We're a Veteran-owned trading card supply company based in Cranberry Township, PA, just north of Pittsburgh. At Card Shellz we understand that your trading cards are more than just items—they're your memories, investments, and passions. That's why we're committed to providing the highest quality card protection products, so your collection stays safe and pristine for years to come.

How It Started

Like many collectors, we got back into the hobby right before the pandemic. It started when we pulled out a 2000 Upper Deck SP Authentic Tom Brady PSA 10 rookie (yes that one) we'd bought in 2002 for a couple hundred bucks. It survived moves, marriage, kids, military service, and nine years at Amazon—but it still lit that collecting spark again.

It started the way most questionable ideas do - with a friend, a couple of old-fashioneds, and just enough confidence to ignore common sense. Somewhere between ice clinks, the name Shellz was born. Before the ice melted, the domain was purchased. The first runs? Rough. Logos looked like a middle-school group project. Packaging? Don't believe us? Worse. (see image below) But the bones were good. The work was real. No investors, no permission slips - just a bet that this could work. So we sold the Brady PSA 10 after his fifth ring. Didn’t know he’d win two more. Didn’t know the world was about to shut down. But that sale funded the first production run. Turns out, bad timing and blind optimism can still build something real.

The Easy Glide Revolution

Our first product was born from a mistake. A 2019 Kyler Murray Gold Prizm Auto #/10—big pull, bad outcome. It came back a PSA 8. We must have nicked a corner sliding it in. Every collector knows that feeling—the breath held, the slip you can't take back. One second and the story changes.

The fix was simple in theory. Cut the corners on the sleeve. But simple things rarely are. We tested angles, depths, and cuts until sleeve guided the card in perfectly, every time. The result became the Easy Glide™ Soft Sleeve—born of frustration, perfected through repetition, made so no collector would have to hold their breath again

The Breaking Point at the Bellagio

The corporate job had gone hollow and life stretched thin. Two worlds pulling at once—Amazon by day, Card Shellz by night. At the Bellagio the room was alive with the sound of chips, the clatter of risk and promise. It was there the truth settled in. We'd spent years building for others. It was time to bet on ourselves.

It wasn't about money. It was about the kind of truth you pass down. That dreams are worth the risk. That a person should make something of their own. You can't say that and not live it. So we pushed the chips in. Left the comfort, the certainty, the slow dying. Walked out with nothing promised but the work ahead.