Sleeve Your Cards? Then Ring Your Pages?

While we wait for the first prototype 2 play through I thought I would write about a topic that came up in the community discussions.

The Ship Book is an essential (and required) part of the game. It will be used OFTEN. The pages will get heavier as cards are slotted into them. During the ship phase, flipping through the pages in the Ship Book will exert pressure on the small 3 ring binder holes in the pages. A concern is that perhaps the pages might start to tear from those holes.

The “oldsters” amongst us had flash backs to the old days where our important paperwork (documents, manuals, log reports, etc) was kept in 3 ring binders (D Ring Binders were the elite kind). Pages that were often referenced would start to tear and eventually pages would simply “fall out” of the binder!

The “solution” back then was to reinforce the punched holes in the paper so that they would not tear.  And that solution is still available to us via Avery (and other office supply vendors):

Unfortunately, it seems the Avery rings are a bit too big! Check out the discussion here:

=> Reinforce Binder Page Holes (BGG)

I also wonder if lining the binder page holes with metal would work?

=> Metal Reinforce Ship Book Pages

In any case, here is something to consider for those who often, usually or even always sleeve their cards. If you sleeve your cards to keep them “like new”, should you also “ring” your pages in the Ship Book with Reinforcement Label Rings? The cost is minimal (a tad more that $2, see the Amazon page for an example). These reinforcement ring stickers are available in white as well as other colors in addition to the “clear” version.

There are drawbacks to placing these ring stickers around the holes in the Ship Book pages, just as there are drawbacks to placing cards in sleeves (ie, they don’t stack as well nor shuffle as easily and there can be a bit of “glare” while playing with the sleeved cards).

1. The inner diameter of the reinforcement ring sticker may be smaller than the inner diameter of the punched holes in the Ship Book pages. This could cause the pages to rub or stick to the binder rings while flipping the pages and might even cause the ring stickers to shift a bit during use. You may wish to verify that the inner diameter of the sticker and the punched holes are the same.
2. The ring stickers may not stick well to the Ship Book pages if the pages are glossy (ie, not plain paper).
3. It can be difficult to precisely place the clear stickers exactly in position around a hole. You may need a “hole guide” to line them up.
4. They might not be sticky enough (ie, not “permanent”). Some comments seem to indicate that the ring stickers tend to fall off or come loose.
5. Pages might actually “stick together” if the ring stickers are “sticky” on their edges, especially if you only put the ring sticker on one side of each page.

Maybe we will find out more from Awaken Realms about the durability of the Ship Book pages, but meanwhile, this topic has already come up :)

Click => Full 3 Column Site