MTG cards printed in the USA

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magic-belgium
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MTG cards printed in the USA

Post by magic-belgium » Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:12 pm

Hello,

I recently discovered that cards were not printed only in Belgium but also in the USA, even for the booster boxes.

Until today, I was only aware of those products printed in the USA (never printed in Belgium) :

- Event Decks,
- Battle Packs,
- Half Promotional Decks,
- Deck builder's Toolkits

US cards are different, and look different.

I need to know if this has always occured in the past, and if not, since when. I know it was the case for old sets like Ice Age, Mirage, Urza's Saga, but not for the recent editions.

Can anyone have access to this information please ?

I'd pretty much appreciate the help.

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l0qii
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Post by l0qii » Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:43 pm

I think some cards have been printed in the USA for a while now, at least since Mirrodin. These include multiple languages including English, Spanish, Japanese and Russian. It is inconsistent between sets which languages are printed where, we would have to check each set individually.

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psrex
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Post by psrex » Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:47 pm

Here's some old information on the original printing of Chinese cards:

http://www.magiclibrarities.net/forum/v ... php?t=2496

I remember a thread from around 2006 where there was discussion about the different Carta Mundi plants and specifically the Tennessee plant printing Magic cards, but I can't find it now.

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psrex
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Post by psrex » Tue Jun 19, 2012 5:44 pm

Here's some history on Carta Mundi from their US website:

http://www.cartamundiusa.com/Content/co ... index.html

It sounds like their printing facility in Tennessee is now closed and that any US printing is just in Dallas, Texas. I would imagine that some of the other locations print cards closer to their local market (for example in SE Asia).

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mystical_tutor
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Re: MTG cards printed in the USA

Post by mystical_tutor » Tue Jun 19, 2012 6:20 pm

magic-belgium wrote:Hello,

I recently discovered that cards were not printed only in Belgium but also in the USA, even for the booster boxes.

Until today, I was only aware of those products printed in the USA (never printed in Belgium) :

- Event Decks,
- Battle Packs,
- Half Promotional Decks,
- Deck builder's Toolkits

US cards are different, and look different.

I need to know if this has always occured in the past, and if not, since when. I know it was the case for old sets like Ice Age, Mirage, Urza's Saga, but not for the recent editions.

Can anyone have access to this information please ?
Humm, you obviously have not visited the section on tips and tokens and seen the long discussions about which of those were printed in the US and which ones were printed in EU.

I can understand that, there are way too many things to get ones head around all of it.

Talking about English language only I can make the following observations:

Apparently the "premium foil booster packs" were printed in the US.

Based on t/t cards it appears that the main expansion of each set, starting with 10th Edition and the Core sets (M-12+) have been printed in both the US and EU while the additional expansions in each block are printed in the US only. Apparently this sequence has been broken with the printing of Avacyn in both the US and Europe (in English).

I would think that our Booster collectors on the board could add a lot of light to this.

Gary

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l0qii
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Post by l0qii » Tue Jun 19, 2012 6:27 pm

Oh yeah I forgot you had done all this analysis with the t/t!
That's great information to have.

Tonight I'm going to check all the info I have and see what was printed where.

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magic-belgium
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Post by magic-belgium » Tue Jun 19, 2012 6:29 pm

Thanks for the information.

I did not check the Tip and Tricks section because I feel sooooo frustrated not to be able to collect them all, even though I get all sets from all languages. Sellers NEVER understand what I want when I ask them to include ALL tips and tricks and tokens... So I finally gave up.

But I will read it, so as to learn something new.

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mystical_tutor
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Post by mystical_tutor » Tue Jun 19, 2012 9:13 pm

magic-belgium wrote:Thanks for the information.

I did not check the Tip and Tricks section because I feel sooooo frustrated not to be able to collect them all, even though I get all sets from all languages. Sellers NEVER understand what I want when I ask them to include ALL tips and tricks and tokens... So I finally gave up.

But I will read it, so as to learn something new.
Don't get started... it is worse than expansive cards--there are soo many and nobody loves us... "lets see if I have this right, you don't want just one of each, you want......-- I don't understand, you don't know what you want because it hasn't been found yet? <stunned silence> I'm not sure we can help you ........."

I think this is what drove Mister Foilcard away from the board.

If you do start, you could take his sheets and complete them.........

Gary

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Post by hammr7 » Tue Jun 19, 2012 9:30 pm

WOTC always wanted a plant in the US.

All early sets were printed in Belgium, but Carta Mundi had problems supplying enough English Language product from the Belgium facility. This problem grew worse as additional languages were added, and the popularity of Magic increased.

