I've noticed this problem after my latest club's cube draft finished. A bunch of the cards will have gunk or grey circles of dirt on the front of the sleeves. Some of the sleeves have started to stick together. Honestly it's disgusting and I don't have this issue with the decks I personally only handle. It's not even an issue with playmats since everyone uses them. And to boot this happens after just one cube draft. I cleaned most of the affected sleeves before this draft and I noticed that after the latest cube draft there was more dirt on a bunch of the sleeves.
What it boils down to is this: is it too much to ask club members to wash their hands before a cube draft? Keep in mind this is college, and already 1-2 members have rolled their eyes at me when I said no food/drink while cubing. I don't have the benefit of some my fellow cubers here where it might be understandable cubing amongst friends. Is there any other methods to prevent cards from getting dirty this quickly?
You might want to look for a play group that is a little older and does not have such horrible problems with personal hygiene. In my experience, there is usually at least one store in each metro area where the older crowd shows up for every four or five store full of college and high school kids.
We play with beer, rum, sodas and chips on the table so I totally hear ya. There really isn't a practical solution, unless you want to enforce/provide latex gloves for everyone. And if someone is allergic to latex in your group...
You might want to look for a play group that is a little older and does not have such horrible problems with personal hygiene. In my experience, there is usually at least one store in each metro area where the older crowd shows up for every four or five store full of college and high school kids.
All of us are clean in our mid 20s to late 30s and it still happens. I might require that people wash their hands beforehand, but the awkwardness of that doesn't trump clean sleeves.
I have a strange way to deal with dirt and how to significantly longer the lives of my sleeves.
i have a 720 card cube with KFC perfect-fits and white ultra-pro matt sleeves (not the best ones out there but if you take care of them a solid choice). The cube is about two and half years old and is used on regular basis. about 15 sleeves have broken during that time
so about the method well first.
DO NOT DO IT IF YOU HAVENT DOUBLE SLEEVED YOU MAY DAMAGE YOU CARDS.
Second try out with few sleeves before doing it on all of your sleeves, different sleeves need different chemicals. this method works the best with matt sleeves (KFC or Ultra-pro)
1.clean your sleeves
2.get a leather balsam spray (not with oil but with wax) I use "salamanders combi-care" but I think they are only on sale in EU (cant post a link yet so you have to look it up yourselves)
3.take about 40 cards but them back side up on the table and spray on them very gently and try to avoid the upper part of the sleeve the spray is still a liquid.
4.then take about 20 cards more and shuffle them with the 40 cards sprayed before fore a little while. then let the wax dry about 5 mins and shuffle again.
you feel that the shuffle is easier and the texture of sleeves are a little different and more slippery. And now the dirt wont stick on the sleeves so easily. And it comes of if you shuffle.
I'm doing it about once a month when shuffling get harder. That means wax has started to worn of. so I repeat the process with 400 sleeves. the good thing is that every time you shuffle it gets the wax on new sleeves
Modern: UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy: UWBMiracles
Edh: UUUThassa Control WWWHokori Stax GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy BBBGriselbrand French List RBGShattergang(Super Villians) RWGHazezon Flicker UBRMarchesa Aggro URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)
What it boils down to is this: is it too much to ask club members to wash their hands before a cube draft? Keep in mind this is college, and already 1-2 members have rolled their eyes at me when I said no food/drink while cubing. I don't have the benefit of some my fellow cubers here where it might be understandable cubing amongst friends. Is there any other methods to prevent cards from getting dirty this quickly?
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It happens in my cube too, but generally people have been respectfully tidy with their handling.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
Do you have a link to the product you're using?
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
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UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy:
UWBMiracles
Edh:
UUUThassa Control
WWWHokori Stax
GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy
BBBGriselbrand French List
RBGShattergang(Super Villians)
RWGHazezon Flicker
UBRMarchesa Aggro
URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)
http://www.salamander-professional.com/en/products/shoe-care/for-combi/Produkt/combi_care-1/details/?tx_mvproducts_pi1
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG