We’re often asked here at Palms Off Gaming about the difference between our two clear card sleeve offerings; the regular Soft Card Sleeves and the MintFit® Inner Sleeves. While both of these products may seem indistinguishable at first, there are some very important differences in their intended applications. In this article, we hope to give greater clarity so new customers can make a more informed decision on which sleeves best suit their needs.

What are Soft Card Sleeves used for?

Like all plastic TCG accessories, card sleeves are used to help protect trading cards and are often used as a baseline level of protection before being combined with other accessories like top loaders or semi-rigid grading holders.

Both of the sleeve types in question will help to protect your cards regardless if you’re a player or a collector, however you may be inclined to lean one way or the other depending on which one of these categories you fall under.

Differences between regular Soft Card Sleeves and MintFit® Soft Sleeves:

The main difference between the two sleeve types is the sleeve’s fitment over the card.

Let me explain.

Most TCG enthusiasts know Soft Card Sleeves (otherwise referred to as penny sleeves, card sleeves, etc) as a budget-friendly card protection option. These sleeves have been favoured by collectors for decades due to their affordability and ease of use. The clear plastic sleeve has a slightly “freer” fit than that of the MintFit® Inner Sleeves, and makes a great general-purpose protection option. We often recommend the use of Soft Card Sleeves in conjunction with other TCG accessories such as binders. Soft Card Sleeves pair very nicely with binders and will help reduce slippage of the card while inserted into the pockets.

MintFit® Inner Sleeves (often called perfect-fit or exact-fit sleeves), are designed to fit snugly to the card, and offer the ability to pair with other sleeves (even Soft Card Sleeves!) to form two layers of protection - most commonly to protect playing card decks, with a MintFit® Inner Sleeve used in combination with a textured deck sleeve over the top. As avid TCG players are aware, competitive decks often run well into the thousands of dollars, and as such it only makes sense to look for an extra level of protection! With that said, some collectors prefer the look of MintFit® Soft Sleeves due to the more sleek look they can offer their collections compared to Soft Card Sleeves.

So which sleeve type is for me?

When it comes down to it all, the choice to be made between Palms Off Gaming Soft Card Sleeves and MintFit® Inner Sleeves is one that depends on each person’s needs as either a player or a collector - collectors often choose Soft Card Sleeves for use in their binders, while players lean towards MintFit® Inner Sleeves for a second layer of protection underneath their deck sleeves.

A little sleeve can go a long way in helping safeguard cards against the worst of what the LGS or tournament environments have to offer (including the dreaded Dorito fingers)!