It's suspicious. Not normal but not a definite sign of fakery. It's a pretty common type of minor misprint for the era. The backs are printed before the fronts so they can differ quite a bit.
The asymmetrical wear actually isn't too bad and is in a pattern consistent with box wear. The color seems desaturated but I can't tell whether that is the cards or the scan. The top black layer has a suspicious amount of chipping on both cards but it is consistent and could be box wear too. And there are some obvious artifacts from the scan (shear lines). The printing otherwise seems normal at a glance.
My vote is: probably real, but I can't be certain from the pics. Either these are cards that went from pack to box where they have sat ever since, or some counterfeiter has really stepped up their game. I wouldn't be too surprised either way.
I am not a judge and don't know any judges so I don't really have a dog in this fight or an opinion on which way it should go.
That being said, I am not sure of the accuracy of some of the legal things being claimed. I work for the government. Where I work we have unpaid interns and volunteers. They have to show up on time and do work. If they don't we let them go. They have security badges, computer accounts, and scheduled breaks. They have to follow a code of conduct, dress code, etc. They don't get paid. Their only compensation is the experience they gain, a letter of recommendation if they do well, and maybe a few free lunches. If they don't like us, they are free to turn in their badge and quit at any time.
This is pretty common and totally legal because they fit the criteria here: http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm
Judges definitely deserve fair compensation for their work but they sound like even less of employees than our interns and, not being a lawyer, I don't understand what the distinction would be.
Hey guys. I stepped out for a while. Sold a lot of my collection, but mostly the less cool parts. Now I'm actively collecting again in preparation for my next book. Anyways, I thought you might like to see what I've been working on. Also, sorry for the potato pics. The charger for my real camera is busted until next week.
Here's my Forest test print collection progress:
And since we are showing off tokens, here are my JinHes and Minagishis (the duplicates have different backs):
I'm on the fence about this one. I have seen both real cards and fakes that appear similar, at least at a glance. The black is light and blotchy but not dithered. Cards of this era had trouble with the ink viscosity due to humidity, causing some to be printed too light and some too dark, especially with Visions. The dot pattern from the background extends under the black text meaning that it was made with a multi-step process. So if it is a fake, it was likely done with high-end equipment but that would mean that the whole card was faked rather than it being a blanked card. I also doubt it's a coating issue.
The dot pattern under the black is what convinces me that it's not laser printed. I'm actually more inclined to say factory error; that the top black layer didn't properly adhere. Of course I can't say for sure without better scans or seeing it in person.
The black printing layer is slightly offset(the magenta looks off too). This is not unusual, especially for cards of this era. It is not a sign of fakery, but if it was worse it would be considered a misprint.
In fact, this is evidence that the card is real because it means that the card was printed one layer at a time, something that few counterfeiters have the equipment to do. The dithering does look odd in a suspicious way but that is likely also caused by the offset printing, and a full examination would probably bear this out.
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.
Misprint collector here.
The variation here is really close to normal, but possibly just far enough off to call a minor misprint. It's debatable. The question for me is, in person, is it yellow enough that you notice without holding up another card for comparison?
Even so, it doesn't stand out too much on its own which means that this card would not likely fetch a premium on the misprint market. However, it is somewhat unusual in that I have seen this with cyan and black a lot recently but not yellow. So it is still an intriguing find and I thank you for posting pics. I'll have to keep an eye out to see just how wide the print variations are with this set.
My vote is: probably real, but I can't be certain from the pics. Either these are cards that went from pack to box where they have sat ever since, or some counterfeiter has really stepped up their game. I wouldn't be too surprised either way.
That being said, I am not sure of the accuracy of some of the legal things being claimed. I work for the government. Where I work we have unpaid interns and volunteers. They have to show up on time and do work. If they don't we let them go. They have security badges, computer accounts, and scheduled breaks. They have to follow a code of conduct, dress code, etc. They don't get paid. Their only compensation is the experience they gain, a letter of recommendation if they do well, and maybe a few free lunches. If they don't like us, they are free to turn in their badge and quit at any time.
This is pretty common and totally legal because they fit the criteria here: http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm
Judges definitely deserve fair compensation for their work but they sound like even less of employees than our interns and, not being a lawyer, I don't understand what the distinction would be.
Popular unofficial tokens out of Japan. http://www.magiclibrarities.net/597-rarities-crazy-clowns-token-cards-english-cards-index.html
There have been tons of unofficial tokens over the years. A few got very popular and collectible while others seem to have been forgotten.
Misc. largely forgotten unofficial tokens
Here's my Forest test print collection progress:
And since we are showing off tokens, here are my JinHes and Minagishis (the duplicates have different backs):
The dot pattern under the black is what convinces me that it's not laser printed. I'm actually more inclined to say factory error; that the top black layer didn't properly adhere. Of course I can't say for sure without better scans or seeing it in person.
In fact, this is evidence that the card is real because it means that the card was printed one layer at a time, something that few counterfeiters have the equipment to do. The dithering does look odd in a suspicious way but that is likely also caused by the offset printing, and a full examination would probably bear this out.
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.
The variation here is really close to normal, but possibly just far enough off to call a minor misprint. It's debatable. The question for me is, in person, is it yellow enough that you notice without holding up another card for comparison?
Even so, it doesn't stand out too much on its own which means that this card would not likely fetch a premium on the misprint market. However, it is somewhat unusual in that I have seen this with cyan and black a lot recently but not yellow. So it is still an intriguing find and I thank you for posting pics. I'll have to keep an eye out to see just how wide the print variations are with this set.