Reference
The care library
Every common way collectors protect cards, and the products that belong to each one. Built around Pokémon, and the same physics applies to Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece, Magic and Lorcana. If you want a single answer for one card, use the stack builder.
Build a stackSize chart
Outer dimensions of a normal game card. Promos that are obviously oversized are a different object — measure those.
| Game | Card | Sleeve family |
|---|---|---|
| Pokémon, any language | 63×88 mm | Standard |
| One Piece Card Game | 63×88 mm | Standard |
| Disney Lorcana | 63×88 mm | Standard |
| Magic, Flesh and Blood | 63×88 mm | Standard |
| Yu-Gi-Oh! | about 59×86 mm | Japanese / small |
| Cardfight!! Vanguard | about 59×86 mm | Japanese / small |
Before any product
Handling
Most scratches are fingerprints and stacks, not a lack of equipment.
Clean, dry hands
Wash off food and moisturiser. Cotton gloves snag texture and make you drop things. Nitrile is reasonable if your skin is oily and the card is expensive. Edges only, either way.
One at a time
Do not riffle unsleeved cards. Do not spread a new pull across a table to photograph it and then scoop them up in a pile. Sleeve, then sort.
The surface under the card
A clean playmat or a clean table. Not a kitchen counter mid-meal, not a carpet, not your bed. Grit embeds in soft surfaces and then into the card.
Buy the right family once
Card sizes
Two sizes cover these games. The name of the game is not the name of the sleeve.
Standard, 63×88 mm
Pokémon in every language, One Piece Card Game, Magic, Disney Lorcana, Flesh and Blood, Dragon Ball Super. Outer sleeves around 66×91 mm. Perfect fits around 64×89 mm. Penny sleeves a touch larger still.
Japanese / small, about 59×86 mm
Yu-Gi-Oh! and Cardfight!! Vanguard. Outer sleeves around 62×89 mm. A standard sleeve is loose and lets the corners knock. A Japanese sleeve will not fit a Pokémon card — it is too narrow, including for Japanese Pokémon.
Thickness is separate
Textured holos and full arts are the same length and width, sometimes a little thicker. That changes perfect-fit effort and toploader point size. It does not change standard versus Japanese.
Jumbos and oddballs
Box-topper jumbos and some promo novelties do not fit any deck sleeve. Measure before you order. A sleeve that is slightly tall is fine. A sleeve that is slightly narrow is how cards get bowed.
Standard size, fussier foils
Lorcana
Disney Lorcana cards are the same size as Pokémon. Buy standard sleeves. The thing that actually goes wrong is the foil.
Same sleeve as Pokémon
A normal Lorcana card is 63×88 mm. Standard outers, standard perfect fits, standard pennies. A Japanese-size sleeve is too narrow and will bow the card. Do not buy a Yu-Gi-Oh! brick for a Lorcana deck.
Enchanted cards
These are the textured, full-bleed chases. Hold them by the edges. If a perfect fit will not take one with light pressure, stop. A penny sleeve is the safer inner layer, the same rule as a textured Pokémon holo.
Foil curl
Lorcana foils curl more readily than a typical Pokémon holo when a room swings from damp to dry. Sleeve them and keep them in a side-load binder or a deck box so they stay flat. Do not bend a curl back into shape. A crease is worse than a curve.
A deck is 60 cards
Same count as a Pokémon deck, so the same hard deck box. Double-sleeved, a tight 60-count box can be too small — move up a size rather than forcing the lid.
Binder
One sleeved card per pocket, side-load, no PVC, no rings if you can help it. An Enchanted card does not share a pocket. The page touches the sleeve, not the foil.
The layers
Sleeves
Three products, three jobs. Using one for all three jobs is how sleeves get a bad name.
Penny sleeves
Soft polypropylene (buy packs that say so). Perfect as the first layer under a toploader, inside a card saver, and for bulk in a box. They stick together, cloud up, and are miserable to shuffle.
Perfect fits
Tight inners, brands like Dragon Shield and KMC. Under an outer sleeve, with the opening facing the opposite way, they block dust. If a textured card will not enter with light pressure, do not force it.
Deck sleeves
Dragon Shield Matte, Ultimate Guard Katana, KMC Hyper Mat, Gamegenic Prime. Matte backs shuffle and hide sleeve scratches. Gloss is clearer and shows wear. Art sleeves are for fun and are usually thinner — double-sleeve under them if the card matters.
Double-sleeve orientation
Inner opening at the bottom edge of the card, outer opening at the top. The two mouths should not line up. Replace outers when corners split or the faces cloud; the inner can stay.
Over a sleeve, never instead of one
Rigid holders
Rigid plastic stops bends. It also chips an unsleeved edge on the way in.
Toploaders
The common 3×4 rigid holder. 35pt fits a penny-sleeved standard card. 55pt and up for double sleeves and thick cards. Slide, do not push. If it bows, it is the wrong point size.
Magnetic one-touches
Hinged clear cases for display. 35pt with a penny sleeve is the normal stack. UV versions help on a shelf that sees some daylight. A card rattling means the case is too deep. Not for grading submissions.
Card Saver I
Semi-rigid. Cloudy, and a poor display piece. This is what you use so a grader can flex the holder and remove the card. PSA’s guide says penny sleeve, then semi-rigid, and not a toploader. Card Saver II is a different size.
Team bags
Resealable pouches over a toploader for the post and for dusty storage. Tape the bag if anything, never the card.
