What is the cheapest place to buy trading card supplies? Who makes the best toploaders? Why are monster boxes so expensive?
These are the types of questions I get on a regular basis from friends and fellow collectors. So, I thought I’d put together this guide to highlight the top trading and gaming supply manufacturers, show where I buy them, and also outline some strategies to buy your toploaders, binder pages, soft sleeves, and storage boxes for the best prices.
Manufacturers
Ultra Pro
Ultra Pro is known as the premium supply manufacturer in the industry. They began to grow in the 9 pocket page and soft sleeve or “penny sleeve” market in the 1990s with plastic that didn’t leech chemicals into your cards. Today, they offer a full selection of soft sleeves, binder pages, display cases, toploaders, and more which come in a variety of sizes to fit sports cards and trading card games. They do make a great product, but they also come at a premium. Ultra Pro are often the most expensive option for most retailers.
Cardboard Gold
Cardboard Gold was founded in 1985
This is my preferred source of plastic card supplies. Cardboard Gold dates back to 1985 and also makes an outstanding product. Their Card Saver I semi-rigid card holder is the preferred card holder for submitting cards to be graded with PSA. They offer some of the most affordable soft sleeves and toploaders on the market.
I had a chance to sit down with the founder and owner of Cardboard Gold for a podcast interview, and you can listen to it here.
BCW
BCW is another of the “Big Three” supply manufacturers. Their prices typically fall between Ultra Pro and Cardboard Gold.
They are also well established in the industry and make a full line of plastic soft sleeves, toploaders, card and memorabilia display cases, and binder pages. However, they also offer a full line of cardboard storage boxes which provides significant differentiation over the manufacturers I covered earlier. From small 100 count boxes all the way up to cardboard “houses” that hold almost 10,000 cards, they have pretty much every collector’s need covered.
Beckett Shield
For collector’s who are loyal to the Beckett brand, Beckett Shield is an option. Back in 2021, Beckett leveraged their relationship with supply manufacturer Arcane Tinmen to launch a Beckett branded supply line. Upon release, they were one of the few companies who had a supply of inventory during the “great supply shortage” of 2020-21.
Even a few years into the line, the available products are fairly limited with soft sleeves, team bags, and toploaders being the primary options. In my experience, the soft sleeves and team bags feel very flimsy and thin. There isn’t really a notable reason to use Beckett Shield unless you just feel a sense of loyalty to the Brand.
Vulcan Shield
Vulcan Shield is another supply manufacturer who launched during the supply shortage a few years ago. They made a splash at the 2021 Beckett Industry Summit. Upon launch they offered soft sleeves and top loaders. Since then, they have expanded into a wider range of sleeve and toploaded sizes, a range of magnetic holders, and a graded card storage box. When I talked with company officials, it seemed they didn’t really do any design or engineering work. I got the impression that they basically just found an offshore manufacturer and put their label on the product. The samples I received were decent quality, but I did not find a compelling reason to use Vulcan Shield over Cardboard Gold, BCW, or Ultra Pro.
Places to Buy Supplies
Columbia Hobby
Columbia Hobby is my favorite place to purchase new soft sleeves, card savers, toploaders, and boxes. One of the biggest ways to save on supplies is to buy in bulk, and Columbia offers a ton of options to buy plastic supplies by the case or cardboard supplies by the bundle. They are the primary distributor of Cardboard Gold products, and since those are my preferred brand, Columbia Hobby answers the call.
eBay and Amazon
That being said, from time to time specific sellers on eBay and Amazon have some great deals. On Amazon especially, you can find sellers who white label products under their own name. If you are willing to take a chance on an unproven brand, you can find some cheap items from time to time.
Another suggestion I’d throw out there is to think through the reason you need the supplies. Are you buying for your own storage and display purposes? Are you using them as protection for shipping cards you sold online? Sometimes you may not need brand new supplies, used ones might work perfect? For instance, on eBay you can buy flat rate boxes full of gently used topoaders for a fraction of the cost of new ones, and they work perfect for shipping online sales. You can also save on gently used 9 pocket binder pages as well.
While I’m on the topic of saving money, let me share this suggestion. Buy in bulk! For example, if you buy one 3 row storage box on Colombia Hobby’s website it will cost you over $8. However, if you buy a bundle of 25 boxes, they cost less than $5 each. Similar discounts apply to toploaders and penny sleeves as well!
Local Card Shops
One of the best features of a great card shop is when they carry a wide range of supplies. It’s one thing to buy in bulk if you are a supply power user and go through hundreds or thousands of sleeves and toploaders. But sometimes you only need a few “super thick” toploaders or a handful of pages to hold some vintage “tall boy” cards. Maybe you hit a big card of one of your favorite players and only need one Mag Case to display it in. Well in those situations, picking up those odds and ends at your LCS is a great option.
Facebook Marketplace
Another place to check for used supplies is Facebook Marketplace. In our area, there are frequent listings for used 3, 4, and 5 row storage boxes. Buying these used boxes locally is pretty much the only option due to the cost to ship. But it is common to be able to pick them up for 50% of the cost of even the bulk prices of new ones.
Wrapping it Up
When it comes to trading card supplies there are a ton of options. Once again, Cardboard Gold is my favorite brand because of the balance of great quality and great cost. Planning ahead and buying in bulk are the biggest opportunities to save some money on these cardboard and plastic necessities. Considering buying used on eBay is another great way to save a bit.
Are there other supply related questions you have? Leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer!