Card sleeve

Card sleeve
Binder filled with Magic: The Gathering cards using 9-pocket card sleeves.
Sleeved (left) and unsleeved (right) Avatar of Might cards from Magic: The Gathering.

Plastic card sleeves are devices used to protect trading cards from damage, especially collectible card game cards from wear and tear. Thanks to the trading card industry, a wide variety of protective devices were developed, including the bulky "top-loader", a rigid plastic case with one open end (essentially a box for a single card) and the less-expensive simple "card sleeve," a card-sized envelope of clear plastic, with one end open. The term may also refer to 9-pocket pages designed to store trading cards in binders or card albums.

Once collectible card games became popular after the advent of Magic: The Gathering, new technology was needed for two reasons. First of all, existing devices were not made with shuffling in mind: rigid top-loaders are effectively impossible to shuffle, and traditional card sleeves break easily during shuffling. Card sleeves also became all the more important because of Magic tournaments: cards that were worn were considered to be marked, and could not be used in tournament decks. Furthermore, the card sleeves themselves were potentially a marking device: one drawback of traditional card sleeves was that they were typically slightly nonuniform, and therefore a potential way of marking cards in a deck on their own. Furthermore, the card sleeves themselves could become marked through wear. (This was a major problem with traditional card sleeves: they were typically a somewhat loose fit, and would develop creases at the sides.)

In 1995, the Ultra Pro company released the first card sleeves designed specifically for collectible card games, which they called deck protectors. Deck protectors were a tougher and more uniform version of traditional card sleeves, made of polypropylene, and specifically designed to snugly fit traditional cards. The first deck protectors were clear, but soon after, deck protectors were offered with opaque black backs, which would obscure the actual back of the card, allowing worn cards to be used without "marking" the deck. Other colors soon followed, and now a wide variety of deck protectors are available in many colors, and even with images on the back.

Today, players can get card sleeves specifically designed for other trading card games like Yu-Gi-Oh!. With the popularity of card games in other countries, other companies such as Players' Choice, Dragon Shield, and Armor Shield have started making their own sleeves.

Modern tournament rules for most trading card games allow the use of card sleeves, and consider the card sleeves (if opaque) to be the real "back" of the card for the purposes of marking.

With the increasing popularity of board games such as Settlers of Catan, Ticket To Ride and Dominion, Mayday Games launched card sleeves specifically for Board Games in 2008. These card sleeves are now offered in 6 sizes and two thicknesses for over 500+ board games. In 2009 Fantasy Flight Games also entered the board-game card sleeve market with a line of premium thickness sleeves of its own.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • card — Ⅰ. card [1] ► NOUN 1) thick, stiff paper or thin cardboard. 2) a piece of card for writing on, especially a postcard or greetings card. 3) a business card or visiting card. 4) a small rectangular piece of plastic containing machine readable… …   English terms dictionary

  • card up your sleeve — If you have a card up your sleeve, you have a surprise plan or idea that you are keeping back until the time is right …   The small dictionary of idiomes

  • card — card1 [kärd] n. [ME carde < OFr carte < ML carta, card, paper < L charta, leaf of paper, tablet < Gr chartēs, layer of papyrus; prob. < Egypt] 1. a flat, stiff piece of thick paper or thin pasteboard, usually rectangular, as a) any …   English World dictionary

  • Sleeve garter — A sleeve garter is a garter worn on the sleeve of a shirt. It came into wide use in the latter half of the 19th century when men s ready made shirts came in a single (extra long) sleeve length. Sleeve garters allowed men to customize sleeve… …   Wikipedia

  • card — card1 W2S1 [ka:d US ka:rd] n ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 1¦(information)¦ 2¦(money)¦ 3¦(greetings)¦ 4¦(holiday)¦ 5¦(stiff paper)¦ 6¦(for writing information)¦ 7¦(games)¦ 8 football/baseball etc card 9¦(business)¦ 10¦(computer)¦ …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • card up one's sleeve — {n. phr.}, {informal} Another help, plan, or argument kept back and produced if needed; another way to do something. * /John knew his mother would lend him money if necessary, but he kept that card up his sleeve./ * /Bill always has a card up his …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • card up one's sleeve — {n. phr.}, {informal} Another help, plan, or argument kept back and produced if needed; another way to do something. * /John knew his mother would lend him money if necessary, but he kept that card up his sleeve./ * /Bill always has a card up his …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • card\ up\ one's\ sleeve — n. phr. informal Another help, plan, or argument kept back and produced if needed; another way to do something. John knew his mother would lend him money if necessary, but he kept that card up his sleeve. Bill always has a card up his sleeve, so… …   Словарь американских идиом

  • sleeve — [[t]sli͟ːv[/t]] sleeves 1) N COUNT The sleeves of a coat, shirt, or other item of clothing are the parts that cover your arms. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows... He wore a black band on the left sleeve of his jacket. 2) N COUNT: usu N of …   English dictionary

  • sleeve — See: CARD UP ONE S SLEEVE, LAUGH UP ONE S SLEEVE or LAUGH IN ONE S SLEEVE, ROLL UP ONE S SLEEVES, UP ONE S SLEEVE or IN ONE S SLEEVE, WEAR ONE S HEART ON ONE S SLEEVE also PIN ONE S HEART ON ONE S SLEEVE …   Dictionary of American idioms

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”