The armoury

Dragon Shield Matte, standard

Dragon Shield

The default outer sleeve for Pokémon, One Piece, Magic and Lorcana.

Matte backs shuffle cleanly and hide the fine scratches sleeves pick up. A box of 100 is the right unit for a deck plus spares.

Fits

Standard size

Use

Any deck you shuffle, and double-sleeving a card you care about.

Price

Often about £10–14 for 100

Dragon Shield Matte, Japanese size

Dragon Shield

The smaller outer sleeve. This is the one Yu-Gi-Oh! and Vanguard actually fit.

A standard 66×91 mm sleeve is loose on a 59×86 mm card, so corners knock around inside it. Japanese-size sleeves sit properly.

Fits

Japanese size

Use

Yu-Gi-Oh! and Cardfight!! Vanguard decks.

Price

Often about £10–14 for 100

Dragon Shield Perfect Fit, standard

Dragon Shield

A tight inner sleeve. Dust and a splash have to travel past two openings.

Used under an outer sleeve with the openings facing opposite ways. Do not force a thick textured card — if it will not slide with light pressure, use a penny sleeve instead.

Fits

Standard size

Use

Double-sleeving standard-size cards you play or bind.

Price

Often about £5–8 for 100

Dragon Shield Perfect Fit, Japanese

Dragon Shield

The inner sleeve cut for Yu-Gi-Oh! size cards.

A standard perfect fit is too wide to seal a small card. Pair it with a Japanese-size outer, openings opposed.

Fits

Japanese size

Use

Double-sleeving Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.

Price

Often about £5–8 for 100

Ultimate Guard Katana, standard

Ultimate Guard

A smoother, quieter shuffle than most mattes, with a clear front.

A fair alternative if Dragon Shield feels stiff in the hand. Same standard size: Pokémon, One Piece, Magic.

Fits

Standard size

Use

Players who shuffle a lot and want less sleeve noise.

Price

Often about £10–13 for 100

KMC Hyper Mat, standard

KMC

Thin, clear, and a long-time tournament favourite.

Less bulky when double-sleeved than a heavy matte. They show wear sooner, so keep spares.

Fits

Standard size

Use

Double-sleeved decks where thickness matters.

Price

Often about £8–12 a pack

Ultra PRO penny sleeves

Ultra PRO

Soft, cheap, and the correct first layer inside a toploader or card saver.

Buy them by the hundred for bulk storage and for anything going into rigid plastic. They are not for shuffling — they stick, cloud, and slide apart. Check the pack says polypropylene if you can.

Fits

Standard size

Use

Bulk binding, toploaders, grading submissions, posting a card.

Price

Often about £3–6 for 100

Gamegenic Prime, standard

Gamegenic

A matte outer with a slightly tighter fit than many classics.

Useful if you want one brand across sleeves, deck box and playmat. Still standard size — not for Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Fits

Standard size

Use

A matched play kit.

Price

Often about £8–12 for 100

35pt toploaders

Ultra PRO or BCW

Rigid 3×4 holders. The everyday case for a penny-sleeved card.

Always penny-sleeve first so the card does not scrape the rigid plastic. 35pt fits a normal sleeved card. If you have to push, stop and go up a size — forcing chips corners.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

Storage, display, and posting a single card.

Price

Often about £5–9 for 25

55pt toploaders

Ultra PRO or BCW

A thicker rigid holder for double-sleeved cards and chunky holos.

A double-sleeved card, or a stack of a penny plus a thick textured card, often bows a 35pt. 75pt, 100pt and up exist for relics and patches — match the stack, do not compress it.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

Double-sleeved hits and thicker promos.

Price

Often about £7–12 for 25

35pt magnetic one-touch

Ultra PRO

A clear hinged case. The nicest way to show one card on a shelf.

Penny-sleeve the card first. A 35pt one-touch is for a normal card plus that sleeve. UV versions exist if the shelf gets daylight. Not for grading submissions.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

A chase card you want to look at, not shuffle.

Price

Often about £2–4 each, less in a multi-pack

100pt magnetic one-touch

Ultra PRO

The deep magnetic case, for thick cards and some memorabilia.

A normal Pokémon card will rattle in here. Use it when the stack is actually thick. Still sleeve first.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

Thick promos and cards that will not sit flat in 35pt.

Price

Often about £4–8 each

Card Saver I semi-rigid holders

Cardboard Gold

Flexible holders made so a grader can slide the card out. Not a storage case.

PSA’s published guide asks for a clear penny sleeve inside a semi-rigid holder, and says not to use toploaders, tape, pull tabs or sticky notes. Card Saver I is the size people mean. Card Saver II is a different, smaller format — do not mix them up. Check the current guide before you post.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

Sending cards to PSA, CGC, BGS, ACE or TAG.

Price

A small pack is a few pounds; bulk drops the price per card

Cloudy on purpose. Poor for display, and a weak shield against a real impact.

Resealable team bags

Ultra PRO or BCW

A soft pouch that goes over a toploader so the card cannot slide out in the post.

Seal the bag, then if you tape anything, tape the bag — never the sleeve, never the card. Painter’s tape beats packing tape, which leaves residue.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

Shipping and keeping dust out of a stored toploader.

Price

Often about £6–10 for 100

Vault X zip binder, 9-pocket

Vault X

A side-loading zip binder with stitched pages. The sensible default for a master set.

No rings, so nothing presses a dent into the inner column. Side-load pockets do not dump cards if the book tips. 360 and 480 pocket sizes cover most sets. Do not overstuff a pocket.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

Sets you page through at home.

Price

Often about £18–32

Dragon Shield Card Codex

Dragon Shield

A zip portfolio with removable pages and a more rigid cover.

Worth it if you want pages you can rearrange, or a cover that does not flex in a bag. Still side-load. Still one card per pocket, sleeved.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

A collection that travels to shows.

Price

Often about £25–40

Ultimate Guard Zipfolio

Ultimate Guard

A slim zip binder. Easier to shelve than a padded brick.

Good when you have several smaller collections rather than one giant set. Same rules: side-load, no doubles in a pocket, keep it out of sun.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

Binders that live on a bookshelf.

Price

Often about £20–35

Side-loading 9-pocket pages

Ultra PRO Platinum or BCW

Archival pages for a ring binder, if you already own a decent one.

Buy pages labelled polypropylene and PVC-free. Old soft PVC pages can stick to cards and yellow. If the binder has O-rings, the inner pockets still take a dent — D-rings are less bad, a zip binder is better. Top-load pages drop cards. Side-load.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

Refreshing an old binder without buying a new book.

Price

Often about £8–14 for a pack of pages

Skip any page that does not say PVC-free.

4-pocket toploader binder

Various

Pockets cut for a rigid toploader, not a bare card.

The right book for hits you already cased. A normal 9-pocket will not take a toploader, and forcing one bows the page and the card next to it.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

A small hit binder you flip through.

Price

Often about £20–35

Cardboard storage box

BCW

A plain shoebox-style box. Cards stand upright, like books, with a divider if the row is short.

A heavy horizontal stack bows the cards at the bottom. Vertical, supported, in penny sleeves, in a dry cupboard. 400, 800 and larger counts exist — do not fill past the point they have to be jammed in.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

Bulk, commons, and sleeved cards you are not binding.

Price

Often about £3–8

Ultimate Guard Boulder deck case

Ultimate Guard

A hard deck box. 100+ fits a double-sleeved commander-sized stack; 60 is a tight Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh! deck.

Dice live in a separate compartment or a different box. Loose dice in with cards scratch sleeves and, eventually, corners.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

The deck you take to locals.

Price

Often about £8–16

Graded slab storage box

Various

Slots cut for PSA, CGC and similar slabs so they stand upright.

A slab is already the protection. Do not crack it to reseat the card. Keep slabs out of a sunny window — the label and the card can still fade.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

Graded cards on a shelf.

Price

Often about £15–30

Stitched playmat

Gamegenic or Ultimate Guard

A cloth surface with a rubber back. The table stops being sandpaper.

Stitched edges fray less than a cut hem. Play sleeved. A mat does not make an unsleeved holo safe.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

Any game night, including kitchen-table Pokémon.

Price

Often about £15–30

Mini digital hygrometer

Various

A small reader for relative humidity. More useful than another sleeve you do not need.

Paper and foil want a stable room, roughly 40–55% relative humidity, not a bone-dry box and not a damp UK cupboard. Read the room the cards live in. Attics, cars and exterior walls swing too hard.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

Anywhere you store holos long term.

Price

Often about £6–12

Indicating silica gel

Various

A desiccant for a sealed box in a damp house. Rechargeable packs that change colour.

Use it when the hygrometer says the cupboard is wet, not by habit. Drying a box to an extreme makes paper brittle. Never let loose beads touch a card — buy pouches.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

A closed storage box in a humid room.

Price

Often about £5–10

A tool for a damp box, not a substitute for a sensible room.

Clean microfibre cloth

Various

For dust, dry, and almost nothing else.

A clean, dry cloth can lift loose dust. No water, no glasses spray, no alcohol, no baby wipes, no eraser. Liquids and abrasives mark the coating, and graders notice. If a card might be graded, do not clean it at all.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

A dusty sleeve or case — not the card face, if you can help it.

Price

Often about £3–6

Dry only. If you would not do it to a photograph, do not do it to a holo.

Acrylic card stand

Various

A small easel for a one-touch or a toploader.

Display the case, not the raw card. Keep the stand off a windowsill. A row of stands in direct sun is how a holo fades.

Fits

Any of these games

Use

One or two favourite cards on a desk.

Price

Often about £6–12 for a few