I remember this was discussed.
To our Error collectors, whats the story on cards with this anomaly?
First the CMYK colours are printed on the card. Next a solid black layer is added for text/other details and a solid yellow layer for the border. My guess is that these last two were misaligned so the white from the base of the cardstock shows through and you also get that out of focus black effect.
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I meant that white inner border.
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You said “last two” but all three have the same shift so not sure what you mean?
Rusty posted something today that will help explain it
https://instagram.com/p/B5oCGclljsX
The card stock is white to start with. Then 4 color layers are added, cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK). The sheet Rusty posted only has the cyan layer. Note there is no text and the area where the border should be is white (i.e. no ink)
The CMYK layers are printed as dots which give the cards their rosette pattern. On top of these CMYK layers, a layer of solid black and solid yellow (solid = no dots) is added. For instance, when this black layer is absent you get a card that looks like this one posted recently:
If you had a card missing the solid yellow layer, the border would not have ink and should just appear white.
If the solid black and solid yellow layers were applied offset to the CMYK layers, you would expect to see 1)the blurry black effect on the card (the solid black layer is offset from the dotted CMYK black layer) and 2)the border would not be positioned properly and the uninked white surface of the cardstock would show through
Here, the solid black/yellow layers (which I guess are done at the same step in order for this error to happen) are slightly shifted to the right relative to the CMYK layers which give the effect you are seeing
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