How to protect trading cards

There are a lot of different card protection products out there and very few guidelines as to how they should be used. With hundreds of people starting their TCG collections every day, we thought we'd put together a handy guide to aid those new and old in to keeping their cards safe from damage, as well as what to look out for when shopping for these products.

Sleeves

Card sleeves are the single most important part of any card collection. Without them, your cards are liable to all sorts of damage from dirt to dents to fingerprint markings from being handled too frequently.

 

The main thing to look out for is that the sleeves are made from polypropylene. Polypropylene is the most popular choice for card sleeves, but this wasn't always the case. The main advantage of polypropylene sleeves is that they're acid-free, meaning that they won't cause any damage to your cards over time. Plastics do tend to break down over many years, and some of these plastics (especially softer ones!) may offgas or otherwise cause damage to your cards as they degrade. Because polypropylene sleeves are acid-free, they're considered to be "archival safe".

"Perfect fit" vs "Standard fit" sleeves

Card sleeves typically come in two main variations - "perfect fit" and "standard fit". The exact wording may vary between manufacturers, but generally:

  • Perfect fit sleeves are designed to be tight around a card;
  • Standard fit sleeves are designed to be looser - these are also referred to as "penny sleeves"

Generally speaking, perfect fit & standard fit sleeves can be used interchangeably and is predominately down to personal preference. With that being said, double sleeving (using both a perfect fit & standard fit sleeve) is often recommended for binder collections and for TCG decks.

Matte sleeves

Matte sleeves are a unique type of sleeve that are ideal for decks. Matte sleeves offer a hard, often textured backing which helps keep a card more rigid and helps grip, which is especially useful when you need to shuffle a deck! Matte sleeves typically only come in a "standard fit" form factor, so they're a perfect candidate to double sleeve with a perfect fit sleeve!

Matte sleeves are also brilliant for binder collections because of the extra rigidity. This makes them easier to be added to/removed from a binder, which is really useful when trading or arranging your "grail" binder.

Matte sleeves aren't as ideal for more rigid card holders, however. Toploaders & semi-rigid holders are designed to add rigidity and extra protection for collectors, so if you're using those then we would only recommend non-matte sleeves.

 

As a rule of thumb, we recommend:

  • double sleeving (with a perfect fit and a standard fit sleeve) for binders and decks;
  • single sleeving (with only a standard fit, non-matte sleeve) when used with toploaders & semi-rigid card holders.

Heirloom's premium card sleeves are made from high quality polypropylene and thus are ideal to use.

 

Toploaders

Toploaders are special hard plastic cases that are designed to be rigid. They're often used to protect high value cards because they're far more durable than sleeves due to the material and thickness.

You should always use a polypropylene sleeve before putting your cards in toploaders. Cards are still able to move around slightly in toploaders, and if unsleeved can be damaged over time.

When shopping for toploaders, you want to make sure that they're made of plasticiser & stearate free PVC. PVC is a bit of a controversial material because certain additives can cause the PVC to leach chlorine over a long time period as it breaks down - this is why you should ensure that the material is plasticiser and stearate free. This type of PVC is considered "stable" and thus ideal for long term storage.

If you want to up your toploader game, our acid-free toploaders are perfect for storing your high value cards.

 

Semi-rigid holders

Semi-rigid holders (also known as "card savers") serve a unique role because they're primarily used for mailing trading cards. They're designed in such a way that they hold cards in place to prevent them from receiving any damage in shipping. This means they're perfect for selling singles online or sending your cards to grading services.

Similar to toploaders, you should always sleeve your cards before inserting them in to a semi-rigid holder. The main thing to look for is that they're made of plasticiser & stearate free PVC.

 

In summary

  • Ensure all your cards are sleeved in polypropylene sleeves;
  • Consider double sleeving where possible;
  • Ensure any hard plastic cases are made from plasticiser & stearate free PVC.