Double sleeving, as the name suggests, involves putting your Pokemon cards into two sleeves. Is it worth doing? Can you use them in Pokemon tournaments? Let’s take a look!
You absolutely can double sleeve Pokemon cards. However, you need to make sure that you use the right sleeves. This means a perfect-fit card sleeve coupled with something else, preferably one of the high-quality card sleeves designed for protecting your cards as opposed to a penny sleeve.
Let’s expand on this a little bit throughout the rest of this article.
Should You Double Sleeve Pokemon Cards?
It depends on what you are doing with your Pokemon Cards.
If you are playing with the cards, then we do not really see a huge number of benefits for actually sleeving them up. This is because the cards are going to be heavily played, and that extra protection isn’t really going to benefit you in any way.
If you are going to be storing your Pokemon cards as a collector’s item, then you absolutely should be putting them into double sleeves. It just helps to provide a little bit of extra protection for the card and help to protect them from further damage.
You should only double sleeve if you are storing the cards outside of a binder. If you are putting the Pokemon cards into a binder, then you will only need to be using the perfect fit sleeves and you will only need to use one. The binder sleeve will help to protect the rest of the cards.
Does Double Sleeving Damage Cards?
It shouldn’t do. Not if you use proper sleeves, at least. If the sleeve does not come from a reputable sleeve manufacturer. This is because quality sleeves are ‘acid-free’, and thus they shouldn’t be causing any damage to the cards.
What you must do, however, is ensure that you use the right sleeves if you are going to double sleeve. This means you can’t sleeve up a card with a penny sleeve and then put it into another penny sleeve. It won’t fit. This can cause the card to become damaged.
What you are looking for is something known as a ‘perfect fit’ sleeve. As the name suggests, these sleeves will fit the card perfectly. These sleeves can then be placed into another card sleeve. It is still going to be quite a tight squeeze, but we can assure you that, as long as you are careful, you are not going to be damaging your cards when you use them.
We recommend using Perfect FIT sleeves by Pro Support if you are looking to double sleeve your Pokemon cards. Click our link here to check the current price on Amazon.
Are You Allowed to Double Sleeve in Pokemon Tournaments?
Yes. Well, maybe.
There is nothing in the Pokemon Trading Card Game rules that state that you cannot use double sleeves for your Pokemon cards. In fact, the only popular trading card game that explicitly forbids the use of double sleeves is Yu-Gi-Oh.
However, this does not necessarily mean that you will be able to use double sleeve Pokemon cards in the tournament. The Pokemon Company leaves this up to the head judge. If you are planning on entering a Pokemon Card Tournament, then your cards will be inspected before you begin. This includes the sleeves.
You should be fine using double sleeves if the cards are not identifiable from one another. As long as you are using consistent sleeves i.e. from the same manufacturer, then you should be fine.
We have seen some judges that state that no double sleeves should be used at all. However, this does seem to be pretty rare. As long as the sleeves are not bent, torn, or different colors, then you should be 100% fine. However, do bear in mind that you may be asked to remove the cards from the double sleeves. This is why many people may not double sleeve the cards that they use the most often when they are playing the game.
Why is Double Sleeving Illegal?
Double sleeving is not illegal, as such. As we just said, it is going to be up to the head judge whether double sleeving is allowed. However, the vast majority of head judges associated with the Pokemon Trading Card Game will be fine with it. However, it is important that you take care on how you sleeve your cards.
A short while ago, we stated that double sleeving was fine if the cards were sleeved uniform i.e. if you double sleeve one card, then all cards must be double sleeved. No sleeves should be bent or torn either. This is because it is card marking.
The reason why double sleeving is illegal in some cases is that it can make certain cards identifiable. This goes against the rules of the game because you are never meant to know which cards you are going to be drawing next.
If you are entering a proper Pokemon Trading Card game tournament, then chances are that your cards are going to be inspÄected beforehand. If the judge believes any of the cards to be marked, and this includes with sleeving, then you will not be allowed to play with those cards. If the issue is with the sleeves, then you willö be asked to replace them before you begin playing.
Are Double Sleeved Cards Harder to Shuffle?
They shouldn’t be. Not if you are using quality card sleeves, at least.
Card sleeves not only help to protect the cards, but they also make the outside of the card a little bit stiffer. This means that you should have a far, far easier time being able to shuffle your cards.
The only time that you will run into any issues with card shuffling is if you are using penny sleeves as the outer sleeve. Those sleeves are designed for light protection only.
They are not designed for actually playing with. The outside of the sleeve isn’t reinforced, and thus not only is shuffling the cards going to be more difficult, but you will probably be damaging the cards at the same time.
We recommend the Ultra Pro PRO Matte Eclipse series card sleeves as they are high-quality, and have a nice buttery smooth feel when shuffling.
Do You Need to Use Sleeves When Using a Binder for Your Pokemon Cards?
Yes. You should be using perfect fit card sleeves.
The thing with trading card binders is that they are often designed in such a way that makes it easy for the cards to be removed. This means that there is a bit of space for the cards to move about inside. As you may well know, cards moving about inside of the binder is never going to be good thing. It will cause the front of the card to become scratched.
While we do suggest that you use perfect fit card sleeves, you could also use penny sleeves if you want. It is a far cheaper option. As long as the pokemon cards are not coming into direct contact with the binder, then you should be fine.
Final Thoughts
You can double sleeve Pokemon cards, and it is recommended that you do if you are collecting cards.
If you want to use the Pokemon cards during a tournament, then you will have to talk to the head judge to find out whether they will allow you to use the double sleeved cards.
If you are planning on using a binder, then you should always sleeve the cards before you place them into the binder.