaments. The main reason for this is that the card back cannot be recognised from any unique markings or wear and tear on the card back. So if you’re looking to jump into competitive TCGs, make sure your deck is properly sleeved! 

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I choose card sleeves?

Premium quality sleeves like Dragon Shield Matte Sleeves are great for decks that are being played. Penny sleeves like Ultra Pro Soft Penny Sleeves are great for bulk storage. Toploaders like Ultra Pro Toploaders for extra protection and are great for highly valuable cards and for posting cards.

Are card sleeves supposed to be tight?

Some card sleeves have a tighter fit than others. Soft penny sleeves usually have a very loose fit, whereas more premium card sleeves, such as Dragon Shields, have a tighter fit. Premium card sleeves should be tight enough that the card cannot easily fall out of the sleeve but not tight enough that it causes the card to bend while in the sleeve. If it does bend, it suggests that the card sleeve is not the correct size.

Do card sleeves make shuffling easier?

Sleeved cards become much easier to shuffle due to the smooth card sleeve material. It makes the cards much more accessible to slide between each other; hence, they can quickly be shuffled by weaving. Split the deck into roughly two halves to weave shuffle a sleeved deck. Loosely holding one half of the deck, insert the other half between the spaces of the cards. Repeat this multiple times until the deck is sufficiently shuffled. In competitive TCG play, a deck generally must be weave shuffled a minimum of seven times before being considered shuffled and ready for play.

What is a Japanese card sleeve?

Japanese card sleeves are designed for most Japanese trading card games such as Yu-Gi-Oh, Cardfight Vanguard and Weiss Schwarz. Japanese trading card games are smaller than the standard size of TCGs. Despite Pokemon TCG and all Bandai TCGs (One Piece Card Game, Digimon Card Game, Dragon Ball Super Card Game, etc.) being from Japan, they do not use Japanese sized card sleeves and use standard sized card sleeves instead.

Should I sleeve all of my trading cards?

While it’s not necessary to sleeve every single trading card you own, it is worth sleeving any cards and decks that you play with the most. These cards are the most likely to gain wear and tear from regular use. I recommend using premium card sleeves, such as Dragon Shield Matte Sleeves, to protect these. Bulk cards do not need to be sleeved, though if you wish to sleeve them, you can use a cheaper card sleeve instead, such as Ultra Pro Soft Penny Sleeves. If a card is of very high value and needs extra protection, I would advise storing it in a toploader, such as the Ultra Pro Toploaders.

Should I put cards in toploaders?

Toploaders are great for storing high value cards, giving unparalleled protection. I would highly suggest using toploaders, like Ultra Pro Toploaders, for any part of your collection that is valuable to you. However, it might be overkill to use toploaders for your whole collection, as they are relatively expensive and bulky. Toploaders cannot generally be used for cards that are being played as part of a deck.

What’s the point in double sleeving cards?

Double sleeving your cards provides an extra layer of protection, which generally makes the sleeved card near waterproof. I would suggest double sleeving cards which are being played as part of a deck that have a particularly high value. Great sleeves for these would be Dragon Shield Matte Sleeves and Perfect Fit Inner Sleeves.

It would be overkill to double sleeve every card you own, as cheap, bulk cards would not justify the cost of the sleeves.

What size are standard card sleeves?

Standard sized sleeves are meant to fit cards which are 63.5 x 88 mm.

What size are Japanese card sleeves?

Japanese sized sleeves are meant to fit 59 x 86 mm cards.

Are penny sleeves good for cards?

Penny sleeves are great for protecting cards on a budget. They generally cost 1p per sleeve, though they use a thin material that might be unsuitable for cards regularly being played with due to their loose fit. They are most suitable for bulk storage of cards.