Why our inserts are keyed to card size, not game title

The usual way to sell a game insert is by title. Someone measures one copy of one game, designs an insert around its components, and sells it as the insert for that game. It is a fine model when it works. It stops working in four common situations, and we kept running into all four, so we built the line the other way round.

Problem one: sleeves

A title specific insert is designed for one card condition, usually bare cards. Sleeve the deck and every card grows about two millimeters each way, and the deck gets about a third thicker. A card well designed with one millimeter of play for bare cards will not take sleeved ones. Some title inserts offer a sleeved version; many do not, and none know which sleeves you bought.

Our card tray asks one question about sleeves. Choose sleeved and the generator adds two millimeters to the card for the sleeve, then leaves three millimeters of play each side instead of one, so standard, premium and matte sleeves all slide in. Capacity uses about 0.45 mm per sleeved card instead of 0.33, so a tray sold as 100 cards still holds about 100.

Problem two: expansions

An expansion adds cards and components but rarely a bigger box. An insert designed for the base game has no room for them. A tray keyed to card size and capacity does not care which box the cards came from. If the expansion takes you from 120 to 180 cards, you order the 200 card capacity, or a second tray, in the same size.

Problem three: reprints and editions

Publishers change box sizes between printings, switch card stock, and move from one card size to another in a new edition. An insert for a title is really an insert for one printing. A tray for a card size fits every printing that uses that size, and a custom box insert is generated from the box you measure, not the box someone else measured.

Problem four: there are far more games than designs

There are tens of thousands of games in print and five card sizes cover most of them. Standard at 63.5 by 88 mm, Euro at 59 by 92, mini US at 41 by 63, mini Euro at 44 by 68 and tarot at 70 by 120. That is the whole reason this works. Five sizes, sleeved or not, four capacities: forty tray variations that fit thousands of games, each one made to order. The card size guide has all five in millimeters and inches.

Why only the width matters

Cards stand on their short edge in a single row in our trays. The cavity is the card's width plus clearance across, the stack thickness plus two millimeters along, and 60 percent of the card's height tall, so the top of the deck stands above the walls for your fingers. That means the short side of the card is the number that decides fit. A card that is not one of the five sizes still fits the next size up by width, as long as the gap is a few millimeters. A narrow 57 mm card goes in a Euro tray with about two millimeters each side.

What it costs you

One measurement and one decision. Measure a bare card's short side with a ruler and decide sleeved or not. If you do not know the size, most sleeve packs print it on the box, and the card size guide has a table of odd sizes and which tray to pick.

What you give up is the bespoke shape. A title insert can have a cutout exactly the shape of a particular component. Ours are plain trays and even grids. We think that is the right trade for most people, because the plain tray still fits after the expansion, the sleeves and the reprint, and because we never put a publisher's name or artwork on a part.

The rest of the box

Cards are only part of a box. Small pieces go in a token tray with scooped compartments. Everything else goes in a custom insert generated from the inside of your box, with the height set so the board still sits on top. The board game storage page walks through planning a full box, and the box measuring guide shows where the ruler goes.