Reddit reviews KMC Full Size Hyper Matte Sleeves (80-Pack), Black, Standard Size, Fits MtG, Weiss, Pokemon

So I think that a pauper cube sounds like what you want to do. This is an all-commons cube, which, like you say, will allow fun, well-balanced play. It'll also be a bit lower complexity than a power cube would be, which is better for new players (as opposed to things like putting Eldrazi under a Mimic Vat).

Here's a link to an article about pauper cube with a link to a list at the bottom of the article.

The cards themselves will likely cost less than $100 - you may already have a good number of them - and then you would just need sleeves. I recommend double sleeving with something like the KMC Perfect Size inner sleeves and the KMC Hyper Matte sleeves outside. This will keep your cards in good condition (yes, they're commons, but it's nice if they stay nice looking. Some people also choose to foil out their pauper cube, since it's a lot cheaper to do than foiling out a powered or higher-powered cube, and double sleeving will prevent bending).

All in all for probably less than $200 you can make a fun pauper cube. Good luck!

KMC Hyper Mattes are what I swear by, and I was a staunch supporter of Dragon Shields for years.

I decided to start collecting with Steam Siege and Generations. Figuring out the best way to keep stuff was daunting at first. After going through all of TCC's videos and lurking in this and the collection sub, this is the system I settled on:

-Each Set gets its own 1" binder. Be sure to use a D-ring style so the pages sit evenly on top of each other. I like these from Office Max/Depot because they open and close easily and have a pin-hole style of lock so it ensures alignment of the rings and minimizes catching pages.

--In the inside pocket of the cover, I put the Trainer's Guide from the ETB of the set, fits nicely in the larger of the 2 pockets. Make sure you don't put anything in the back cover's pockets, as that could make an uneven surface for your cards to rest on if you leave the binders on their sides.

--Then, each binder starts with a 4-pocket binder sheet to store one of each booster art for the set.

--After the booster page, I organize the cards by set number, starting with the core set followed by the parallel set. I use Ultra pro's 18 pocket side loading card pages for storing the cards. Pretty much hands down the best. I prefer the black backing and only want to put 1 card in each pocket. Nice fit, though I noticed some scratches/imperfections in clarity on the batch I got. Not a big deal for me, as they are still very durable, but may be for others.

---Basic cards go into a KMC perfect fit sleeve upside-down and then into the binder page. Good protection, tight fit, not too much cost. KMC's are pretty universally accepted as the best. As some have said, too tight a fit could damage a card, too loose and it wont fit for double sleeving. I've never had a KMC perfect fit that was too tight, maybe a little loose, but never tight that it could cause damage. Looser ones I just put to the side for storing non-foil cards and not for double sleeving.

---Any foil card (Holos, parallels, URs, SRs, etc.) go into a KMC perfect fit upside down, and then into a black KMC Hyper Mat before going into the binder. I usually double sleeve a stack of cards and then put them into a tight deck box or under a stack of books for a week or so to squeeze out all the air before putting them into the binder.

-Any extra cards then get stored in the ETB for the set they are from. Organize them however you like, but I keep one section for a playset of up to 4 of each card, and any copies above that go into a second 'trash/trade' section. Eventually I may put the playsets of 4 cards into penny sleeves just to keep things sorted more easily, but I don't have too much surplus yet to warrant it. Again, I always keep things ordered by set number.

--Here, any extra foil cards will get sleeved. Right now I am just using Ultra Pro's deck protectors since I ran out of perfect fits, but really don't like how they have the stippled surface on the inside of the sleeve as well. I can feel it scratching the edges/back of the card each time I sleeve one. Particularly valuable rares or holos may get double sleeved for better protection, but still get stored in the box.

-For actual play, I would stick to KMC hyper mats. Good shuffle feel, and last longer than the Ultra Pro's. I played a game with a buddy with my deck sleeved in the Ultra pro's and loved the shuffle feel, but the sleeves just break too easily if you catch a corner. Also they aren't opaque, KMC's are definitely the better looking.

Might want to post this on the actual /r/magicTCG page. If he plays casually you could buy him several products. The Deck Builders Toolkit is a good start, as it comes with a bunch of cards. You could also buy him a "fat pack" of the newest set, Khans of Tarkir, which comes with 9 packs.

The other things you listed could be okay, but there could be a lot of repeats which your son might not like. I have absolutely no experience with the bulk sets at all, so take the risk if you want to. I would stick with the first one you linked though, as it's from a trustworthy seller.

