Protecting/storing decks of cards

Not sure the best place to put this, but figured this a good start.

As Sentinels has a lot of cards, I thought I’d share this. If you’ve never used Hugo’s Amazing Tape (http://tinyurl.com/amazingtape) to store decks of cards, I highly recommend it: it won’t damage the cards, doesn’t degrade, and holds cards better than rubber bands.

No, I have no affiliation with the maker; I just know it works really well.

Just spent the evening using the last of mine to put away my new Sentinels cards. (Not that they’ll stay put away for long…) I was going to store them in card boxes, but the boxes didn’t all fit in the Sentinels box, and I really wanted to keep the cards in the box.

Anyone have other ideas/suggestions for ways to protect decks of cards?

Rabit

Edit: Here’s a thread about it from Board Game Geek: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/449421/hugos-amazing-tape

I can say that I just finished putting all the cards into sleeves and the box can just barely contain it all. I’m going to have come up with a better storage method at some point.

I like UltraPro two-piece clear plastic card boxes.

You can get them for about $2 each at your local game shop. The 150-card box easily holds 100 sleeved cards. (The deck goes in side-ways.)

Considering about how many cards the game already comes with and the amount of expansions, eventually you’ll probably have to have somewhere to store all those clear plactic card boxes, which is kind of ashame, because it probably would work out pretty well other than that.

I currently keep my sleeved cards in the card box, but it is a really tight fit. For people who really like better organizational systems, we might consider creating and selling a custom “Sentinels of the Multiverse” storage box that can concisely store and organize all of the cards at some point in the future (if that is something that people are really interested in having). Let us know!

I’d buy a custom box that can hold sleeved cards for sure.

I registered just to add my vote for this. I’ve been looking since I made it home from GenCon for something awesome to put my cards in. However, I still want them in their box. I just don’t like having to separate everything out before a game.

Also, AMAZING job guys. My friends have already planned gaming nights just because they want more SotM!

I like keeping them in the original box aswell, since it has the nice cover art on it. But of course a new custom box to keep the cards in will also be a very nice addition. Made with plenty of room to store some of the additional expansions as well of course. Don’t forget a handle, making it a lot easier to carry.

I’ve been considering attempting to make tuck boxes for each hero/villian and then one for the environments. I’ve never made tuck boxes before, but then this is the first game that has ever made me want to. I have some free time over the next few days and will see if I can put one together. If I do, I’ll try to post a link here.

I have a friend who made up tuck boxes for his SotM game - I think that might be the best way to go for me too.

Is there any way you could convince him to post .pdf’s for his tuck boxes? I’d love to see what he did.

A quick search yielded this generator, it’d be a simple matter to slap some pictures on the template once generated. http://www.cpforbes.net/tuckbox/

This is definitely something we’d consider putting on the website as a free download (like the HP counter cards).

The one part I was dissappointed with was the card box itself. Without something to hold the decks together, the box itself is not a very good container once the card packs are opened. I managed to find a cardboard card box to copy now, but it would be nice if future expansions were either one long card box holding all cards, or maybe even small deck boxes contained in a larger box. I might try that tuckbox thing, we have really thick yellow paper at work; I could print out a box template for each deck I have. (Maybe someone could give me the dimensions I should use, most specifically the thickness of 41/42 card hero deck, 27 card villain deck, and 15 card environment deck, that’d be great, or I could try to figure it out myself (though I have no ruler or anything…).)

We are working with the printer to see if we can get a more convenient box for future expansions. The only issue is cost; we went with the cheapest box possible so that we could sell the game at $39.95 retail, but we are not entirely happy with the dimensions for the reasons you described. For future printings, superior box dimensions may be possible (especially if we can afford to do bigger print runs, since that brings down the per-unit price).

Well, I just printed one at B8 size (6.3cmx8.8cm) and a width of 2.25cm. Hopefully this works out decent enough, and, if so, I can simply scale as necessary. I know the dimensions per card are printed on the box, but I don’t have it handy here at work, and I’m not sure how thick the cards are.

The cards are, in fact 63mm x 88mm. They are printed on 10pt plastic coated cardstock. Hope that helps!

Okay… So, if I’m reading the definition of pt correctly, it means I made this box a bit over twice the size necessary. I’ll test this out for certain when I get home. If so, then it should be simple for me to create the nine boxes I’ll need (though I’ll be stuck with boring black text on yellow background, heheheh).

Well, I got home tonight, found out the cards are about 1-2 mm larger than even the outside of the box (maybe some measuring error when creating the PDF? I’ll probably try at 2.5"x3.5" (that’s what 63mm x 88mm round up to) to give extra space, and I’ll also likely add a couple extra pts in thickness. And if I find something that works great, I’ll post the exact dimensions I used.

Awesome! Thanks for helping the community out with this. Hopefully we’ll be able to release some official SotM PDFs for boxes some time soon.

Okay, so I finally got one to work very nice. Adobe had been messing me up the same way Foxit was messing me up when I tried to print SW:CCG “virtual cards” (or whatever they were called). The printer sends back it’s unprintable margins, and Adobe tries to be helpful by scaling the image down so the full page now fits within the printable region. This throws off the measurements. When I printed 63mm x 88mm x .41 in, I got a perfectly sized deck for 41 cards. Now, it is tight, about as tight as a… well, I’ll just leave it at that. If you don’t want a super tight deck, you may want to add about .05 in or so to each dimension. I measured in inches and converted the 63mm and 88mm to 2.4803 in and 3.4646 in (because I figure it’s easier to convert twice and done than once for each possible width). For the width, take the number of cards you want to fit and divide by 100 (so, 41 cards would be .41 in, 15 cards would be .15 in, 27 cards would be .27, 60 cards would be .60 in, 579 cards would be 5.79 in, etc). Then just cut along the solid lines (much easier if you happen to have a hobby knife and a pane of glass; unfortunately I only had a pair of scissors). Glue where needed, and you got one. (I personally prefer to glued bottom, even if it is a thin deck, as I’ve always had problems with deck boxes that used a tab bottom with the cards not fitting in right, either a couple cards fall from the bottom as it gets on the wrong side of the tab, or it makes a couple cards impossible to get in as they collide with the tab, etc.)

Thanks so much, this will be super handy! I agree about folded-tab boxes vs. glued tab. I have some DVD collections that can be really irritating to try and get in there because the tab folds out when it shouldn’t.

Maybe you all can release official sleeves and stuff for SotM. Like have the backs of the cards be the backs of the sleeves. I think sleeves like those would be sweet and I would get some of them.

If the price weren’t too crazy, I’d be happy to have sleeves with the appropriate backs on them.

Sleeves customized for each deck would probably get pretty expensive unless there were a huge demand for them. However, a generic SotM sleeve would probably be more within the scope of possibility. It could have a clear window through which you could see which deck it was still.

Wow. Reading all this makes me feel like I’m just awful to my game. My game box is rubber banded closed and each deck is also rubber banded. I understand that this will probably wear out my cards, but I’m okay with that happening after a while. I will most likely buy another copy of the game down the line anyway. shrugs

Mine are currently rubber-banded as I haven’t had a chance to grab sleeves yet (game stores are shockingly sporadic in LA). There’s no immediate damage for doing it this way as long as you’re careful, but it’ll wear over time.

Considering that the demo ones have survived pretty well through two cons now, I think they’re pretty hardy. I think with normal use, they’ll last us quite awhile even without sleeves.

I like the tuckboxes I made using 90lb yellow paper with black text describing who is inside. Almost feels like “gummit cawds.”

(Note: I don’t ever remember having government cheese, but I do remember having government peanut butter, government butter, and government raisin bran as a child.)

I like the idea of doing the same thing but with white card stock and throwing a Dharma logo on them. Perhaps even with, instead of the station symbols, simplified b/w versions of the character logos.

YES YES YES!!!

Err… Uhm… I mean, yeah, that sounds interesting.

Since so many good ideas have been posted, and Adam has outed himself as using rubber bands on his cards (fie!) I feel I should chime in.

Here is my personal copy of Sentinels of the Multiverse:

In the box, you can see that all of the cards are sleeved (with premium sleeves, at that!) and that there are cardboard dividers between each hero/villain/environment. Additionally, at the very back of the box, you can see a bit of the con-exclusive Legacy card, which we gave away at Gen Con and the Chicago Comic Con. We will also have it at PAX, but after that it will be much harder to find. In the section between Felicia’s card and the rest of the deck, I have a stack of my Greater Than Games business cards, as well as 20 ten-sided dice, for HP counters.

The only way this could be better is if I could get Adam to art all over that box for me. Though I’d rather he keep working on the next expansion with his art time.

Just out of curiosity, how does everyone else store their cards in the box? I know you’re not supposed to use rubber bands, because that bends the cards, so how do you all keep your cards organized? I had the idea to sort all the cards into just regular 52 playing card boxes, and the game box turned out to be the perfect size to fit 12 of those boxes, so I’ve got all my SotM cards in those neat little boxes. I assume I’ll be doing the same for the expansion cards too. So what did you all do? I can’t imagine just letting the cards get all mixed up in the box.

Hey evandan457, I’ve moved your question over here since it’s related to the discussion already going on.

Do the 52 card boxes have a lot of extra space or did you put multiple decks into each box?

