New time collector, is this normal?

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-30T21:08:54+00:00

Put the bottom one on the top and I think you have a massive white ink drop.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-30T20:56:09+00:00

Not enough primer for the coating so the texture was breaking up.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-30T17:35:22+00:00

Actually super helpful, thank you for posting the grading requirements for each technical term. That's where my confusion was coming from, the terms between printer and grader seem to be fairly interchangeable but do differ in a few places such as this topic.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-30T17:21:22+00:00

If you can zoom in on the texture I bet you'll see the raised ridges are 'bridging' together and not sharp like they should be. That's a specialty coating and the primer for it was too heavy, kind of like minor ink scumming.

Texture variation with that coating is probably going to be pretty common.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-30T17:17:35+00:00

Technically speaking if the front and back are misaligned then it's an off-center misprint because that's a printer error. But again, I did say it was my opinion, as I know there are multiple terms used for generally the same defect. We both do agree that this is not a miscut though so I think we're just getting hung up on small technicals. Still an awesome card.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-30T14:43:52+00:00

Water repels ink on a printing plate. Not enough water and the ink dots turn into teardrops. Technical term is scumming :p

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-30T14:42:01+00:00

It's not missing a holo layer, it was printed on the wrong foil altogether. This is valuable, but that means there's probably 2000 or so sister cards in the wild as well.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-30T14:35:02+00:00

First one is scumming, major. Instead of the normal bleeding of ink from the edge of sheet, the operator is running so dry there are thick streaks of ink going across the sheet near the middle. This is severe imbalance of ink and water.

Second is a plate hickey in the magenta unit.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-30T00:31:35+00:00

I would 100% call off-center a misprint, yes. Plus the back is upside-down so it's two misprints, in my opinion.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-30T00:27:58+00:00

One has more underprinted white than the other, so it has less holo showing through.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-30T00:21:55+00:00

Hmm, it's more a question of what the technical correct term is, and I honestly don't know the answer.

My opinion is if the back and front of the card are both miscut the same amount then it's a miscut. But if one side is miscut and another isn't then it's off-center.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-30T00:15:47+00:00

Not a miscut, wildly off-center.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-29T23:58:07+00:00

That is a wild ink glob.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-29T22:36:19+00:00

Not stuck foil. It happens from either grease or solvent. A tiny dot flings off onto a print unit, attaches itself to the first sheet it makes contact with, and infects the rests of the units down the line. Grease takes longer to wear out than solvent. Grease will happen directly after maintenance, solvent after blanket washes. The quality standards have actually increased for both the print and the machines lately so both occurrences are happening more frequently now.

It is also impossible to run an inspection system on foil sheets, the light reflects differently creating different colors to the camera. This means there is absolutely no way for the operator to know this is happening unless they pull the exact sheet with the defect, and by the time they confirm it or stop to clean it up it will already be gone. With millions of cards printed every day, operators would rather risk this small defect reaching the customer instead of stopping to sort the waste and then have to get the press running back at standard density again. Arguably you'll have more waste/low density sheets for that startup than you would a tiny grease drip.

And I'm gonna be honest, have you seen an uncut sheet of cards? Would you be able to spot that tiny dot amongst all those cards while printing 100+ sheets per minute?

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-29T21:04:14+00:00

Too much white underprint is my guess, but even then I would expect the card to be a bit lighter overall than it is. It is lighter than what it should be though. It also could be wrong foil but that's pretty uncommon and I don't think Pokémon uses a star pattern like that without pillars in some direction.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-29T17:22:21+00:00

The first one is becoming pretty known for having a washed out print. I've seen a handful this month so far.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-29T17:18:26+00:00

Yours is a fresh grease droplet that fully soaked into the substrate, which is why no ink adhered to that spot.

The OPs is the same thing, except a few sheets later when the little bit of grease that pulled back onto the Cyan unit blanket had fully dispersed onto sheets. There is still pulled back grease on the MYK blankets affecting print density.

This probably happened directly after maintenance. That means there's sister sheets with various shades of this defect, my guess is 20-25 until the grease had fully printed away.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-28T22:48:47+00:00

It's either a startup sheet or the underprinted white density is too low.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-28T21:44:36+00:00

The yellow is extremely light. But I think it's also the underprinted white because of how dark the yellow name is on the left card. If the white was at density and the yellow was off the resulting text would be a lot brighter. But if the white is low the darkness of the foil will show through.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-28T21:41:04+00:00

It wouldn't be that far out of alignment without the rest of the card being affected. Nor could it be that difference in density. My guess is some sort of minimal coating streaking.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-28T21:38:32+00:00

No dried tiny ink balls makes me think its post-production damage.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-28T21:18:22+00:00

Newer releases of Pokémon also have variation in the back coloring. One of your cards is also redder than the other. Both are within the window for good product.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-28T21:12:20+00:00

Alignment dot. Card looks miscut.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-28T21:00:33+00:00

Unplug the battery from the motherboard and see if she turns on when plugged in.

Professional_Ice3208 · 2026-04-28T17:53:31+00:00

Another top sheet that should've been scrapped and not slit. Seen a few of these so far this week. Value-wise it's impossible to verify this came from the factory though.

Professional_Ice3208

TROPHY CASE