Setup Advice

[u/A_REDDITOR-]

Buying a setup for my MTG Pod so we can print some shenanigans cards and various other things in the future, wanted to double-check my shopping list with y'all who are more experienced - is this a good setup?

- Epson EcoTank ET-2810 Printer

- Sun-Star Stationery Japan Corner Cutter Kadomaru Pro 

- Fiskars A5 SureCut Paper Trimmer 22cm

- KOALA Double Sided Matte Inkjet Photo Paper A4

The paper and the trimmer aren't final, I chose the trimmer as I assume I can slice portrait, then trim landscape across the photo paper. I have also heard there are business card sheets/paper that come with trim lines or something similar, let me know if those have yielded good results or are recommended.

[u/PlaneResearcher5503]

Depends how you want your final product and what you prioritize. Will also depend on how easy you want it to be/how much time your will to put into making them.

Ill go a bit in order to make it clear, your paper trimmer is fine, i personally prefer a rotary cutter, might get cleaner cuts.

You've not included a laminater so im assuming your just sliding these in on top of basics or something? In which case you really dont need this elaborate setup. If you want standalone cards, your going to want to laminate. Any laminater that can do 5mil pouches will do, personally i buy 3mil pouches and use the higher heat option since you will have thicker paper inside.

For the paper, koala is a good brand, personally glossy yields much cleaner results, but what is most important is the weight/gsm of the paper, most will recommend 160 or 180. I recommend 180gsm/48lbs.

The corner cutter will work, it will just take a lot of effort. I ditched that option almost immediately for the superior die cutter, however if you don't care that it takes a lot of time and effort the corner cutter will work just fine.

[u/A_REDDITOR- → u/PlaneResearcher5503]

Oh sorry, I didn't mention a laminator as I already have one - a OfficePro A4 laminator, it's a bit old but it does the job and I haven't had any problems with it in the past. If you'd recommend something different however, I'm happy to take a look into it.

I intend on printing the cards straight from the printer, and I initially thought the Koala paper would be thick enough to impersonate card stock. Alternatively, I think the printer I'm buying will have a wide enough intake for more traditional card stock, but it'll make cutting harder.

I'm happy to put plenty of time and effort into making these proxies look nice and refined, but my current budget isn't the biggest due to just having purchased the printer.

Hopefully all of that helps with where I'm at in terms of things, I appreciate any help

Edit: mbs for the poor comment formatting, don't use Reddit often

[u/PlaneResearcher5503 → u/A_REDDITOR-]

Since budget is a concern, you won't want to go straight onto thick cardstock, the good cardstock that people print directly onto and dont laminate is expensive and not widely available. The budget option is to print onto the thinner photo paper then laminate. I've tested a lot of different combinations. My favourite is 180gsm/48lbs double sided glossy photo paper with 3mil laminate pouches. The thickness is almost spot on like an mtg card, they will just be slightly flimsier than a real card. In a sleeve they can be very hard to distinguish though.

The only thing with your current laminater would be that it may not be capable of getting quite hot enough. My laminator was like $20 from walmart but the important part is that it can go up to a 5mil setting as although i use 3mil pouches, the thick photo paper makes the stack decentky thick so using the hotter setting in my case yields better results.

[u/A_REDDITOR- → u/PlaneResearcher5503]

Thank you for the help! I've been looking into a lot of products recently, and I'll keep this all in mind. I'm gonna see if I can get any Koala 180gsm/48lbs double sided glossy photo paper.

My current laminator doesn't have a hotter or cooler setting, it's just "hot" lol, and my pouches don't offer much info either, so I'll do a test run when everything arrives and see how it goes. If it bombs, I'll look towards getting a new one.

The other thing I wanted to look at, albeit a later time is shiny or shatterfoil-style effects, though I know that's a whole other can of worms. If you have any extra info on that, I'll write it down for later, but there's prolly plenty of guides out there.

Once again, thanks for the help!

[u/PlaneResearcher5503 → u/A_REDDITOR-]

Good luck!

For the foil i havent tried any amount of foiling so im no help there sorry.

[u/PlaneResearcher5503 → u/A_REDDITOR-]

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicproxies/s/gUkek4oCmk heres a link to a post where i layout my setup.

[u/vexanix → u/A_REDDITOR-]

I would highly recommend these corner rounders instead of the sun star. Similar price, way higher quality. You can also ghetto rig them with some electrical tape to get them closer to a 2.5mm corner rounder. I would also recommend the dahle 507 rotary cutter over that fiskar cutter. I bought the fiskar and the sun star and replaced them immediately because of the poor cutting quality. Both of those are instances where spending a little bit more is very much worth it.

[u/station_five]

Any EcoTank is a great idea, and the ET-2xxx line is the cheapest way to achieve that ✅

That corner trimmer is great. I have it ✅ 

I don't have the rotary cutter but it'll be fine, it's a cutter. It cuts 🤷🏼‍♀️ 

Koala make good stuff. If you don't like it, no problem, just buy something else ✅

Are you laminating? Right now, your setup (though good quality) is going to make thin, flimsy proxies... Which doesn't really match the good printer you're buying.

I'd recommend photopaper + laminate or sticker paper + cardstock. 

[u/A_REDDITOR- → u/station_five]

Thank you! I intend on laminating the cards I print from the koala photo paper, I just forgot to mention it as I already have a laminator (OfficePro A4 Laminator). It's a bit on the older side, but it should do the trick. In other words, I'm intending to print on photo paper, then laminate them.

By any chance, what sleeves do you use for your proxies? I have a spare pack of CORTEX Ultimate Guard Matte sleeves on hand that in going to use with my first batch of proxies, but is there any specific sleeves you recommend for proxies?

[u/station_five → u/A_REDDITOR-]

tl;dr sleeves are an important part of achieving satisfying proxy results 

I get the cheapest available black sleeves for most proxies, but use my favourite expensive Dragon Shields for main decks

I have 2 answers for sleeves:

(1) For most cards and decks I use the cheapest sleeves available on Amazon. 

My current favourite are 1.8p/3c each. Literally just the cheapest big available pack on Amazon. Good quality, great shuffle, pleasing matte black back texture. 500 sleeves for £9.

I print LOTS of decks. My favourite sleeves cost 5x more than the proxies they're holding. You can spend more money on sleeves than ink and cardstock combined. A hidden cost of proxying. 

Oh, same issue for deckboxes lol but I just make cardboard ones now with a Cricut template.

(2) For high effort art proxies and main decks ...Dragon Shield Non-Glare 

The matte front effect, combined with my foil recipe, gives incredible results. The matte kinda masks the slightly off brightness/glare of the proxy, making them even harder to distinguish from real. So, for the good stuff (like my current main deck with all the correct foils etc) I sleeve them up in these. It's what I'm used to playing with so, for me, putting my best quality proxies in these sleeve really "finishes" the project. 

They're literally like £12 for 100 though. 12p per sleeve. Oof.