I’ve been lately amazed how beautiful art new sleeve releases have gotten which got me into searching some older sleeves, turns out they also have some gorgeous art in them which then got me thinking why isn’t almost anyone collecting sleeves, or at least showing their collections here? After i started to appreciate sleeve art and researced them i picked all the different sleeves from a pile i had gotten with my orders and bought some new individual or mini set ones and made a tiny side collection of them in a binder.
They have some great features for collecting. They have a lot of unique and beautiful art, also some nice unique mini sets. They are usually very cheap, individual sleeves can often be found for single usd per piece, there are also some really expensive cards that share the same art with corresponding sleeves while the sleeves cost few coins, for example Art collection charizard ex 276/xy promo. They also work in quite similar way as cards in binder collections, they are lighter and thinner but the binder page flipping experience is still great. But why aren’t more people collecting them, any thoughts?
That might have something to do with it, at least the knowledge of them isn’t probably very widespread since i too had to research the topic to find some nice releases that no one talks about, like the calligraphy sumie retsuden sleeves in photos 2 & 3. But after researching them they really aren’t usually very difficult to find, i cherry picked some sleeves from one big ebay seller and got around 20 beautiful sleeves for as many dollars which felt like free art
I collect sleeves as well, buying most sleeves that come out as they are released. This is because like you say, they’re relatively cheap.
I personally keep them sealed as I have no plans to use them; I prefer typical soft see-through sleeves as they’re the least damage prone, accepted by all grading companies and easiest for everyone to get cards in / out (I often sell cards at the card shop).
I personally don’t really find them attractive enough to display in a binder either. Cards with textures and holofoil, sure. Glossy plastic sleeves? Not so much.
Super jealous Japan gets all the cool sleeves. Having 64 sleeves, I’m more inclined to trade with others. It’s unfortunately impractical, logistically speaking. Cool idea if for E4 ever had a meet up!
Might be also my preferences, a lot of my side collections consist of different bulk cards so i’m used to enjoying just nice looking art without flashy holo patterns and textures. But definitely understand this, if one likes the flashiness these can look plain and bland
@rtas If you wanted to trade sleeves, it should be easy enough to do via untracked mail. Not a big risk losing out on some sleeves either, as they aren’t too expensive. I remember there being an effort here to gather a pool of money, use that money to buy a bunch of cool sleeves, and then redistribute them to whoever bought in. I don’t think it ever reached critical mass though, but it would’ve been a fun thing to do
On topic, last time I semi-organized some cards, I found all the unique sleeves I’ve received with cards and put them in a pile together. I’ve received a few as freebies before that I really like too. There are some really cool sleeves out there! And like you pointed out, most of them are really cheap and easy enough to get. I think it’s a great way to collect some nice-looking arts, but haven’t dived into it fully myself yet.
Thanks for sharing. There also isn’t a good or any database for sleeves considering how much unique art they feature.
They aren’t cheap though because here they are only sold sealed here and I have no use for the rest of the sleeves. I did think of trading them over time, but since art isn’t the main driving factor for collectors here, I’d probably be wasting a lot of money.
Interesting take. I’ve never considered sleeves collectable because they’re always mass produced…I’m sure someone out there will collect 'em, that’s the great thing about this hobby, the rabbit hole never ends.
Sleeves forever! I love so many sleeve arts, and agree they are a great budget way to get some great artwork. I have toyed with the idea of a sleeve binder for a while, but at this point just have a bin full of sleeve packs in my office.
I really don’t know what’s holding me back from doing more with them, maybe this will be the year I start
Aren’t there some sellers on Ebay that sell a bunch of single sleeves? I’ve gotten a few with Hoppip cameos that way, and ordered a set of single sleeves for the Secret Santa. I don’t go looking for these stores often though, so I don’t know how varied their selection is, but they tend to sell single sleeves at like $1-2.
I totally agree with this premise! I specifically collected one of each pack of sealed prerelease sleeves from Diamond and Pearl base through Triumphant - it’s one of my favorite sub-collections because it reminds me of how much I enjoyed going to prereleases back then. The newer Japanese sleeves are very affordable and also look great in binders.
Some people buy packs and resell them individually. I had considered collecting Japanese sleeves…then I saw people on eBay selling TWO sleeves for $50 and I was like nah. Not affordable!
Now that I think about it though, it is also a pain in the butt to be the one buying them and selling them 2 at a time, but it might be a decent way to collect them without breaking the bank.