Depending on your budget, you could get the Toolkit, the fat pack, a pack of sleeves, and a good deck box.

unsure about the exact sleeves there, but if you're just trying to get away from the matte sleeves out there, my go-to's are KMC hypers, textured back and clear front, specifically for pokemon cards they work for single or double sleeving

Spend a couple more bucks and get these sleeves. They'll last longer.

Also, forget the deckbox and the gift card and get him a custom playmat from here.

Well I play Legacy and Modern, so I have some fairly pricy cards that I want to protect. Proper doublesleeving makes your cards nearly waterproof, and all but impervious to spills or mishaps. It also protects the cards really well from scratches. Lastly, if I want to put my cards in new sleeves, I don't have to fully remove them from sleeves, the perfect fit can stay on as I swap out sleeves. And the Japanese sleeves were probably KMCs, like mine.

I highly recommend KMC Hyper Matte Sleeves (80-Pack)

Link

So it looks like the cards are 63.5mm by 88mm.

If I wanted to be parnoid and double sleeve these, I would want to get like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00NU5F7U0/ref=pd_aw_sbs_21_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8VQXF982X03W9S802FQJ&dpPl=1&dpID=91M2EcBE4oL

And this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CJ7415M/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1505029013&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=kmc+sleeves&dpPl=1&dpID=51OK7ekmj2L&ref=plSrch

Does that look right?

Any suggestions on card cases to hold the whole collection? The dragon shield boxes seem to hold 100 or 400 cards, but reviews aren't clear if I can stuff all 300 cards in there double sleeved, since it makes them a bit thicker. Any suggestions on a box that will hold the entire season's set of cards?

Or am I overthinking it and should just get like a generic white cardboard box?

I do this with my Scion Dragon Tribal EDH deck. I can't tell you his setup, but I can tell you what I've found to work well:

KMC Perfect Fits, as the inner-sleeve, put on upside down, so the opening is at the bottom of the card.

Any Normal Sleeve works as your mid sleeve. For the tightest fit, use KMC Matte (NOT SILK); however I use Ultra-Pro Illustrated ones, because the outer sleeves make the shuffle feel nice; so no worries about the middle one. These are put on normally, opening at the top of the card.

Finally, KMC Character Guards. These go on upside down, with the openings at the bottom; and make the deck feel like a more smooth KMC shuffle-feel. Wonderful together, but be prepared for a REALLY thick deck. Can be tough to shuffle all the cards with smaller hands.

In total; you'll need 1 set of Inner-Sleeves; 1-2 Sets of Middle-Sleeves depending if you buy a back with at least 100 in it; or if you just get a couple packs of 60-80; and 2 packs of Outer Sleeves. It can be a bit pricy, but nothing protects like it; 'cept maybe a top loader over each, haha.

Hope this helps!

EDIT: While I would 100% Recommend Dragon Shield Matte sleeves to anyone who plays Magic; I wouldn't recommend Triple sleeving with them as the middle sleeve. They're a little taller than most other sleeves, and might stick out more with the outer-sleeves. Haven't tested, but be Wary; like good ol' Norin.

Are these the ones that you got?

http://www.amazon.com/KMC-pochettes-Barrier-Perfect-Sleeves/dp/B0007N7PB2

http://www.amazon.com/Hyper-Matte-Sleeves-80-Pack-Black/dp/B00CJ7415M/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1449515713&sr=1-2

Are they still okay to play with once the sleeves are on?

Not a theme deck, but this is probably the best thing for new players to learn on. Theme decks are really crummy and slow and don't give a good "feel" for what the game is actually like. This Mewtwo vs. Darkrai pack is straightforward enough that new players can learn on it but also well-built enough that it won't be boring.

I would definitely, definitely suggest getting enough sleeves for the decks though since the cards that come in there are worth more resale than the $30 you'll spend on the decks. One pack of these for the Darkrai deck and another of these for Mewtwo would work if you like color-coordination :)

I use KMC perfect size and standard size hyper matte. But if you’re going with the kmc standard size, make sure you get the new ones (link below), cause I read their previous ones weren’t the best but they’re fixed now.

Edit:
Perfect size
KMC 100 Card Barrier PERFECT SIZE (10 packs/Total 1000) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T3Z72Q8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_QpeNDbKKBZRJF

Standard size
KMC Full Size Hyper Matte Sleeves (80-Pack), Black, Standard Size, Fits MtG, Weiss, Pokemon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CJ7415M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_lqeNDbTBPBFG3

I also find it amusing that some of the customer images on the KMC Hypermatte sleeves are of people sleeving Exploding Kittens.

