The Magic Librarities

casperjjj wrote: - Fourth Edition ("Alpha" cut corners) (does not exist; only UC and R were given this treatment)
- Ice Age ("Alpha" cut corners)

Correction, It's Uncommons & Commons that have Alpha Cut corners in 4th & Ice Age.
In 4th & Ice Age, lands were on a different sheet, so I don't think you'll find any Alpha Cut Forests in those two sets.

Revised has them because basic lands were on the Common & Uncommon sheets in Revised.

casperjjj wrote: - All Test prints (I've seen Pre-Alpha and Pre-Beta cards I believe). Which other are there? Probably many I've never heard of.

There are no Pre-Alpha or Pre-Beta Test Prints that I'm aware of.

I suspect that you are getting Play Test cards confused with Test Prints

Play Test cards are meant for testing the playing of the game. They are usually printed on small paper bits or on stickers stuck to real cards.

Test Prints are meant for testing the printing process to see what the finished product will look like.

Play Test Forests exist in quite a few varieties, at least up until 1996.
There are several different Pre-Alpha ones, some of which were for other sets like Ice Age, Menagerie, & Spectral Chaos, that also hadn't been finished yet. Play Test Forests also exist for Portal.
It would seem silly to Play Test basic lands after the real cards had been printed. They could just use real land cards when Play Testing at that point.

For Test Print Forests, you'll have
Textless
German with French Copyright
"Test Printing"
8th Edition (probably foil & non-foil, and maybe some variations)
M15

Are Rival's Quick Start cards already on your regular cards list?

They have marked backs and glow differently under a black light, but the front looks a lot like regular 4th edition.



Foil Arena Forests exist with upside down backs.

Hi

Yeah, I have Rivals on my list :-)

I've just started working on a new sheet which hopefully will give me an overview of all the irregular Forests for my collection. I'll check back with you in a couple of days, and hopefully you'll have a little time to run through it for flaws and missing items.

Have a nice day - and thanks a lot for your help and patience :-)

casperjjj wrote:How do you other Global Collectors deal with this (adding unofficial cards to a Global Collection)? Do you simply only collect official, regular cards? Or what?
Due to the fact that my Global Forest Collection is huge (3.800'ish cards would make the list of variants for each card would never-ending).

All the best,
Casper

I normally collect only the official versions of the cards. I personally don't worry about or collect misprints, play-test versions, or "print run variations", i.e. Alpha cut, glossy, dark, bold, etc.

I do however also collect the test prints and "corrected print runs", i.e. Beta being the "corrected" print run of Alpha, & Summer being the "corrected" print run of Revised. Ice Age & Alliances cards that were reprinted in Coldsnap decks also loosely fit in this "corrected" print run category. And for those wondering, I consider Alternate 4th to be in the category of "test print", because it defies any other way to categorize it.

I hope this helps some.

Alien_Starfighter_Pilot wrote: And for those wondering, I consider Alternate 4th to be in the category of "test print", because it defies any other way to categorize it.
I hope this helps some.

I don't agree with that at all. A Test Print is done before a finished product, and Alternate Fourth Edition Cards are finished products. That they were not officially produced (WotC point of view) as nothing to do with that, it's a dispute matter between 2 companies.

dragsamou wrote:

Alien_Starfighter_Pilot wrote: And for those wondering, I consider Alternate 4th to be in the category of "test print", because it defies any other way to categorize it.
I hope this helps some.

I don't agree with that at all.

Hey Alexis. how would you classify it then?

Alien_Starfighter_Pilot wrote:

dragsamou wrote:

Alien_Starfighter_Pilot wrote: And for those wondering, I consider Alternate 4th to be in the category of "test print", because it defies any other way to categorize it.
I hope this helps some.

I don't agree with that at all.

Hey Alexis. how would you classify it then?

Semi-Officials Cards like Summer (the way they are classified in the Magic Rarities section). Both were produced, both were supposed to be destroyed.

casperjjj wrote:Allways open to obtaining new 'Forests' for my collection.

Hi Caspar:

Made me think of you:



Lykke til!

Bernd

dragsamou wrote:

Alien_Starfighter_Pilot wrote:

dragsamou wrote:

Alien_Starfighter_Pilot wrote: And for those wondering, I consider Alternate 4th to be in the category of "test print", because it defies any other way to categorize it.
I hope this helps some.

I don't agree with that at all.

Hey Alexis. how would you classify it then?

Semi-Officials Cards like Summer (the way they are classified in the Magic Rarities section). Both were produced, both were supposed to be destroyed.

From what I've been told, Carta Mundi Belgium was already operating 24/7 and couldn't keep up with print demand.
USPCC was already producing other products for WotC, and WotC had them make some 4th edition to fill demand.
Some of these cards were distributed through regular channels.
WotC found out that the cards were noticeably different, returned what the still had to USPCC and took legal action to get refunded for the error.
A recall was not issued to avoid a scandal over marked cards, and the legal action was supposed to prevent either side from discussing what happened.
That was the first attempt at finding a US printer to help make Magic cards. After it failed, WotC moved on to Shepard Poorman, who did successfully make products for WotC until Carta Mundi was able to open a US printing facility of their own and meet print demand for Magic.

I think that Semi-Official cards as Alexis has said, is a good way to classify them.
The comparison to Summer Magic is fitting.