Arabian Nights production story

[snarke]

Given the barrage of hits on my historical MtG pages, I was compelled to fritter away  four hours preparing the text of The Arabian Nightmare, which is one of two new pages on my site.

[Archivist]

Snarke - I've been trying for over a year to contact anyone that might have an archive of the GG-l  mailing list.   I just know that it would be a treasure trove of excellent early information.

Do you have any leads?

[Gryfalia]

The scary thing is I remember 'snarke'...

I also remember my favorite comment from the rules group ever:

'This is not a democracy,
Repetition is not proof,
We will not be intimidated'...

Anyone remember who said that?  ;-)

Gryfalia

[dry cereal]

Q: What's to stop somebody from just spending huge piles of cash and
  making an enormous killer deck?

A: Nothing will stop them from buying cards...


dun dun dun dun....

also, Can I get a direct description of how crimping happens from a real source for my website?  

[Archivist]

I also remember my favorite comment from the rules group ever:

'This is not a democracy,
Repetition is not proof,
We will not be intimidated'...

Anyone remember who said that?  ;-)

That sounds suspiciously like something Tom Wylie would say.

[hammr7]

Can I get a direct description of how crimping happens from a real source for my website?  

Crimping is an easy one.  Boosters get sealed by heat or glue  (or a combination of both).  In either case the integrity of the seal is assured by pressure.  In the case of boosters, the pressure is applied by a pair of grooved jaws.   A good seal of a booster pack assumes that the cards are in position away from the point where pressure is applied.  The process is designed to accomodate this.  However, if a guide or roller is a little out of whack the cards travel too little or too far, putting them in the path of the jaws.

Most of the time the cards are out of position by just a little bit, so only the top or bottom gets crimped.  Occaisionally the process ends up way out of whack, and the crimp goes across the middle of the card.  

I have never seen a retail-level booster pack with crimped cards hanging half way out.  I therefor assume that for a mid-card crimp, some production worker was lazy when the packaging station crashed, and re-fed the crimped cards once the problem was corrected.  Or else took the crimped cards home and later gave them to a collector.  Normally such cards should be trashed.

[Gryfalia]

That sounds suspiciously like something Tom Wylie would say.

Why yes, yes it was..;-)

Gryfalia

[silver.paladin]

Crimping is an easy one.  Boosters get sealed by heat or glue  (or a combination of both).  In either case the integrity of the seal is assured by pressure.  In the case of boosters, the pressure is applied by a pair of grooved jaws.   A good seal of a booster pack assumes that the cards are in position away from the point where pressure is applied.  The process is designed to accomodate this.  However, if a guide or roller is a little out of whack the cards travel too little or too far, putting them in the path of the jaws.

Most of the time the cards are out of position by just a little bit, so only the top or bottom gets crimped.  Occaisionally the process ends up way out of whack, and the crimp goes across the middle of the card.  

Hey Hammr,
I understand the crimping process myself, but the one thing that alludes me, are the cards that are crimped vertically, whether close to a border or down the middle.  Packets are sealed horizontally, not vertically, so how are the vertical crimps created?  Or is that just it - vertical crimps are created by individuals - not by the packing process.

[dry cereal]

I know, but I want HIM to say it.

[Muldoon]

Normally such cards should be trashed.

Or chopped off, like we've seen with several cards, like that beta helm of chatzuk :)

[Celebrindor]

Hey Hammr,
I understand the crimping process myself, but the one thing that alludes me, are the cards that are crimped vertically, whether close to a border or down the middle.  Packets are sealed horizontally, not vertically, so how are the vertical crimps created?  Or is that just it - vertical crimps are created by individuals - not by the packing process.

Packs are crimped vertically, though - there is material there.

[hammr7]

There are a number of different variations on packaging equipment for boosters, and I'm not knowledgable as to the specific equipment used on Magic cards.  There have likely been different types used over the years, as earlier boosters (Alliances on back) have different equipment patterns than newer boosters (Portal 2 and newer).  But the operation is pretty standard.  

There are typically two seals applied.  The booster wrapper is continuously fed, and piles of cards are placed onto it.  Typically guides are used to curl the wrapper over the top so it comes in contact with itself.  Some sort of pinch roller is often used to seal the wrapper around the cards. A glue might be applied before the seal, or the film might have a temperature sensitive melt layer.  This would be the vertical seam in the back of boosters.  

At this point the wrapper looks like a long flattened tube with the piles of cards inside.  The tube is then sealed between the piles of cards, and cut to seperate individual boosters.  The piles of cards are supposed to be guided into place so they are out of the way during these sealing and cutting processes.  But the machines are designed to waste virtually no wrapping.  So toleraneces and alignments are critical.

If cards end up where they are supposed to there are no problems.  But equipment can fail, or cards can slide.  Consider what might happen if the wrapper runs out.  Cards might continue to be fed, and without the support of the wrapper they might slide forward, or to the side, or the top card(s) might rotate.  Think of how slippery new cards are.  These cards can make it to one of the sealing stations and get crimped.

If the wrapper is fed wrong it might actually lift a card on its side and allow it to pass through the pinch roller.  Or if the first seal isn't successful, and the cards slide or rotate because that seal isn't holding them in place.  Most cards likely get crimpeded during the second sealing stage, and perhaps trimmed as well.  If the sealing stage screws up. the trimmer can be shut off which could allow cards to get crimped in the middle without being cut (while the operator fixes whatever the problem is).

Whenever a machine screws up, the operator's first goal is to get the machine back to proper operation.  Once that is achieved, he (or she) is supposed to go back and scrap any substandard output.  This might mean throw everything out, or it might mean removing the wrapping and re-feeding all "good" cards into the packaging station.  If the operator doesn't do a thorough job, misprints like crimps get through.

[dry cereal]

mr lazy machine operator, I salute you.

[snarke]

hammr7's description is quite accurate, if somewhat general. I never saw the printing plants of anybody except Carta Mundi. Of course, I also never saw any vertical crimps, so obviously other manufacturers use different equipment.

At Carta Mundi, as I recall, they'd print the flat white plastic, then roll it onto a spool.

The spool was taken over to the card packing machine. It would pull the sheet down and fold it over and seal the vertical continuously. A set of 15 cards (or whatever) would be dropped into the area where the tube was being made. The bottom end was already sealed. The cards hit the bottom, and the hot crimper jaws would snap at the spot above where the cards were.

Then it would all slide down one booster's worth, the now-sealed booster would be cut off, and it'd repeat.

There wasn't an operator hovering over the machine. But if cards, for some reason, didn't slide all the way down, then the crimper would crimp them.

It works a *lot* like the automatic bagged popcorn machines at Costco, for those of you near that store with one. :)

[dry cereal]

do you have any access to crimped cards?