The Magic Librarities

Keevy Bogsbury wrote:If I remember correctly, there was a miscut revised underground sea about a year ago (maybe more?) that fetched a large sum. After that, you started seeing a pretty steady influx of revised miscuts for auction. They would often come in waves by the same few people.

It is this kind of thing that has made me shy away from Revised miscuts almost altogether. Other than getting them from reputable people, in person, or both, I don't really bother with them.

People seem to be really biting on this batch. I saw Wheel and Fastbond were each over $300. Balance is over $200. Quite the moneymaker....

This is a reason why I never bothered with mis-cuts.

It is one thing to try and cut a sheet into individual cards. But in the past this has usually been an option for convenience rather than profit, since the uncut sheet was priced at the price of the cards it contained, or perhaps at a slight premium (because of the novelty of an uncut sheet).

The downside has always been the difficulty of cutting the sheet, and the risk of ruining the value of the cards the sheet contains. But if mis-cutting suddenly increases card values by a factor of 5 or 10, it would be economically crazy to try and cut the sheets properly. Do it right and you get very little profit. Just butcher the job, and you get much more money.

is it not difficult to cut them nicely with the right size and crisp edges/corners?

dry cereal wrote:is it not difficult to cut them nicely with the right size and crisp edges/corners?

It is a bit difficult. With mechanical cutting there are two major types of processes. There is one method where sheets are continuously fed through guides and disc-type blades cut the sheets, into strips and the strips into individual cards. Corners can either be trimmed away or effectively ground away. Another method uses custom dies that cut the sheets into individual cards when pressure is applied.

Regardless of method, it usually takes a few sheets to adjust sizing and / or pressures to get clean, consistent cuts. This is easily accomplished for large print runs, but is a bit more problematic for individual sheets, since you don't have the proper practice (start up) sheets. And this assumes you have the correct machinery and dies.

Computer controlled laser cutting is another option, but again you need some practice sheets to get the laser strength and cutting speed matched so that the cuts are clean. If power is too low or the cutting speed to fast, you won't get a complete cut. If power is too high or the speed too slow, you can end up with dirty (sooty) cuts, or in a worst case, the sheet catching fire.

what are the tell-take signs of a fake?

dry cereal wrote:what are the tell-take signs of a fake?

When so many cards from the same set appear en masse and so close together usually sets bells off. 100 severe miscuts from 40 different sets would be easier to swallow.

dry cereal wrote:what are the tell-take signs of a fake?

nothing but revised, but all different cuts. If you happened on a box of miscuts they would have the same cut. Also the corners are bad. Honestly if I received a miscut and it had been hand cut, I'd be leaving negative feedback 100%.

Consider in 12 months when the cuts are distributed. You come across a single miscut. How do you identify if it is organic?

dry cereal wrote:Consider in 12 months when the cuts are distributed. You come across a single miscut. How do you identify if it is organic?

corners/edges/card size are a good start. They aren't claiming to be double cut, so everything should match up w/ an actual card.

dry cereal wrote:Consider in 12 months when the cuts are distributed. You come across a single miscut. How do you identify if it is organic?

It is sometimes impossible. We all know there are uncut sheets in circulation. Any uncut sheet can be turned into cards. If the owner finds the right company, the cards can be cut perfectly. After all there are printing companies everywhere, and many are quite excellent at what they do.

And this is the problem with the premium prices currently obtained by miscuts. If I cut up a Revised Rare sheet, and do it perfectly, I have real cards that are worth about $600 total. And since the sheet was printed by Carta Mundi, the cards will pass every test for authenticity so long as I can cut the sheet perfectly.

If I can cut the sheet perfectly, but I instead decide to cut the entire sheet so the cards are perfect size but are all off center by 2 inches (5 cm), I now have a one-of-a-kind set of miscut Revised rares that might be worth $10,000, or a multiple of that amount. It doesn't seem to matter if they are off horizontally, vertically, or a combination of both.

WOTC and Carta Mundi have done a good job at limiting production errors. For other types of collectibles, production errors are only worth a premium if the error can be confirmed as having happened during actual production. With Magic cards, it doesn't seem to matter as much.

If the card is only miscut on one side and has a normal back, you can be confidant it's a genuine miscut. These kinds of miscuts are quite rare though.

Some of the corners of these 'miscuts' are terrible. Look at this one for example

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MTG-MISPRINT-MI ... _44wt_1129

And yet a $1 (at best) card sells for $46. Unless they are really unusual (like the card backs misaligned compared to the card front), miscuts should not be valued higher that perfect cards. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And many Magic collectors like oddities, regardless of how the were produced.

Looks like another batch now...
http://www.ebay.com/sch/ermabwed/m.html ... 7675.l2562

Did the uncut Revised sheets show the edge of the sheet (like his Fog, Bottle of Suleiman, etc. auctions recently)? I'm assuming they did, as these appear to definitely be man-made, but I had just never seen one myself. I don't think newer uncut sheets have that much excess at the end.

Also, the Fog in particular seemed to be very poorly cut. It's all jagged and the corners don't match. It looks like a 3-year old cut it with some plastic scissors.