MTG Misprints are an interesting oddity. There’s a wide variety of ways a card could be classified as an MTG misprint. While some may consider certain features “defects,” misprinted cards can often go for a higher price than what is typical. Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth just had its group of prereleases this past weekend, yet there are already tons of players conversing about their various card distinctions and rarities.
There seems to be an abundance of MTG misprints in a short period of time. While some of these examples are unique, a lot of the misprints have similar styles and qualities. Here we will go over some examples of misprints within the community, as well as specific details about the misprints and what oddities you can expect to see going forward.
Crimped Cards
Crimped cards are a relatively common type of MTG misprint. They typically involve one of the edges of the card having lots of ridges. Crimped cards can happen when cards are getting pack-sealed and get aligned incorrectly. It’s likely that more and more crimped cards will be opened in Lord of the Rings product going forward.
Importantly, the MTG misprints that tend to go for lots of additional money tend to be on the more expensive side to begin with, as these cards are already rarer to start. So, while crimped cards may be opened more frequently than other misprints, something like a copy of The Great Henge box topper from Lord of the Rings that already holds a lot of value could hold a bigger price tag when crimped.
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Miscuts
https://www.facebook.com/groups/PostYourMtGMisprintsHere/permalink/6103244869801927/
Typically, when MTG cards are cut, each card is separated correctly from each other, and there is no overlap. Some percentage of the time, however, you may open miscuts like the one seen above. This example is pretty cool, as the entire name and mana cost of the second card is visible. As a result, none of the name or mana cost of the first card is visible.
In this case, the player who opened these miscut cards claimed that every foil common from his set booster box looked like this. While each of these miscuts is only a common, miscuts don’t often feature this much of two separate cards. Miscuts can happen horizontally or vertically, and many miscuts are only off by a small margin. This player opened a dozen cards cut similarly to the card pictured above, which is certainly interesting to see.
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Off-Center Features
https://www.facebook.com/groups/PostYourMtGMisprintsHere/permalink/6100551290071285/
Another typical example of misprints in MTG involves certain portions of the card not being centered correctly. There have been multiple instances of this already in the Lord of the Rings set, especially with the foil stamp featured on cards. As you can see in the picture above, the foil stamp is not aligned correctly towards the bottom of the card.
While centering issues are not unique to the foil stamp, this does seem to be a recurring theme among MTG misprints from Lord of the Rings. Some instances, like the card above, feature the stamp shifted upwards, but there have been other examples of the stamp being shifted horizontally as well. This is definitely something to look out for as more product continues to be opened.
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Color Issues
Many players that played in the Lord of the Rings prereleases experienced unique color saturation on different cards. As shown above, all of the cards are red, and therefore are supposed to have the same color saturation. However, two of the cards look like they have a yellowish tone to them, especially the copy of Haradrim Spearmaster.
As mentioned in the comments, this can result from where and how the cards were printed. Given the printer’s quality control of the United States, this seems to happen more often for prerelease kits printed in the United States.
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Ink Issues
In this case, a player opened a foil copy of Minas Tirith. When compared with a non-foil version of the card, it looks like the artwork of the tower in the center of the card is extremely faded. MTG cards are printed in multiple layers, and, in any of them, it is possible to have missing ink. Missing ink generally makes the card look duller, with the image not popping out the same way. While this can also happen on non-foil cards, it looks extra pronounced on foils.
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A Recurring Theme?
Interestingly enough, much like the case with the foil stamps that were off-center, these ink issues with foils seem to be posted about at a high rate. While MTG misprints can be frequent, a large portion of posts mentioning foil and ink issues reference the same issue with the same card.
Many foil versions of Minas Tirith appear to have this same missing layer issue, resulting in the disappearance of the card’s art. If this is indeed a recurring problem, it’s unlikely that these cards will hold much of a higher price tag, and is definitely something to be on the lookout for.
Misprints certainly can add a unique experience to opening product. They can be cool to look at and collect and, in some cases, can drive the value of the card up a lot. It appears as though the issues with foil copies of Minas Tirith are more common than initially thought, for example. With tons more Lord of the Rings product awaiting the opportunity to be opened, it’s worth monitoring these misprints and seeing what cards do, in fact, go up considerably in value.
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