The ink bubble bulbasaur?

Ive seen the misprint butterfree and eevee but has anyone seen a bulbasaur like this with that ink blotch in the title in the “b”

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This type of error is called a printer hickey. It’s when a piece of debris ends up on the ink roller. Presumably, there will be other copies with the same error that were part of the same printing batch (like the d edition butterfree)

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But theoretically wouldnt that be pretty inconsistent on the location? The butterfrees all are in the same spot

Not quite. The ink roller has the template for the whole sheet and it rolls it onto the blank cardstock. If a piece of dust or debris lands on the roller, every spot that roller touches will have a similar defect (ie. On the same spot of the sheet = on the same spot of the bulbasaur on the same row/column of the sheet)

I’m speculating here but I think the reason it looks the way it does is because the small object disrupts the surface tension of the liquid ink and ends up forming this ring-shaped defect

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Lol. I didn’t know it was called a “printer hickey”.
That would also be my guess. There is something that causes the ink to stick to the roller and it creates a void as the ink pulls away. OR a piece of debris caused the ink to not be fully pressed against the sheet, creating a point. Usually tho, I’d see the former. It’s kinda cool… might try to find a video… lots of IP and non-public video though…

When I did work with high speed imaging, we’d see things like this in client video. The interesting thing is that it was not caught… But I guess they didn’t care that much. I do have to wonder if Sports card collectors are so zeroed-in on things like this? I’m sure they happen there too.

Indeed, it’s a printer hickey and the reason the d-edition is well known is because that hickey is inside 1st stamp and makes the 1 look like something else. Many cards have these hickeys and you can get em on cool places if your lucky. (Inside Pokémon name i feel is pretty cool aswell) i also assume these are repeating and i know of some that grew larger or smaller after multiple presses. Makes me wonder how often machines are cleaned, it could prove some to be rarer then others. On japanese they are more rare i think.

Some of mine (if you can spot them) :smile: