Difference between revisions of "Error card"

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* An "[[Infernity Dwarf]]" that is [[Ultimate Rare]] instead of being [[Ultra Rare]].
 
* An "[[Infernity Dwarf]]" that is [[Ultimate Rare]] instead of being [[Ultra Rare]].
 
* An [[Elemental Hero Wildheart]] with secret rare name lettering, but ultra rare foil on picture
 
* An [[Elemental Hero Wildheart]] with secret rare name lettering, but ultra rare foil on picture
−
* A [[Gaia The Dragon Champion]] with ultra rare name lettering, but secret rare foil on picture
+
* A [[Gaia the Dragon Champion]] with ultra rare name lettering, but secret rare foil on picture
 
* A [[The Fiend Megacyber]] with the name of [[Thunder Nyan Nyan]] instead of its actual name
 
* A [[The Fiend Megacyber]] with the name of [[Thunder Nyan Nyan]] instead of its actual name
 +
* A [[Mispolymerization]] that was printed as a Normal [[Spell Card]].
  
 
===Production running tests===
 
===Production running tests===

Revision as of 02:50, 14 June 2010

During production, cards are sometimes printed with flaws. In most cases, these printing errors add no value to the card. Cards, for example, that are printed when the press runs out of ink are not misprints. Printing presses cannot be easily stopped, so it's very common that cartridges run out of ink before they can be refilled. While quality control usually prevents this situation, it can happen with some regularity since a press needs some time to refill properly. Cards that have chopped edges or non exact-cuts are not misprints either. After card sheets are printed, precisely aligned blades cut the sheet into individual cards. At some point, the cutting blades dull or misalign, and this results in imprecise cuts and irregular edges. Defective cards are not misprints.

A true misprint results from a malformed printing plate. Usually, the printing plate contains a design error made before the plates were manufactured. Plates are inspected and, if necessary, discarded before card production begins. Unfortunately, malformed printing plates pass inspection on occasion, and some cards print with this error. Once the mistake is identified, the defective plate is discarded and replaced by a new one, and misprinted cards are destroyed before they are packaged. True misprints must escape this last quality assurance also, and their rarity gives them their collectible value.

However, if the printing plate is not destroyed and substituted by a new one, the error cannot be considered as a misprint, since production took the conscious decision to continue printing with a malformed plate. Misprints are supposed to happen by a combination of accidental errors before the production starts. If production continues while the problem is acknowledged and no intervention occurs, there is no error.


True misprints

To be considered as a true misprint, card must be printed from a unacknowledged defective plate. Once the error is reported, the defective plate must be discarded and substituted by a new one which does not contains the same error. The defective plate must be destroyed, so the same problem does not persist.

Examples of true misprints:

Spelling mistakes

There's a small group of cards that originally may be considered as misprints, since they contain a true error accidentally generated before the production began, but once the problem was informed, the company which produces the cards decided it was so insignificant that continued the production using the same plate. As a result, the entire run of this printings contains the same error, so does not longer count as misprints. These cards usually only have one or two letters misplaced, which in most cases are not noticeable. Since there are thousands of these cards in circulation, hardly any can be considered to be misprints. Note this same criteria is also used when printing books, newspapers, advertising, etc. If just one letter out of place were enough to be considered a misprint, then the entire production of printed media should be considered universally misprinted.

Examples:


Production defects that do not count as misprints:

Due to the nature of the printing process, the press needs to be constantly supervised and re-calibrated. The printing plates are supposed to be perfectly aligned respect each other position. From time to time, due to the printing press vibrations, one of the plates loses its proper alignment, producing card with their names, artwork or texts out of their original positions. These cards can be considered as a production failure, but not as misprints, since the printing plates are not defective. The plates just need to be re-aligned.

Also note a massive press cannot be easily stopped. Once it starts to run, it moves as fasts as a train. Stopping a press in the middle of production is an unlikely situation. If the press runs out if ink, the production is not stopped. Usually, the press continues its work while being refilled. For this reason, several sheets can be partially printed with parts of their artwork or texts missing. These sheets are usually located and separated from the rest before being cut and packed, but from time to time few of these cards may reach the streets. Refilling the press can cause the exact opposite situation, cards printed with excess of ink. Both of this situations can be considered as bad quality printings, but not misprints.

Similar as the ink filling problem, the press is fed with several different paper rolls of different weight. The paper rolls are also mixed with an Aluminum foil roll to produce the Yu-Gi-Oh! foil cards. Sometimes, one of the rolls runs out, producing as a result cards thinner than usual, cards that have the foil on top or back of the card, or cards that do not have foil at all. When replacing the paper rolls few cards can be produced thicker instead.

All cards with irregular edges or cards the were cut out of center are not misprints.

Examples:

Mismatches

Several different printing plates are used to produce one sheet of cards. A plate set for a specific run of cards is usually composed of four plates - one for each color, plus one or two extra plates for the special finish of some cards (gold or silver lettering, shining cover for parallel rares, etc). Sometimes, one of the printing plates does not belong to the same set. By mistake, one of the plates is mounted on the press from a different sheet set. As a result, several sheets are printed with their names switched with other cards, sometimes of different rarity. In these cases, once the error is discovered, the wrong plate is switched back with the correct one and the production continues. In fact, in most cases, this type of error is easily detected during the initial test run of a sheet and immediately fixed, but few cards can be missed and accidentally packed, hence the reason why mismatches can be easily found on the streets. These cards do not count as real misprints for two reasons: the plates aren't defective and there's no need to create a new one and the correct plate simply is placed back on its correspondent position, and in most cases the mismatch was supposed to be part of an initial test printing, not part of the real printing run. These cards were supposed to be discarded before the main production begins (see below Production running tests).

Examples:

Production running tests

Since preparing the press to print a specific set of cards is a labor that takes several hours, prior to the main run, several test sheets are printed to determine if the printing press has been properly calibrated. This production test includes all possible variations a card may have. The most common is a series of CMYK stripes initially printed to corroborate if the press has the appropriate amount of ink all over the printing roll. Once it has been tested, these production tests are discarded and trashed. However, since cut and packing is part of the entire production line, sometimes few of these test cards can be packed by accident, and are included in few boosters. These tests do not have value at all, except for being a curiosity.

Examples:

  • Any card with plain CMYK color stripes, (no matter rarity).
  • Any blank card with no face, (no matter rarity).
  • Any blank card with no back, (no matter rarity).
  • Any card partially blank, may contain just the artwork or text, but in most cases not both, (no matter rarity).


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