Grey prints

General
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So, we (almost) all know Base Set has some 1st edition Grey stamps. It’s been known for quite a while now.

With the Grey stamps of the Base Set, @pokemonrevolution had a pretty convincing theory. The ink wasn’t properly dried yet, and got stuck to the back side of some other cards. This also explains the imprinted back stamps we sometimes see in 1st edition Base Set cards (see the same linked thread).

But lately (at least, I’ve only seen them myself lately, they obviously already existed since the beginning), a lot more grey stamps and cards of other sets pop up. We’ve got this Shadowed Base Set Machamp with a Grey 1st edition stamp for example, which is owned by @scratchdesk (I know, it’s still Base set, but printed later - hence the Shadowed instead of Shadowless):

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Then we had a Grey stamp Gym Challenge Charizard owned by @fireftw87 :

I then came across some Grey stamps from a single seller. It included both Grey stamps from Neo Genesis and Gym Heroes. I’ve only bought the Neo Genesis Pikachu, which arrived today. Unfortunately the seller no longer sells the other Grey stamps, otherwise I might have picked them up as well.

Here is my Grey stamp Neo Genesis Pikachu (on the front), next to a regular Black stamped one (at the back):

Because I had never seen Grey stamps in other sets before, and the seller had quite a few of them, I was first doubting their legitimacy. But now that I see that the stamp is at the exact same place, and looks exactly the same (except for being Grey instead of Black), and I also saw some Grey stamps in Rusty’s (@thecharizardauthorty ) recent videos, I’m convinced it’s real.

Here is a Grey stamp Neo Genesis card from Rusty’s collection (timestamp 1:00):

And here are six Grey stamp Gym Heroes cards (timestamp 15:18):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa2D_HdeDG4

So, those are the Grey 1st edition stamps.

Rusty also mentions some Grey set symbol Skyridge cards (video 1/10 timestamp 11:49), a Grey printed Gold Reshiram (video 6/10 timestamp 10:20), etc.

And I’ve also seen this Grey printed Surfing Pikachu, now (unfortunately :wink: ) in the possession of @megacon :

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So, what do you guys think about these Grey printed cards from sets other than Base set? Most of them are probably one-of-a-kind occurrences, unlike the Base Set Grey stamps.
Does anyone have (seen) any other Grey stamped cards? (PS: If you have any Pikachus, I’m of course interested in buying them. :stuck_out_tongue: )

Greetz,
Quuador

5 Likes
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do you have pics of the back of the cards that apparently caused the grey stamp please?also are the grey stamps purely novel and niche collection and value wise?

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Some are linked in the thread of pokemonrevolution.

These are the three I own myself: Front one is a Machop, the other two are Red Cheeks Pikachus:

Greetz,
Quuador

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Ahh :wink: thank you.

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There have also been WOTC cards that had low ink, like the Surfing Pikachu. I believe theyre a little different from grey stamps, as the ink would only get low enough for the stamp to come out grey, while cards that are entirely grey only occur on unlimited. Thats just my personal observation, though.

1 Like
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I believe there are 2 (or possibly 3) types of “grey stamp” cards.

  • One occurs in base set 1st edition on non-holo cards where the grey is caused by ink not drying before sheets are stacked. This results in back stamps and lighter appearance of the “1st” stamp.
  • One occurs in base set 1st holos and has been seen sparsely in other sets and is caused when the ink mix is watered down or not properly mixed before application.
  • The possible third is more a variation of #2 where it is caused by low ink levels which can be seen in the Surfing Pika and Dark Gyarados cards. Those cards appear much like a printer running out of ink and vary from #2 which looks more like a water to ink ratio issue.

All just my speculation and opinion. Fun topic!

2 Likes
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Sounds all very plausible. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. As for the third variation, this also happens for a single colors, which we can see in the Magmortar of Rusty’s video (timestamp 7:36):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa2D_HdeDG4

And done on purpose on some of the test sheets (timestamp 10:08):

Which is also a pretty common thing with printers when one of the three colors had ran out of ink.

Greetz,
Quuador

1 Like
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I have a grey stamp shadowless Magmar from base set.

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Do you guys know anyone who is trying to complete a set in grey stamps?

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Sure do.

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@quuador just for historical accuracy I am not 100% certain the blaines charizard is greystamp as I don’t own it myself, this was a image I found on the Internet. It does look like it though!