Screw-downs
Avoid them. The screw is easy to overtighten, and the pressure can imprint and flatten a card. Recessed versions are still not the holder to choose when one-touches exist.
No rings if you can help it
Binders and pages
The safe pattern is dull: side-load, zip, PVC-free, one sleeved card.
Zip portfolios
Vault X, Dragon Shield Codex, Ultimate Guard Zipfolio. Stitched pages, a closure, no rings to dent the inner column. 360-pocket is a common set size. Do not overstuff.
Ring binders
O-rings press a crescent into cards near the spine. D-rings are milder and still worse than no rings. If you must, use them with archival side-load pages and keep grails out of the inner column.
PVC
Old flexible pages can stick to cards and yellow them. Buy polypropylene pages that say PVC-free and acid-free. When in doubt, do not put a holo in that page.
Toploader binders
Four pockets, sized for rigid holders. Do not force a toploader into a normal 9-pocket page.
Upright and supported
Boxes and long storage
A cardboard box is not a downgrade. A leaning row inside it is.
Shoebox-style storage
BCW and similar. Penny-sleeve the cards, stand them like records, and use a divider if the row is short so they cannot bow. Do not jam the lid on.
Deck boxes
A hard case such as an Ultimate Guard Boulder. 60-count for a tight small deck, 100+ for double-sleeved or larger stacks. Dice do not live in the same compartment.
Slabs
Graded cards stay in the slab. Store them upright in a slab box or on a shelf out of the sun. Cracking a slab to move the card is how people chip a corner they had already paid to encapsulate.
The room is a product
Climate
Stable beats perfect. Attics, cars and damp walls undo good sleeves.
Humidity
About 40–55% relative humidity, and a number that does not leap around the week. Too damp and you risk warp and, in a bad room, mould. Aggressively dry paper gets brittle.
Meters and silica
A cheap digital hygrometer tells you if you have a problem. Indicating silica gel is for a sealed box that is actually damp. Pouches, not loose beads. Recharge or replace when the colour changes.
Temperature
A normal lived-in room is fine. A closed car in summer is not. Do not store boxes against a radiator or in an uninsulated loft.
Fade is slow and then obvious
Light
Ultraviolet and long sun exposure fade ink and can dull holos. Clear plastic is not a blind.
Display
One-touch or toploader, penny sleeve inside, on a stand that does not sit in a window. UV acrylic helps. It is not a sun licence. Swap display cards, or display a proxy.
Binders left open
An open binder on a coffee table in a bright room is a fade machine for the page that is showing. Shut it, shelve it upright, keep it out of direct sun.
Mostly: don't
Cleaning
Dust is removable. A fingerprint you have rubbed is now a surface.
Allowed
A clean, dry microfibre, used lightly, if there is loose dust and you are not planning to grade the card. Better: the dust is on the sleeve, so replace the sleeve.
Not allowed
Water, isopropyl, glasses cleaner, baby wipes, magic eraser, toothpaste, pencil eraser, and any 'card cleaning' liquid you would not put on a photograph. These cut the finish. Graders see the result.
Stuck sleeves
Heat and cheap plastic can cling to a holo. Do not yank. Cool the card, peel slowly from a corner. Sometimes the foil lifts anyway. This is why holos do not live for years in an unknown soft sleeve in a hot room.
The table is part of the card
Play gear
A match is a controlled amount of wear. The gear decides how controlled.
Playmat
Cloth top, rubber back, stitched edge. Stops grit on a table from sanding sleeves. Does not make unsleeved play safe.
The deck
Matte outers, double-sleeved if the list is expensive. Bring spare sleeves. A split corner mid-match is how a holo edge gets a ding.
Tokens and dice
Their own box. Metal coins and sharp dice against a sleeved deck will still mark the sleeve, and then the next unsleeved card you are careless with.
No movement, no adhesive
Shipping
Penny, toploader, team bag, cardboard both sides. Mark the parcel in pen.
To a person
Rigid toploader, bagged, sandwiched so it cannot flex. Bubble wrap is extra, not a substitute for cardboard. Several cards get several loaders, packed tight enough not to slide.
To a grader
Different stack: clear penny and a semi-rigid Card Saver I. No toploader, no tape on the holder, no note stuck to the sleeve. Confirm the company’s current page.
Care, not a price prediction
Grading
Companies grade the card you send. They do not grade the sleeve it lived in.
Who
PSA, Beckett, CGC and TAG are the names people compare. ACE is the UK-based option many British collectors use to avoid a transatlantic parcel. Fees, turnaround and strictness differ. None of them want a cleaned card.
Worth sending
Look at corners, edges, surface and centring in daylight or a bright lamp before you pay. A print line or a soft corner does not vanish in a slab. Centring cannot be fixed at home.
After it returns
The slab is the holder. Keep it upright, out of sun, in a slab box if you have more than a few. Do not crack it unless you have a reason you will still agree with tomorrow.
A list you can finish
What actually ruins cards
If you only remember one section, remember this one.
Pressure
Rubber bands, overfilled pockets, O-rings, screw-downs, a heavy stack lying flat, a leaning row in a box, forcing a thick card into a tight sleeve.
Chemistry
PVC pages, unknown soft plastics in a hot room, tape residue, food grease, hand cream, any household cleaner.
Climate and light
Damp cupboards, bone-dry heat, cars, lofts, and sun through a window or a clear page.
Handling
Unshielded shuffling, scooping raw holos, dragging a finger across texture, erasing whitening, bending a curl flat.