Do some of the Revised Duals have a slightly different dithering pattern than the others? I bought a playset off ebay and everything looked good, but I recently looked closer and noticed slight differences.
Magic cards are printed in four stages and if the print sheet or the machines are slightly off, the pattern on the cards are altered. The differences you have are within the normal range of revised cards and if everything else is OK, the cards are real. The secon pic you have is the regular version, when everything is set nicely, so you should check the cards against each other and if you find more differences then there's a good chance that the first one is a fake.
The best ways to check are to look at larger details (if that makes any sense): The mana symbols have different dithering than the rest of the card (but move in the blue ink will mess that up a bit too, so be careful to not jump into conclusions) and the solid black lines around the art-box and at the borders. The third one is the artist info, but again if one of the print layers has shifted, that will cause some differences.
The backside is also one place to note a fake. Card backs are printed in different step of the production (Backs were printed first), so the different dithering should not affect the back, unless it was a printer calibration mistake, that caused the problems. Again there are some details on the card back that are easy to compare and most fakes have problems with longer solid lines.
You should also do the light test and compare how the cards feel in your hands. Several of the chinese fakes were bit slicker and felt smoother than regular cards, but again revised is 20 years old, so any playwer and dirt will make the cards feel different too.
If you can post minimum of 300 dpi (preferably 600 dpi) scans of the fronts and backs, people can give you better answers on the authenticity of the Seas, with small pictures, I can only confirm that differnet dot patters do excist, but hopefully even that helps a bit.
The backs are all the same. The lines are all solid black and the mana symbols have the usual dot pattern. I'll scan a couple at work. Btw, thank you for all your help. I feel much more knowledgeable about card verifcation. I jeweler's loupe and light test everything now. Lol
I think that your scans got downsized somewhere along the way. I pulled down some of the PDFs and they aren't large or clear enough to see the fine print detail.
That being said, I don't see any red flags. They don't have the markers of the Chinese fakes. I didn't look at all of them, and I can't be sure with the current resolution, but I see no signs at this point that they are fake or even suspicious.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
I had no problems downloading the pdfs, after I logged in with the passcode above, I did have some problems with the hotel Wi-Fi though.
The UG seas are real as far as I can tell. There's nothing pointing towards them being fakes and the wear looks entirely natural.
Volcanics, Trops, Taigas and the Scrublands seem real. After that I didn't download the other pics, as I had some web connection issues.
We get these kinds of questions on market street every now and then.
1. 600 dpi is an absolute minimum. You can't get an informed opinion at 300 dpi unless the fake is so bad a quick glance can tell it apart.
2. Yes, dithering does differ from time to time.
3. Your cards look fine.
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Thanks,
Bart
Ugh I feel sick just thinking if these are fakes.
The best ways to check are to look at larger details (if that makes any sense): The mana symbols have different dithering than the rest of the card (but move in the blue ink will mess that up a bit too, so be careful to not jump into conclusions) and the solid black lines around the art-box and at the borders. The third one is the artist info, but again if one of the print layers has shifted, that will cause some differences.
The backside is also one place to note a fake. Card backs are printed in different step of the production (Backs were printed first), so the different dithering should not affect the back, unless it was a printer calibration mistake, that caused the problems. Again there are some details on the card back that are easy to compare and most fakes have problems with longer solid lines.
You should also do the light test and compare how the cards feel in your hands. Several of the chinese fakes were bit slicker and felt smoother than regular cards, but again revised is 20 years old, so any playwer and dirt will make the cards feel different too.
If you can post minimum of 300 dpi (preferably 600 dpi) scans of the fronts and backs, people can give you better answers on the authenticity of the Seas, with small pictures, I can only confirm that differnet dot patters do excist, but hopefully even that helps a bit.
Set to default
Here are the links where you can see a small image or download a pdf in full 600 dpi resolution (very detailed). I need your eagle eyes!!
Thanks in advance everyone. Created a throwaway account for easy access to the downloads:
email: brightpepper11@gmail.com
pass: abcdef
Underground Sea:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/286388332/underground-sea-pdf
Backs of Underground Sea
https://www.scribd.com/doc/286389139/Under-Back
Volcanic Islands:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/286389318/Volcanic-Island
Tundras:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/286389010/Tundra
Tropical Island:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/286388928/Tropical-Island
Taiga:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/286388839/Taiga
Scrubland:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/286388762/Scrubland
Savannah:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/286388677/Savannah
Plateau:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/286388593/Plateau
Bayou:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/286388500/Bayou
Badlands:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/286388419/Badlands
That being said, I don't see any red flags. They don't have the markers of the Chinese fakes. I didn't look at all of them, and I can't be sure with the current resolution, but I see no signs at this point that they are fake or even suspicious.
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
I had no problems downloading the pdfs, after I logged in with the passcode above, I did have some problems with the hotel Wi-Fi though.
The UG seas are real as far as I can tell. There's nothing pointing towards them being fakes and the wear looks entirely natural.
Volcanics, Trops, Taigas and the Scrublands seem real. After that I didn't download the other pics, as I had some web connection issues.
So as far as I can tell your duals are real.
Set to default
1. 600 dpi is an absolute minimum. You can't get an informed opinion at 300 dpi unless the fake is so bad a quick glance can tell it apart.
2. Yes, dithering does differ from time to time.
3. Your cards look fine.