How a local company protects your trading cards

If you’ve been immersed in the local TCG scene for a while, you may be familiar with a brand that popped out of nowhere sometime during the pandemic. While browsing for sleeves for both my son’s Pokemon card collection and my Magic: The Gathering decks, a brand called “Dibs Pack” started showing up in my suggested buys in Lazada and Shopee. Clicking on it, I saw that the pricing for packs were quite competitive and delivery dates were actually faster. Snooping even further, it all made sense: this was a local company. Which meant buying sleeves and toploaders would have faster turnarounds versus shipping items from Temu.

Local origins

I bought a few packs to test and soon after realized that their ‘Premium’ 64x89mm inner sleeves were quite adequate for my needs (as of this writing this product sits at 862 5-star reviews on Lazada). For my box collection of common and uncommon MTG cards, I make use of 66x91mm card sleeves. They’re great for double sleeving or even triple sleeving. Because Dibs Pack was a local company, I knew that talking to the owners one day would be quite the side quest. That was until a common friend introduced me to his cousin, who apparently was one of the owners. One thing led to another and I was able to visit their first stall inside Collective Base in Festival Mall.

I had the chance to stand around with Jerwin Bargas, one of the co-founders of Dibs Pack at his section of cabinets at Collective Base. Tall, sleeved (pun intended), cordial, he told me that the origins for his company were rocky at first. He started the business with some partners during the pandemic and after a falling out he decided to part ways and set up shop online through the usual channels of Lazada and Shopee.

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Sleeving the community

Bargas, who has an extensive background working for a multinational FMCG company saw huge potential in this market. He says he has two types of customers: the young bloods who are still in school and those that are going through a second childhood renaissance. The latter are kids born in the 80’s and 90’s who now have the disposable income to afford Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, as well as other newer card games like One Piece, Riftbound, and Gundam.

He also says that there is a sort of push and pull in the market: he’s hyper aware that he caters to both collectors and actual TCG players, especially for Pokemon and the enmity between the two groups can get ugly. Many collectors do not play the actual games, and this angers players who want to make the game more affordable. But nonetheless he says that this is the industry and in effect you need both groups in order for business to thrive.

More than just PVC-free sleeves

He also has cabinets, and although they’re primarily displays that are meant to sell collections, a number of his clients actually just rent space to store their collections of retro action figures, cards, and other knick knacks. Some even price their items at a higher premium rate to discourage buyers – but some avid collectors do end up buying these rarities, creating bittersweet moments for renters.

Jerwin likes to stay low on the ground and listens to the community when it comes to developing new products. You would be surprised how one can go farther than just sleeving cards. He recently launched a padded carrying case for Beyblades and a mega-sized toploader for comic books – the only one I’ve seen in the market. All this is from user feedback.

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Looking after community

Jerwin said that he recently took a leap of faith and is opening a Dibs Pack flagship store located at One Ayala. Like most LCS (Local Card Stores) it will be a gathering place for TCG enthusiasts, collectors and cabinets, as well as a mini studio where you can shoot podcasts. Jerwin says that this flagship store, opening this September, is a great location because most hobby shops are concentrated in the Greenhills and Mandaluyong area, with some in the south such as Collective Base and Hobby Kaikan. The Makati CBD – the sprawling mall area of Glorietta, SM Makati, and One Ayala is a strategic meeting place especially since the MRT is located by the mall.

My main takeaway from chatting with Jervin was that the local TCG market is quite huge. If chain stores such as Neutral Grounds can survive in high-end malls, it seems that this ecosystem of players and shops have a sort of symbiotic relationship. Players buy packs. Rare cards are sold back to fund the hobby. And these local game stores build a community from there.