Alt. 4th was an attempt by WOTC to get a second source for English product. Although that attempt failed, it finally pushed Carta Mundi to add a US printing facility, in Tennessee.

I believe that facility was opened late in 1998, and began to immediately print Magic cards. I think initially the card backs might have been printed in Belgium and then shipped to the US. But the Tennessee plant quickly ramped up complete production of both Magic cards and Pokemon cards.

My Pokemon-backed Magic sheet reportedly came from the Tennessee Carta Mundi facility, as part of a shipment of uncut Pokemon foil sheets for a K-Bee toy store Pokemon promotion. I'm pretty sure the promotion occurred in 2000.

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magic-belgium
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Post by magic-belgium » Tue Jun 19, 2012 10:44 pm

mystical_tutor wrote:
magic-belgium wrote:Thanks for the information.

I did not check the Tip and Tricks section because I feel sooooo frustrated not to be able to collect them all, even though I get all sets from all languages. Sellers NEVER understand what I want when I ask them to include ALL tips and tricks and tokens... So I finally gave up.

But I will read it, so as to learn something new.
Don't get started... it is worse than expansive cards--there are soo many and nobody loves us... "lets see if I have this right, you don't want just one of each, you want......-- I don't understand, you don't know what you want because it hasn't been found yet? <stunned silence> I'm not sure we can help you ........."

I think this is what drove Mister Foilcard away from the board.

If you do start, you could take his sheets and complete them.........

Gary
My version of the story is that WotC prohibited Mister Foil Card from publishing high resolution scans of Magic cards. I would have been utterly disgusted had I been in his shoes. When you think of all the time he spent scanning and cleaning the scans...

So, I don't get you when you say Mister Foil Card drove away from the board ?

I think it is impossible to start the collect from scratch unless I would buy the collection of someone or the collections of several collectors.

Very few stores (live Magicevolution) collect the tips and tricks... So it's mission impossible.

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magic-belgium
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Post by magic-belgium » Tue Jun 19, 2012 10:49 pm

hammr7 wrote:WOTC always wanted a plant in the US.

All early sets were printed in Belgium, but Carta Mundi had problems supplying enough English Language product from the Belgium facility. This problem grew worse as additional languages were added, and the popularity of Magic increased.

Alt. 4th was an attempt by WOTC to get a second source for English product. Although that attempt failed, it finally pushed Carta Mundi to add a US printing facility, in Tennessee.

I believe that facility was opened late in 1998, and began to immediately print Magic cards. I think initially the card backs might have been printed in Belgium and then shipped to the US. But the Tennessee plant quickly ramped up complete production of both Magic cards and Pokemon cards.

My Pokemon-backed Magic sheet reportedly came from the Tennessee Carta Mundi facility, as part of a shipment of uncut Pokemon foil sheets for a K-Bee toy store Pokemon promotion. I'm pretty sure the promotion occurred in 2000.
That's interesting. So we should assume the English cards started to get produced in the USA in 1998 then... That's Urza's Saga... But Mirage had been printed too...

Could members here check their cupboards and garages and see if they have booster boxes of English MTG printed in the US please ?

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Post by hammr7 » Wed Jun 20, 2012 1:25 am

The Carta Mundi web site states Tennessee was established in 1996 and started production soon after. To the best of my knowledge production was started on non-Magic sets, until the workforce built its competency.

I believe 5th Edition was the first regular Magic cards produced.

I think the Rath Cycle sets were the first expansion cards printed there.

There might have been a lull in US production for the Artifact Cycle and 6th Edition. These sets were not produced at the same level (at least in English, which is why they are somewhat harder to find), and Pokemon went through the roof. So I think Tennessee was used to meet the Pokemon demand, as well as other cards Carta Mundi was producing at the time.

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Post by Rainsford » Wed Jun 20, 2012 1:58 am

Hmmm, The initial print run of Mirage had a slightly different finish on it. At the time (iirc) it was attributed to it being the first print run from a US plant.

Best regards,

Rainsford

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dry cereal
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Post by dry cereal » Wed Jun 20, 2012 3:13 am

anyone up for a road trip to go sit in a dumpster?

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Post by l0qii » Wed Jun 20, 2012 3:25 am

So I checked all my Shards block boxes (because I just happen to have them all) and they are labelled as follows:

Shards of Alara
Belgium: none!
USA: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, S-Chinese, Spanish

Conflux
Belgium: French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian
USA: English, Japanese, S-Chinese, Spanish

Alara Reborn
Belgium: French, German, Italian, Russian
USA: English, Japanese, Portuguese, S-Chinese, Spanish

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