Thank you for mentioning these though. I wasn't aware of the matte versions. I'll probably pick up a pack or two for Keyforge.

https://www.amazon.com/KMC-Sleeves-80-Pack-Standard-Pokemon/dp/B00CJ7415M

The formats are always {set} onwards. Any set released after the given set, including the given set, is legal in that format. The current standard format, for example, is Primal Clash onwards.

Something worth noting is, as Bulbapedia says, a set is only legal after 3 fridays of release in the US. This doesn't mean you can't play the cards you get, it just means you can't use them in official events (though I'd make sure that whoever you're against is okay with you using the new cards first).

The format usually changes late August/early September, and while Expanded is still Black & White onwards, Standard is always a much smaller card pool, to allow variety and newer cards. Sets usually stick around for 2 years (ish).

Either way, have fun with collecting. There's no better feeling than pulling an amazing card. I highly recommend double sleeve-ing your most valuable/favourite cards (a perfect fit upside-down, then a regular sleeve over the top), as this will protect them from liquids pretty well.

I'm using the KMC Hyper Matte Sleeves.

I like them because they're slightly textured on the back and not as slippery as other sleeves. The cards fit very nicely in them.

I linked the black ones to you through Amazon. They have white, dark blue, and maroon as other color options. Also note that you'll have to buy 2 of these packs to have enough for Star Realms.

I store the game in an Ultra Pro Dual Deck Box.

Instead of linoleum try some card sleeves, maybe some from a magic the gathering site or similar. I use [these] (http://www.manaleak.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=29405) but theres the slightly larger ones, [these] (http://www.amazon.com/Hyper-Matte-Sleeves-80-Pack-Black/dp/B00CJ7415M) although im not sure how big those cards are, try looking around and you might find some nice card sleeves.

These are the cheapest I can find the sleeves: https://www.amazon.com/Hyper-Matte-Sleeves-80-Pack-Black/dp/B00CJ7415M it sounds like you already have the perfect fits.

I forgot to post the link to black lotus before but here it is: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/1872540

I'm not sure if they'll have all the cards you need but hopefully its a start.

Don't be too nervous about your cards either. Most people don't pull out your cards while they read them, and with the two sleeves I doubt anyone will notice anything strange.

Matte Dragon Shields aren't quite as tough as the original, but they feel better when shuffling. Very comparable to KMC.

My personal recommendation would be "KMC Hyper Mat", spelled exactly like that as shown here. If your option is KMC but says Matte instead of Mat it isn't a fake product or anything, but it's not as good of an option so I'd recommend the Dragon Shields instead.

One additional thing to consider is double sleeving. If you have only a single set of sleeves and swap the decks inside, that does put a little bit of wear on the cards each time. Inner sleeves are a lot cheaper than regular sleeves, so you can put inner sleeves on all your used cards and swap out which ones are in the main sleeve as often as you'd like. It's not something you need to bother with right away, but it's a small optimization if you want to keep your cards pristine for as long as possible without spending as much. Also protects the cards from water damage.

$25 on Amazon doesn't go far when you're buying commons. The sellers there pay much higher fees than on TCGPlayer and the card prices will reflect that.

A $.90 card costs $1.20, $2.80 costs $3.40, $0.70 costs $1.11, etc. The $15 white tokens deck /u/tommamus linked is just shy of $30 on Amazon.

I'd steer you towards buying something like sleeves instead. Those are around 40% off what my shop charges. Funnily enough, I bought mono-w tokens in the shop a few weeks ago and it was ~40% cheaper in the shop than it would have been if I ordered it from Amazon.

Sure. How about KMC's Amazon page literally saying that they've been discontinued by the manufacturer?

Best bet for storing a large lot of cards is cardboard boxes such as those you're seeing online. Anything will do, really. If you're concerned about the long term health of the cards you'll need to keep them in a watertight container in a temperature controlled room.

As for card sleeves, most folks will use one of the following (listed from most to least durable, roughly):

• Dragon Shield
  
• KMC Hyper-Matte
  
• Ultra Pro Eclipse
  
• Ultra Pro Pro-Matte

Dragon Shields and KMC are regarded pretty highly over in the /r/MagicTCG community. I own some KMC Hyper-Mattes and the quality is great.