Oh, my bad. Didn’t see it.

Anyways, six of the boxes have single hero decks in them, four of the boxes have one hero and one environment, and the last two boxes have two villains in them. I was originally gonna have the environments in a separate box, but like I said, the SotM box only holds a dozen, so I just cut down on one.

When I get home, I’ll put up some pictures of my “government cards” boxes.

I only have mine rubber-banded as a temporary solution, and as I’ve mentioned, banding them in the “cross-method” has no immediate effects. It’s if you leave them like that for a long time that it starts to warp them.

Christopher, if we have any downtime at PAX, I could be convinced to draw on there.

n/t

Ooh, that is cool!

That is pretty sweet. I just went to trollandtoad.com and bought enough standard sleeves on they’re $1 for a random pack deal. Then put them all in a card box like the one Christopher posted.

I like those labeled boxes. I got lucky because my regular 52 deck boxes just have rectangular holes that I can see the card label in.

Adam:

I’ve included a 42 card tuck box (Legacy) with the cut and fold lines on the first page, and an outside image template on the second page if you’d like to try to make “custom” tuckbox. I don’t know what you use to create digital images (I’m assuming you do something other than draw + scan), but if it supports importing PDFs, that’s one less step to do. Just add another layer on the second page underneath the current layer. If not, LibreOffice Draw is able to import PDFs. You could do the same: import the PDF, create an under layer, add the image to the under layer, position until correct. Then either delete the template, or hide it from printing somehow.
The box is designed to be duplexed flipping on the short end. It’s also perfectly sized to print two boxes on one sheet of Letter sized paper. If you have a duplex printer, I would make a mark on the bottom left corner on the topside, print, then rearrange the paper (remembering how it was rearranged) so that the mark is now on the top right corner on the topside. If you don’t have a duplex printer, make a mark on the bottom left topside, print the first page, rearrange the page to have the mark on the top left corner, bottomside, and print the second page. Repeat this time with the mark on the top right topside and bottom right bottomside.

If it works out decent, I could also make templates for 41 card boxes, 27 card boxes, 15 card boxes, and whatever other sizes may be necessary. Might even be able to make a template ready for two boxes on one print, once I figure out the offsets.

42-card-templeted-tuckbox_0.pdf (32.6 KB)

That’s awesome, I’ll probably throw something together soon. Right now I’ve got a lot to get ready for PAX, so it’ll most likely be in a couple weeks.

TheJayMann, that looks fantastic. Very cool!

so i went to that tuckbox generator and decided to make myself one for each [glow=red,2,300]hero[/glow] :D, they came out awesome, however it was going to be difficult figuring out who is in which box. so i decided to print out there names and paste them on to the boxes i also went ahead and did the SOTM logo to make them look cooler. took forever to find the right fonts :-\

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Nice job there, though it does appear that you folded it up backwards (the lines are supposed to be inside. Also, as far as labels, the generator allows you to add a title, in which case it displays the title on a second page, which you can then duplex print flipping along the short edge (if you don’t have a duplex printer, then manually feed the paper back through, flipping correctly). That’s how my boxes were printed, though it gives it that generic “government” style branding to it. I’m hoping Adam has enough time to make artwork for the 42 card template I implemented, and if so, maybe as well for 41, 27, and 15 card boxes.

yea i did fold them backwards lol i had already done 2-3 so i kept doing it that way, as for the duplex printer i lack one however i will try my hand a printing the character names straight onto the box the method you suggested (flipping and re printing method) after these boxes get a little worn out.

I can see having trouble finding a few of those fonts, because I basically built them from scratch in a few places. Those look great though! And after PAX this week I’ll have a lot more time, so I’ll get some official boxes made up for you guys.

Fantastic, I can’t wait.

After playing this morning, my sister was struggling with getting all of the rubber-banded decks and a pile of dice in to Nephew Eric’s SotM box when she hit upon the idea of using these small, plastic, ziploc-like bags that she had on hand. They’re just big enough for a hero deck (you have to work a little bit to get cards in and out). She and her daughter have been using them for holding craft items like beads, I think. She buys them in bulk and plans to get some more and mail me 18 of them to use with my game.

I’ve just switched over to sleeves and a long card box myself. Only spent about $7 total at the comic store I went to.

You could just go to Walmart and Buy some. they have them in the craft section.

Hedge

I’m currently am working on the tuck box method, I just need to go to Wal-mart to get some thicker paper, which I will be going tonight, since I spend five nights a week there anyways (I work there, not a shopaholic). Then my wife will do some custom art on them to make them look all spiffy and what-not. Can’t wait until the project gets completed so I can share it all.

Also, trying to convince her to draw Citizen Summer in a bikini on the bottom of the tuckbox, sure hope she’ll go through with it.

Only if she also does Baron Blade cavorting on the beach for his deck box

I may consider it, but my wife has the final say in everything she draws. And I can’t do anything about it since I don’t have the artistic touch.

And Omnitron in a sun dress!

Listen, Omnitron has a wide selection of sun dresses which are quite comfortable and stylish.

Adam are you paying attention for the swimsuit calendar that EVERYONE (read: probably only me) wants you to draw? You know, in all your spare time from drawing other new stuff for the actual game.

I kinda want Voss in a mini skirt and tube top, I think it will be stylish. I just hope she doesn’t lose interest before finishing them all, or else i’ll have some look really fancy and the others with my poor hand writing just with their names on it.

I too want a SofM swimsuit calander. Tears has already got my sweating all over the blood soaked bandage to see her rocking her swimwear out.

I would for reals pay money for a calendar like that, provided everyone is equally cheese/beefcakey.

I have a bizarre love for the really terrible old school marvel swimsuit comics.
What
are
these?

I don’t
even
know!

Blah… Company firewall blocks the fourth link.

Trust me, you’re not missing out on anything on that one. No female super heroes involved…

The Namor one wins most bizarre. Swimsuit pinups should aspire to be sexy, not macabre. The idea of Bunker or Absolute Zero in swimsuit pinups is funny to me, and every bit as effective as the speedo-clad Cable (On which - he always seemed more of a trunks guy to me.).

So hard you sat down?

Just for the record: It’s a rear shoulder to thigh picture of a comically hilariously over muscled Luke Cage (according to the caption) wearing just cut-off jean shorts that are only just barely long enough to not be called daisy dukes. If you’re generous.

Because I know you wanted THAT mental image floating around your head!

Don’t forget to mention the thick chain breaking dramatically around his back.

LOL! This is hilarious!

But back to storage… I’m putting the finishing touches on this right now:

http://yfrog.com/h6ne8zwj

It’s a dice tower. I’m thinking I might try making a wooden box for my SotM cards next with dividers for each card type. So the cards would sit in the box just like a standard cardboard card box. Only it’s a little fancier.

On a different note, you guys said you went with the box you did to keep the price down. THANK YOU! I don’t think anyone on here is talking about this because they feel like you made a bad choice. Personally, I think that was absolutely the best option. The reason everyone on here is talking about it so much is that they love your game and want to be able to play it easily and often, and keep it from getting worn out.

Yay!

So, I took some (very hi-res) artwork off the website, and applied it to the 42 card tuckbox template I had created. While it’s not perfect (as the artwork wasn’t designed specifically for a tuckbox) it should look decent. If built correctly, it’s designed to hold exactly 42 cards (might be tight the first couple times you use it, but it should loosen up a bit after enough use), and uses Legacy artwork (it’s designed to hold a 40 card Legacy deck plus two Legacy character cards). I’m not able to test it right now, due to lack of access to a decent color printer with decent thick paper. Hopefull someone can try this out and see how well it works. If I get enough decent feedback, I may just make all eighteen decks (or at least the eleven I can make right now).

http://www.mediafire.com/file/1vtbly9zd6fed4a/42-card-templeted-tuckbox.pdf

Make sure if you use a duplex that you instruct to flip on the short end; flipping on the long end will result in only part of the image on the cutout upside-down. If you don’t have a duplex printer, make a small mark on the bottom left corner face-up and print the first page only. Then, take the printed paper, rearrange so that the mark you made is now on the top left corner face-down and print the second page only.

Looking at what the folks with the Ascension game did, Selling a box with game art and enough sleeves for all the cards, I think it would be good to do something like it But then again Ascension has hardly one third of the cards this game does.

they also sell additional sleeves in packs of 50.

This game would need at least 600 sleeves, and it would be best if they were clear, which would be cheaper to make and easy for players to separate decks after play, the only problem I foresee
is the price point, a box of 100 good sleeves sells for roughly 10 at a FLGS, to make it viable for players the box and sleeves would have to sell for roughly 25 - 30 bucks but that is no guarantee that people will buy it, a poll may help you guys figure out how much players are willing to spend on a storage box, maybe with or without sleeves.

It may be worth noting that the demo copies have now survived 3 conventions…

I know everyone has been asking about the expansions and when they’re coming out, but how are these new expansions going to be boxed? Will they have their own separate boxes like the original game? I wouldn’t mind that so long as the expansion boxes can perfectly fit the boxes from 52 playing card decks I use to store my cards…

I honestly don’t know, but I imagine it will end up being a narrower version of the current box. Kinda like the smaller Arkham Horror expansions.