Ǝpıʇoɹ’s ıuʇɹopnɔʇıou: Iu ʍǝǝʞ sǝʌǝu oɟ ʞǝıʇɥ ∀pɐɯs, Wɐƃıɔ Oppıɔɐ ɥǝ ʇnɹus ǝʌǝɹʎʇɥıuƃ ndsıpǝ poʍu¡ Ɔlıɔʞ ou ʇɥǝ ,,ɯoɹǝ,, qnʇʇou ʇo ʞuoʍ ɯoɹǝ¡
This week’s misprint is pretty straight forward- when a Magic card is printed, we expect that the front will be facing the same direction as the back. Seems like it is not too much to ask, right? Well, every once and a while this is not the case.
This issue is a combination of both a printing error, and human error. The majority of upside down reverse cards are foil- and the older set foils at that- and are a result of the old printing process. The back is printed first, then the front. When the foil layer is added, it has been mistakenly added upside down. If quality control does not catch it, these cards will be released and put into packs.
This error does not happen very often, but it has occurred in the past. I own about 100,000 Magic cards. I’ve probably bought and sold another 1,000,000. Of those cards, I have found 12 cards- yes only TWELVE cards- that have the back of the cards upside down on the back. And in every case, I had to go out of my way to purchase these, so I would not encourage you to go looking at every card you own hoping to find some. However, if you find one, you will find several. Since cards are printed on large sheets of over 100 cards, if this mistake happens, it will affect an entire sheet, not just one card. If you pull one from a pack, go back to the source and purchase more, as you will find several cards from the same cut sheet with this mistake.
This mistake is a very simple one, but I covered it for a very good and fun reason- it needed to be covered before I show you something more crazy & involved next week! Stay tuned, as this subject will only build upon itself. And as always, I have included a video where I show you a few of these. Anyone can turn a back upside down & scan it, but I make sure to show you the real thing.