Assume we’re talking about a regular shadowless card. Aside from smudges, faded stamps, misaligned holo etc. does the lack of the shadow make these cards misprints or errors?
It makes it a variant like the 1st ed stamp, no rarity symbol, 1999-2000 copyright, etc. Misprints/errors are on the production side that weren’t intended, missing text, upside down stamps, printing errors, etc. Wizards made a conscience choice to change the format from shadowless to shadowed.
6 Likes
This is all subjective to the buyer. If someone feels it is an error they may buy into it.
But I dont think the amount of shadow on a card, or the darkness of a 1st edition stamp should be considered an error or misprint. It’s just how the ink was running low on the day.
I think people have to be pretty ocd to buy into these types of errors.
Something like extreme holo bleeds, extreme off center, or the royal roll misprint, or wrong colours being used on a card is more what i consider errors / misprints to be.
I would not call shadowless a misprint or an error, much like no rarity is not a misprint/error as both were the preliminary stage that lead to the final finished product.
No rarities do have grammatical and set number errors, but the absence of the rarity designations for the cards was not initially an error as Media Factory did not initially intend to have the different rarity designations; it was thought of after the fact, exactly like adding shadows/different fonts etc. to the shadowless template.
3 Likes
I thought of a fun analogy! Let’s find parallels to video games.
An “error” in cards this is when there is an oversight in the design process and the source template used to print the card is wrong.
Ex. HP 50 on Vulpix, Wartortle evolving from Wartortle.
In video games this is comparable to when the source code is wrong and produces functionality that is consistently wrong and illogical.
Ex. Focus energy quartering critical hit ratio in the original games instead of quadrupling it, or Nidorino having Nidorina’s cry when starting a new game in red and blue.
A “misprint” is a mistake happens at the production level and a small number of cards are made with a unique flaw.
Ex. Miscut cards, ink smear cards, cards with inverted backs
In video games, this is comparable to a situation where the code is written such that it functions properly in the vast majority of cases but causes a glitch to occur in some extremely specific/unexpected edge case.
Ex. Duplication using PC, catching a Pokémon at level 100 and using a rare candy to bring its level to 255, walking through walls.
I think what cullers refers to as a variant can be broken down into ‘printing variants’ and ‘design variants’.
‘Printing variants’ are misprints which affect a relatively large number of cards (Blue tramp-stamp Vulpix, cigar error hitmonlee, d-edition butterfree). I think this one pushes the limits of my video game analogy.
‘Design variants’ is what I would classify shadowless cards as. These are purposely made variations which are not design oversights or mistakes. These variants can be improvements (shadowless → unlimited), comparable to the Pokémon sprite changes from red and blue to yellow or variants that are intended as alternatives of the same card (first edition cards, reverse holos). The latter is comparable to how the games are released as two separate variants (red & blue, sun & moon)
Let me know if you disagree with my assessment here.
2 Likes
It kind of depends on WOTC intent. If they intended to use the Shadowless template just for stamping 1st editions and ended up with a bunch of leftovers they weren’t just going to throw them out (or over-saturate the 1st editions). Of course we know that WOTC did not waste anything so it made sense to release them. In the sense that they may not have originally intended to release them in that way, they might be considered an error.
Although that’s quite a stretch and for all practical purposes, no, they are not considered an error. They were printed exactly as intended.
Wotc never wasted anything including the sheets that produced the 1st Ed Base.
After the 1st Ed set run was done, and before the sheets arrived with the new artwork, they used up the remaining sheets used for the 1st stamp.
No misprint. No error. Just a bi-product of a frugal, and smart, company:)
2 Likes
Excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by “before the sheets arrived with the new artwork”? Didn’t WOTC print the cards themselves?
Well yes but they printed a certain amount of cards with the Shadowless template at once but only a certain (smaller) number were to be designated as first edition. Instead of getting rid of these sheets in favor of the new design (that was supposed to be Unlimited) they just put out the Shadowless cards without stamps. That’s how I understand it.