I have a mis-packed booster myself and I am really tempted to open it.
It is a very odd booster, advertised as unique but I have two of them and a third is up on ebay.
The booster is the same size and shape as the Japanese 'Hanger" boosters and it even has the hole stamped into it.
It has maybe 4-5 cards in it.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MTG-Apocalypse- ... 1887857239
the official story is
MTG Apocalypse Error Misprint Test booster pack.
This is a really cool Magic rarity.
This 'one of a kind' came to be at the card printer, when the booster machine was getting synced up with the cards/foil to cut and seal. These were always all thrown out by the Quality Control QC person. Contains cards... but not 15 cards thick.
Former WOTC Employee purchase.
Please see pictures.
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So maybe it is the start of a print run, getting everything synched up and you discard the first couple of boosters. But if that is the case, where are all the others? There have been many print runs from many expansions and the three I have seen have all been Apocalypse...
And if it was a WOTC Employee purchase, did they go on a trip to the card printers, meet the QC guy and pick up half a dozen of the packs. Or does the seller equate the Carta Mundi staff as being WotC staff?
I have a couple of other theories.
It is a demonstration booster, maybe for when they were trying to come up with a new style of booster (I could Google it to find out when the Japanese Hanger style came out) to show to the executives in the company. So for a quick mock up they got some of the boosters already in production and ran it through the machine that makes the other style boosters for a different company. In which case they probably just grabbed a bunch of cards to stick in it.
Which cards though?
A couple off the top of the stack; so a normal random distribution of Apocalypse?
A stack of cards before they are sorted, so maybe a handful off the rares stack?
Some spare cards they were playing with during their breaks?
or something off the Quality Control pile, something that was not good enough to go in a booster, some misprints?
Or some waste cards, like the fillers that were pulled out of the sheets?
Either way it would be good to know.
Another option is a genuine error, the wrong machine or setting was used, a bunch were churned out before it was noticed and they were meant to be destroyed but someone saved them. This could cause all sorts of errors in filling the boosters, so I would expect the normal random assortment of Apocalypse but maybe one booster would have the rares and uncommons and the other would have the commons.
Or someone in the factory is making these themselves for a bit of pocket money as a misprint, so they stuff a few Apocalypse cards at random into the booster.
Or someone got hold of a roll of the booster wrappers (possibly they work in the factory or at the printers) and they got hold of a booster sealer from a different company and put them together along with a handful of assorted common cards from any expansion they had to hand.
I like the first theory but it all depends on when the Japanese switched booster styles. I will say that I do not believe the person selling these has done anything fraudulent, they may have picked up some and have been slowly releasing them onto eBay to keep the prices high. I am not sure if there is only one person selling these as they auctions are few and far between. I think if they are trying to do something fraudulent they are taking their time over it unless they are selling lots elsewhere.
I would very much like to find out one way or the other.
Not sure if I want to open up a $74 booster to get a bunch of common cards but even that would give a clue as to the origin of this booster...