Neither are the cheapest of options, mind you, but I think they're worth the investment.

On the cheaper tier, apparently UltraPro Mattes are pretty decent.

binder I use:link
Sleeves I use: link link

I double sleeve my cards then put them in the binder. Ultra pro sleeves in my opinion are very cheaply made and poor quality.

I sleeve all cards with these. http://www.amazon.com/ULTRA-Sleeves-PRO-FIT-Pokemon-STANDARD/dp/B00AXDBDK0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1413312197&sr=8-3&keywords=ultra-pro+sleeves

I then put them in these. 6 in each pocket cause I buy two datapacks generally. http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-9-Pocket-Trading-Pages/dp/B00095M5DQ/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1413312335&sr=8-7&keywords=ultra-pro+binder

Then I put them in these binders. http://www.amazon.com/Avery-Nonstick-Heavy-Duty-Reference-Binder/dp/B000GR7OYW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413312412&sr=8-1&keywords=4inch+binders

For decks I sleeve with these. http://www.amazon.com/Hyper-Matte-Sleeves-80-Pack-Black/dp/B00CJ7415M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413312464&sr=8-1&keywords=KMC+matte or these. http://www.amazon.com/Protective-Card-Sleeves-Count-Black/dp/B000UPL914/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1413312493&sr=8-2&keywords=dragon+shields

When I construct a deck I just put the sleeved cards into the KMC or Dragon sheild sleeves and that's it.

Hope that helps

Aside from something ridiculous like laminating all of your cards, sleeves are your best option. I highly suggest matte sleeves of some kind if you're annoyed at the sleeves being slippery. Both Ultra Pro and KMC have them, and potentially another company, but those are the ones I know of.

Ok, thanks for that advise. I looked at some Amazon reviews for KMC sleeves, and some mention quality degraded lately (https://www.amazon.com/KMC-Sleeves-80-Pack-Standard-Pokemon/dp/B00CJ7415M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1523195800&sr=8-2&keywords=kmc+sleeves). Have you experienced that?

When I played in middle school I kept my decks wrapped in rubber bands and I'd carry them that way in my pocket, and keep them that way in a little cardboard box in under my bed. Luckily I never owned any good cards because the condition of those cards is awful now (but the first rare I ever pulled is still in the back of my binder).

Anyway this is what I use now, with the cards sleeved in these and these.

Sorry I'm a little confused, are you offering the KMC Hyper Matte Black or the KMC Perfect Fit, I'd trade for either but I'm more interested in the Hyper Mattes.

• Take your time learning. Magic is kind of like Chess in the way that it's simple to pick up and play but takes a lot of time and effort to master and no one becomes a guru overnight.
  
  
• If there are any specific cards you're looking for it's usually cheaper to buy them individually instead of gambling with booster packs. There's a chance to pull some $20+ cards from boosters but the odds are heavily stacked against you.
  
  
• Know what your cards are worth and don't be afraid to turn down a trade if you aren't 100% certain of the value of everything involved.
  
  
• Always keep your expensive cards protected and keep your decks stored inside of deck boxes so they don't get crushed or bent. Using rubber bands to keep cards/decks together can seem like an acceptable budget solution until they start to bend or wear the edges of the cards, which turns a $50 card into a $0 drink coaster.
  
  
• It's definitely worth investing into some card sleeves for your decks. They make decks easier to shuffle and prevent your cards from getting dirty. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people open a valuable foil rare from a booster draft, play it unsleeved for the tournament and then find out that no one wants to trade for it afterwards because it's completely scratched to hell.
  
  
• You also might want to look into getting a playmat. It's not nearly as mandatory to have as sleeves but it helps extend the life of your cards even further, it guarantees that you'll be playing on a clean surface and it helps mark your space at a table.

It's a little late notice now, but if he played back in the 90's, he probably saw Scrye Magazine at one point. They had an offer for these fantastic counters. That would be my gift of choice for a seasoned older player. I would also consider a nice deckbox, some sleeves, a playmat with favorite art, a custom playmat, or just find him a card he's always wanted, or some art prints.

Hope that helps! Try playing some games with your dad, the best thing to do with your dad is make some fun memories doing something together.

Where do you get your hyper mats from? They are cheaper for me, here in Australia.

Also, on Amazon, KMCs are still cheaper.

http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Shield-100-Sleeves-Red/dp/B000P0S54I

http://www.amazon.com/Hyper-Matte-Sleeves-80-Pack-Black/dp/B00CJ7415M