Hey guys, I got 2 copies of Dark Prophecy from an online seller and there is a clearly visible difference between them. One is more yellowish, a little brighter and the font on it is thinner. The Wizards trademark on the bottom is also foggy, no where near as clear as on the other one.
I looked and asked around and I'm still not sure. I can see both version online, on Scryfall, Gatherer, TCG Player, Card Kingdom and so on.
So they seem to both be in circulation. On top of that, other elements like mana symbols and the M14 logo are pretty much identical. (yes I even measured them) The light test didn't really show much. They are both semi transparent. I can clearly see the guy's face shining through. The yellowish one is mayby slightly more transparent, but its barerly noticible, if its there at all.
People I asked also have split opinions. On one hand no one would really bother faking a low value card like this, but on the other the difference is very clear. So the question is this, is it possible that one of them is the US and the other a EU version? That seems to be the only reasonable explanation for this degree of inconsistency.
Here are the photos I took for comparison. Sorry forthe poor quality, its the best camera I have access to. Also, they seem to be to big of a file size to be uploaded here, so I'm attaching links.
Oh and the bright lighter "stain" on the top left corner of the card on the left is just the light shining on it. It was a bit tricky to get good lighting and this was the best shot I got. The colours on that card are consistent, just very different from the other one.
WotC is notorious for differences between cards between different printers, different runs, and sometimes even within the same run. I encountered this full force with IIRC, Mirage. Mirage cards were printed at Belgium or U.S. (at the time Tennessee, now Texas) facilities. Cards from one have a very smooth texture whereas cards from another have a very rough, almost sandpaper-like, texture. Differences have continued forward ever since. Cards printed at the Japan facility tend to have better card stock. Recently, cards from the U.S. facility (notably pre-release cards) tend to have different shading (lighter IIRC) then the cards printed en masse for the booster boxes printed anywhere else. This difference can be very dramatic, I have a play set of Seven Dwarves and one of them is so yellowish that it drives me nuts to play it. It looks like a misprint, but most of the pre-release cards Throne of Eldraine is like that.
Unfortunately, this does mean that WotC quality and consistency is garbage and has gotten markedly worse over the years in their effort to cut costs and increase profits (whether this is Hasbro's fault or WotC's incompetence or some combination of the two is largely up to debate). It was entirely possible to buy a handful of commons or uncommons from pre-Mirage and use it as a reference point to validate any other card from a specific set with minimal knowledge about that set (Such as cards missing their expansion). Now, it's devolved to the point where you need to have specific knowledge about that set to determine whether a card is good, such a Ixalan missing their core or Battlebond cards with the purple core. I have heard rumors that WotC did use a black core paper stock at one time but I believe this is just FUD as I've found no references or information about it.
In short, don't worry about it. I don't have M14 cards as a reference so I can't help you with specifics about that set. Use a loupe to look at the core color and the dot patterns. I find the light test is good but not conclusive by itself. The water test is only good for revealing fake cards but it useless to determine if a card is real.
And for the love of your favorite deity, never do the bend test.
Edit: Completely forgot the A and B printings of Arabian Nights but that's irrelevant to this particular discussion.
Thank you. I dug around some more and indeed the consensus seems to be just another print run. I knew there are inconsistencies, I just didn't expect them to be this clearly visible. Even tho I hear the horror stories about the card quality, this was my first time experiencing it in person. So I was a bit worried. Also being on a budget these are the most costly cards I've got for now, so it would've been a bummer to pay for a fake.
I did look around for loopes and plan on ordering one for future reference and don't worry, the bend test always seemed a bit careless for me. I tend to be overly cautious with the thing I own so I wouldn't do that.
Still, thank you for you help. Cheers.:)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I looked and asked around and I'm still not sure. I can see both version online, on Scryfall, Gatherer, TCG Player, Card Kingdom and so on.
https://www.cardkingdom.com/catalog/search?search=header&ac=1&filter[name]=Dark Prophecy
https://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/magic-2014-m14/dark prophecy
So they seem to both be in circulation. On top of that, other elements like mana symbols and the M14 logo are pretty much identical. (yes I even measured them) The light test didn't really show much. They are both semi transparent. I can clearly see the guy's face shining through. The yellowish one is mayby slightly more transparent, but its barerly noticible, if its there at all.
People I asked also have split opinions. On one hand no one would really bother faking a low value card like this, but on the other the difference is very clear. So the question is this, is it possible that one of them is the US and the other a EU version? That seems to be the only reasonable explanation for this degree of inconsistency.
Here are the photos I took for comparison. Sorry forthe poor quality, its the best camera I have access to. Also, they seem to be to big of a file size to be uploaded here, so I'm attaching links.
Oh and the bright lighter "stain" on the top left corner of the card on the left is just the light shining on it. It was a bit tricky to get good lighting and this was the best shot I got. The colours on that card are consistent, just very different from the other one.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/610793482776215573/690663013681725500/20200320_153403.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/610793482776215573/690662949475319838/20200320_160051.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/610793482776215573/690662943834243103/20200320_160119.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/610793482776215573/690662906500481094/20200320_155844.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/610793482776215573/690662886451707904/20200320_155828.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/610793482776215573/690662864033153084/20200320_155512.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/610793482776215573/690662842659242024/20200320_155453.jpg
WotC is notorious for differences between cards between different printers, different runs, and sometimes even within the same run. I encountered this full force with IIRC, Mirage. Mirage cards were printed at Belgium or U.S. (at the time Tennessee, now Texas) facilities. Cards from one have a very smooth texture whereas cards from another have a very rough, almost sandpaper-like, texture. Differences have continued forward ever since. Cards printed at the Japan facility tend to have better card stock. Recently, cards from the U.S. facility (notably pre-release cards) tend to have different shading (lighter IIRC) then the cards printed en masse for the booster boxes printed anywhere else. This difference can be very dramatic, I have a play set of Seven Dwarves and one of them is so yellowish that it drives me nuts to play it. It looks like a misprint, but most of the pre-release cards Throne of Eldraine is like that.
Unfortunately, this does mean that WotC quality and consistency is garbage and has gotten markedly worse over the years in their effort to cut costs and increase profits (whether this is Hasbro's fault or WotC's incompetence or some combination of the two is largely up to debate). It was entirely possible to buy a handful of commons or uncommons from pre-Mirage and use it as a reference point to validate any other card from a specific set with minimal knowledge about that set (Such as cards missing their expansion). Now, it's devolved to the point where you need to have specific knowledge about that set to determine whether a card is good, such a Ixalan missing their core or Battlebond cards with the purple core. I have heard rumors that WotC did use a black core paper stock at one time but I believe this is just FUD as I've found no references or information about it.
In short, don't worry about it. I don't have M14 cards as a reference so I can't help you with specifics about that set. Use a loupe to look at the core color and the dot patterns. I find the light test is good but not conclusive by itself. The water test is only good for revealing fake cards but it useless to determine if a card is real.
And for the love of your favorite deity, never do the bend test.
Edit: Completely forgot the A and B printings of Arabian Nights but that's irrelevant to this particular discussion.
I did look around for loopes and plan on ordering one for future reference and don't worry, the bend test always seemed a bit careless for me. I tend to be overly cautious with the thing I own so I wouldn't do that.
Still, thank you for you help. Cheers.:)