Question about different Mirage printings

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gzeiger
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Post by gzeiger » Wed May 21, 2008 7:32 am

That blue line you look for when you evaluate a card's authenticity isn't ink, it's glue. There has been at least one more recent example of someone on this forum pulling a card that was in two pieces in the pack. I believe that was an Invasion foil card, but I'm not sure.

If you take a card you can part with and rip it, you'll see the glue layer. Take another card and hold a flame to the center of one face. It will separate at that line and puff up like a popcorn kernel.

The cardstock is two thinner pieces heat treated to stick together, like hot glue as I understand it. In the very rare case where that heat treatment fails for whatever reason, a sheet of cards may not be properly bonded and can come apart.

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magic-belgium
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Post by magic-belgium » Wed May 21, 2008 7:52 am

I see. That's interesting. Anyone has one card like this to show us ?

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l0qii
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Post by l0qii » Fri Sep 19, 2008 4:57 am

I just came across a very high gloss 5th edition Fear. It's the only glossy 5th edition card I have. Does anyone have more of these?

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mystical_tutor
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Post by mystical_tutor » Sun Sep 21, 2008 8:28 pm

I know this is an old post Magic-Belgium but I feel I must make a comment in fairness.
magic-belgium wrote:Printing processes have evolved a lot since the beginning of Magic.
The Duelist was telling how the first sets were produced. It looked like they were made in a kitchen.
Actually there was a kitchenete in Peter's basement where it all started.
magic-belgium wrote:When it comes to printing you can always control the quality, but this always has a cost...
Time is also an important factor.
This is very important to remember. Printing the average playing card may well have a deadline to meet but CM entered a whole new world of printing with MTG (as the rest of us entered a whole new world of gaming). When you think of thousands of very vocal distributors expecting a product on a given day--the reprint options become none. Summer Magic is the example of where the screw ups overcame the market demand. I don't have a single SM card and never knowingly will. It does NOT represent the company. It represents what the company DIDN"T want to be seen as and was willing to bare the financial loss to preserve it's image.
magic-belgium wrote:But WOTC thinks Magic cards are for players. <snip>
Once again, this shows WOTC doesn't care much for the collectors.
I have commented before on this in general but specific to printing, as you pointed out, printing technology has progressed in the last 15 years. Lets give CM some credit for breaking the trail for us in many ways.
I hate to say it but money makes more things possible and in all reality it was the PLAYERS that spent the vast majority of that money. If it was not for them in the early days--I mean people that didn't give a rip about how dark a card was or if it felt rough, people that just wanted you see what happened when you blocked their Force of Nature with your Scrub Spryte--if they hadn't been spending the cash like they did, there wouldn't be any German or Korean or etc. cards to talk about.
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magic-belgium
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Post by magic-belgium » Sun Sep 21, 2008 8:46 pm

Thanks for your comments and point of view on this subject.

MTG is, by definition, a Collectible Card Game, and I'm sure things would be different in terms of turnover, if WotC tried to answer the collectors' demand.

I guess the main problem is availability of the products. MTGO was a good answer, but unfortunately, it was only available in English for a limited time...

The R & D team is excellent on how to create the cards, playability, design, but the marketing thing is not so good when it comes to the collectors' market.

Frankly, I don't think this will change in the near future. But as long as there is hope, there is life...

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mystical_tutor
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Post by mystical_tutor » Sun Sep 21, 2008 8:52 pm

magic-belgium wrote:Thanks for your comments and point of view on this subject.
And thank you for yours, my friend. I wish I had your knowledge of the subject.
magic-belgium wrote:...but the marketing thing is not so good when it comes to the collectors' market.
Sorry to say, but I have never gotten a warm fuzzy that "collectable" is in the Hasbro corporate vocabulary.
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magic-belgium
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Post by magic-belgium » Sun Sep 21, 2008 8:58 pm

That would explain everything then. The current financial crisis may help things change. Companies are always more creative when the money does not flood so easily as before.

I'm a marketing specialist in leisure business :-D that's why I know things could be done to improve in the collectors' area.

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mystical_tutor
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Post by mystical_tutor » Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:29 pm

magic-belgium wrote:I'm a marketing specialist in leisure business :-D that's why I know things could be done to improve in the collectors' area.
And again, in hopes of broadening the perspective, many good suggestions came up in the early years for appealing to the collectors market. Early on, though, the train was moving way too fast just trying to keep to the schedule to expand. When the luxury of time and money finally caught up things were going so well without it that putting energy into collecting (as a marketing strategy) seemed to be a waste. There was no excuse for that IMHO but it seemed that it happened that way.
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magic-belgium
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Post by magic-belgium » Sun Sep 21, 2008 10:41 pm

Well, things can be changed if the will is there.

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l0qii
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Post by l0qii » Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:55 pm

Resurrecting this old thread since it has been on topic recently, and because I was finally able to capture this difference on camera.

We know there is a difference in the gloss between the 2 printings. You can also tell the difference by looking at the corners.

In one print the blade that cut the corners did so from the back of the card, while the other did so from the front. This make one set of corners fringe upwards on one printing and downwards on the other.

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dragsamou
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Post by dragsamou » Fri Jan 10, 2014 8:05 pm

l0qii wrote:Resurrecting this old thread since it has been on topic recently, and because I was finally able to capture this difference on camera.

We know there is a difference in the gloss between the 2 printings. You can also tell the difference by looking at the corners.

In one print the blade that cut the corners did so from the back of the card, while the other did so from the front. This make one set of corners fringe upwards on one printing and downwards on the other.

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Hi Tim

Do you own any Mirage MTG Products carrying the Shephard Poorman name on them?
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l0qii
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Post by l0qii » Fri Jan 10, 2014 8:12 pm

I have a Mirage Booster pack that says Made in the USA, but it does not mention Shephard Poorman. I don't have any sealed starters or boxes

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dragsamou
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Post by dragsamou » Fri Jan 10, 2014 8:27 pm

l0qii wrote:I have a Mirage Booster pack that says Made in the USA, but it does not mention Shephard Poorman. I don't have any sealed starters or boxes
I guess to find out, as I suggested to Mark, someone will need to tear apart a cheap Mirage card to look for the black Glue, as it seem that the name of Shepard Poorman doesn't appear on any Mirage product so far, this is weird cause it shows on at least 2 others MTG products :-k
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l0qii
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Post by l0qii » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:47 pm

I took 2 Incinerates (cheapest Mirage card I have), one of each kind, and ran them under water. As we've seen with Chinese 4th, the black glue should separate easily, but in this case neither one did so.

If you look at the 3rd picture, it does appear that the printing with the more rounded corners has darker glue than the other card, but when I tried to peel them apart in the 4th pictures, they looked the same.

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Post by berkumps » Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:06 pm

Yes, I too found that the glue color is the same on both printings, blue glue on both.

Tim, you posted when I was taking photos, if my hands weren't so shaky with my macro lens, I would have been quicker and I could have saved you two Incinerates :p

Belgium Mirage
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US Mirage
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