Is this a misprint?

[Nuk-Schnuk]

Hey guys,
a few weeks ago i bought a collection of super rare cards in wonderful condition.
Between all the cards there is this strange Überdragon Bajula card:

#1


#2


#3


I just don't know. The condition is mint, but the colors are faded out. And just at the bottom.
Is this golden Bajula a pretty rare misprint?

[Zach Hartigan]

Wow, thats something you dont see everyday. Yup, its a misprint and pretty rare because of holofoil. Usually misinked cards are common/rare. Are you willing to trade this one? We can negotiate on PM.

[Perajorma]

I wouldn't be so sure. Could be sunbleach too. I'm not an expert of that kind of chemical reactions nor printing methods. All I can do is guess.
Photos are nice but I'd like to verify couple things due to light and foil.

Are all the black areas on edges equally black as in normal card? How about texts?
Does the top part of the card have much brighter colors than the bottom part?
Does the back of the card have fully normal colors?
Is the card bent in any way?

[Ylläpitäjä]

Perajorma has some good points there. A picture doesn't always reveal everything.

I'd say it's a possibility that it's a misprint but still it just might be something else. Haven't seen anything like that, though!

[Nuk-Schnuk]

Oh, wow such fast answers! ^^

Hmmmm in this case its really unclear and i will surely not trade it then..
If its really a misprinted card it will be my holy treasure forever. xD
But if this card is just "damaged", it would be not fair to trade it for something good.
I will just post a few other pictures here:

The color is fading out from up down. Red seems to be missing there:


The foil reflection colors are still bright, shiny and colorful as on the normal card:


In this picture you can see that the black is absolutly fine:


No differences on the backs:


And in this last picture you can see that the edges are mint white on both cards instead of brown/grey from the sun:



There is still no proof that this is a misprint, so i will just put him back into his place in the folder. :]
Sorry then, Zach, i will not risk to betray you.

[Ylläpitäjä]

Hmm, so it can really be some kind of misprint. I would treasure in any case. It's definitely very cool!!

[Perajorma]

Tbh, hard to tell.

What I read from the Internet, seems like the red colour is the most sensitive to fade. So, it could be that it's affected by light enough to fade the red but not the black.
In the other hand, the printer most likely have different cartridges/sources for different main colors. Or atleast for colors and black. So the black can be just fine while they've been low on red. Would help if had more knowledge about Wizards printing methods.

One thing what makes me suspect is that the card has much better colors at the top compared to the bottom. They print massive amounts of cards so I'd assume their ink should last for thousands (maybe even tens or hundreds of thousands, idk) of cards. So if some colour is running out, it should happen slowly(?) For example pokemon cards were printed in this kind of sheets:

Juonipaljastus:

To me it seems bit weird if the quality of ink would have dropped that drastically during one row. And there is no weird lines or other marks that would show something could have for example blocked the colour source partially to make that happen. But, I'm not so familiar with fade errors, so I'm not sure.
The fact that the hue of the color changes so smoothly makes me think that card could have been placed/left somewhere so that the bottom of the card were affected by the light more and the top might have been partially in light shade or something.

But then, the card doesn't seem to be bent much. Foil cards have that bad habit to bend a lot. And especially on light. So if it were affected by light, it should be bent. In the other hand, it could have been in hard sleeve and that would have prevented the bending. And it could have been fixed afterwards too.

I also found some MTG related videos and discussions about lighting the cards on purpose to make them look misprints. Also, someone could have just left/forgotten his stack of cards (the best one on top) on some bookself at heavy light (for multiple years) and that's the result. Who knows.

If the Bajula would have any other colors than just from red-yellow-black-white scale, it would give some more hints. Maybe seeing it in real life would help to say what's the situations. But now, idk. Maybe someone else is more professional with that kind of stuff.

[Zach Hartigan]

Sadly it can be just sun faded... But im still interested! I will send you PM.

[Ylläpitäjä]

Interesting analysis from Perajorma. Makes me suspect more the possibility of this card being a misprint.

At least one thing is sure and it's that the card surely is authentic. There's no question about that. Whether or not the oddity has been caused by the printer or something else, I still think it's a very interesting card especially since it's the first I have seen, being it on photo.

[Perajorma]

I just remembered. As some of you know, I have loads of those Terror Pit promo cards. I've had like 350 of them at the best.
Couple years ago I noticed that there is a light and a dark 'version' of that card. I thought it's just a minor thing and forgot that. However, I put all or most of the light ones aside as they were much rarer. I'm not sure how many of them were light ones, maybe 10-30. Most of them are at my parents so I can't check.

So what's the difference?
Light ones has lighter color and the golden name text is thinner than with the dark ones.

Here is couple photos:

Juonipaljastus:

Juonipaljastus:

Juonipaljastus:

Juonipaljastus:

[Nuk-Schnuk]

Really nice analysis Perajorma.
Something like sunbleach never happened to any of my stuff like cards, games or mangas, so i did'nt get to that idea.
Maybe i will put it to a test next summer with a common card.. xD

The fact that the hue of the color changes so smoothly makes me think that card could have been placed/left somewhere so that the bottom of the card were affected by the light more and the top might have been partially in light shade or something.

Sounds quite possible. Still some weird circumstances.


For the terror pits i think these are just unaccurate different charges. Maybe even not from the same printing house.

[Ylläpitäjä]

Those Terror Pits might be from different printing places. There are even differences in some normal TCG cards, I have seen this with Kachua for example, and I'm quite certain they just were printed in different places.

Nevertheless that's very interesting especially since the Golden text is thinner on the lighter colored Pits.

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