The game may have gotten cancelled a few weeks ago, but that’s no reason to not STORE your cards safely. I actually wrote this as a post for Reddit sometime in 2019, but decided to save it and share it here, complete with Amazon links:
Hey gang, this week I made a few purchase options for character card storage that I haven’t seen before, and thought I would share them, especially on the eve of Wave 3’s release.
Ultra Pro 3×5 Photo Page 25ct. Pack for 8.5” x 11” Album
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N2WO7HY/
These fit well in standard 1- or 2-inch, 3-ring binders with a bit of the pages hanging out, but the character cards still protected by the covers.
I’ve seen a few of the 4-photo pages in use in my area, and I thought they were a decent solution, but they still seemed a bit, I guess “floppy” is the word? So I tried these, which have FIVE spaces per page. This prevents the character cards from sliding around quite as much, and lets you keep the entire Aerialbot, Stunticon, Dinobot, and Predacon combiner teams together on a single page. Sentinels and Constructicons kinda get left out, but having a page with the 6th Sentinel, 6th Constructicon, and both Dreadwing pieces, plus a free extra space for whatever isn’t the worst solution for that. Speaking of Combiners…
PRO-Fit Standard (Magic) Size Side-loading Inner Sleeves
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0157RCVRK/
These guys are fantastic for the three-sided cards (combiners, triple changers) if you don’t mind NOT keeping them in hard toploaders. Simply slide a side-loading sleeve on either side of the card (two sleeves per card), and the card is still 99% protected, except for the inside of the hinge while the card is folded, allowing the cards to be played as WOTC intended.
I’ve done the toploader-with-a-cover thing for my combiners, and it’s a decent solution, but feels inelegant and requires carrying a handful of extra sleeves or tokens or whatever. I may continue doing that for the SRTs, but for the common Aerialbots and Stunticons? I think this works just great.
I will definitely suggest being careful when applying these sleeves. They’re pretty tight, and I accidentally split one of my Constructicons halfway. I found that folding the card into a “V” shape, putting my thumbs at the point, and using my index & middle fingers to slide the sleeves down worked pretty well. Your mileage may vary.
And while I’m sure lots of players are already using the following 2 products, I figured I may as well share them so we can have a single resource:
Ultimate Guard Precise Fit Oversized Card Sleeves (40 Piece)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CRLUIDS/
These are simple plastic sleeves with a tight fit for the non-folding character cards. The sleeved cards can fit in the above photo pages with no issue, as well as the below toploaders. Personally, I have the characters inverted in the sleeves (put the sleeves over the top of the character card, like a hat), and then inserted “correctly” into the toploaders, for maximum protection.
BCW 1-TLCH-3.5X5 3½X5 – Topload Holder
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003C23PFU
Ultra Pro Gaming Generic 43006 43006, Multi, One Size
https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-Loader-Sports-Holder/dp/B000VVCPUG
I managed to catch a 4-pack of the BCW ones on sale for USD $25, resulting in 100 total toploaders, but the regular price of USD $13 for 25 toploaders isn’t bad. These are the ones I’m pretty sure that I see everybody using. UPDATE: Also added a link to the Ultra Pro toploaders after a suggestion from another user in the comments. Buy whichever one is cheaper!
I had been keeping all my Wave 1 & 2 characters in these particular toploaders in a shoebox, but the collection was pretty heavy already, and the thought of adding Wave 3 cards to the box was making me feel bad for my poor shoulders, which inspired this entire round of storage solutions. I still plan to keep my sleeved character cards in here for playing (except for the aforementioned Combiners), but that’s me. You are free to use or not use these as you see fit.
Anyhow, I see a lot of questions pop up for card care and storage, and I thought I’d offer some solutions I hadn’t seen before that are working for me. Hope this helps somebody!