Misprints and Human Mistakes: A Brief Guide to Factory Errors in Magic: the Gathering
Josh Nelson • November 12, 2024
Hello and welcome to a two-part guide to factory error Magic: The Gathering cards! Throughout Magic's storied history, the trading cards have been marred with tales of misprints. What's more, some of these factory errors make the cards even more valuable than their less-flawed iterations.
Our goal in this series is to ensure that readers know about the more common and prolific factory errors. Also, we'll discuss whether they fetch a premium should someone pull one. Finally, we'll explore where one should go if one seeks to sell. This particular entry deals with misprints and cards with human-fronted factory errors. Without further ado, let's begin!
A Note On Human Error Cards
Every now and again, Wizards of the Coast makes mistakes. I'm not talking about factory errors here; those are often out of anyone's control. No, here I'm talking about authentic, unforced, human-driven errors that somehow manage to slip past the proofreaders and make it to print.
Commander's Herald has a great piece by journalist Nick Wolf about cards that have text (or in some cases art) they shouldn't have. In it, Wolf discusses more infamous entries like the 2/3 Corpse Knight, a sorcery-speed Circular Logic, and all those super-pixilated white cards from Torment. He also goes into other entries, of course, but these are the ones that stick out in my mind. One notable exception from coverage is the "Bounty County" copy of Shay Cormac from Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed. Sadly, the render has been corrected on Scryfall, so the render below won't show it. But, if you look at the physical printing of this foil-etched card, you're more than likely to see the error in the text box.
Unfortunately, because human-driven factory error cards are almost always the same across the board for a given set (save for a couple of small exceptions), these cards hardly ever drive a premium. There are a couple of cards that players of the unsanctioned "as-written" format would appreciate, such as the aforementioned Corpse Knight, but for the most part they still aren't much more expensive than any properly-printed copies that may exist.
And now, let's look at some of the greater misprinted anomalies of Magic!
Misprints in Magic Get Weird
The following cases are some of the more common or renowned Magic misprints out there. It's important to note that as you discover more and more about misprints, more misprints will show up in your peripherals. Rest assured, misprinted Magic cards are in no way "common." They're simply "more" or "less" common than others. There's no need to cry for quality control (well, maybe other than the fly - more on that soon!).
"Charlie Browns" Won't Get You Peanuts Alone
In the misprinted Magic: The Gathering community, one of the most sought-after misprints is the "Charlie Brown" Medallions from Tempest. Three cards in the cycle - Sapphire Medallion, Ruby Medallion, and Emerald Medallion, have a fair few cases where they were printed with the same press that did Peanuts comic strips. This is why they're called "Charlie Brown" errors, despite not all of them showing the protagonist of Charles Schultz's iconic comic.
The above image shows a "Charlie Brown" Ruby Medallion. If you look to the bottom-left of the ruby in the card's art, you'll see the traces of the box of a Peanuts comic strip.
While "Charlie Brown" is fairly common in the misprint community, they're also well out of print now. Good grief! Luckily for potential sellers, they're iconic enough that they're typically the first major misprint errors players hear about. As such, these will often fetch a reasonably high premium.
Double-Prints: An Anomaly Among Anomalies
Sometimes, but not very often at all, cards in seeded products like Jumpstart packs or an entire Commander deck will be egregiously misprinted with a double-printing. Some of these products fetch a ton of money, so if you're lucky enough to have come across one in your purchases, well, cha-ching. Well done!
Splotchy Cards
A less-profound error but one of the most common misprints in the hobby is the "splotchy" card. These splotches can occur for all manner of reasons. Oftentimes, it's an issue with the roller, leading to smudges or ink that doesn't stick quite right.
Mis-Stamped Cards, Something Rather New
While the header above is a bit misleading (stamp errors have existed for a while), with Foundations a new misprint has emerged. Below, you will see five copies of Darksteel Colossus that have Upper Deck stamps in place of the mana-symbol stamp that marks authenticity on many rare and mythic rare cards.
Resources For Collectors And Sellers
"But Josh," you may ask, "What good is this guide if I want to make money selling my misprinted cards?" This is a very good question that I'm more than capable of answering. Googling "MTG Misprints" will quickly inundate you with many different resources, but here are maybe three of the better ones:
r/MTGMisprints is a fantastic first step into evaluating the premiums that misprinted cards can yield. In that subreddit you'll find like-minded Redditors who want to know the same things as you. This gives you an edge: you can lurk a little bit, and learn how best to evaluate these cards; or, alternatively, you can post a new thread with something novel in the misprint world, and get insights straight from your fellow users.
MTG Rarities' Minor Misprint page on Facebook and MTG Rarities' Major Misprint page on Facebook are run by the same group. However, they're arguably the biggest and most insightful misprint hunters on modern social media. Generally speaking, if you have a minor misprint (something they define and delineate from major misprints), you can post a picture of it in Minor Misprints. If they think it's worthwhile, they'll advise there. If it's more profound of a misprint they'll advise you to post it into Major Misprints for more information. In either case, auctions are held quite often and publicly on both pages, and you'll easily be able to get the hang of that.
Another Magic Misprint Facebook page exists but is a bit less active than either MTG Rarities page. In it, the same amenities exist, so it provides little new objective information. However, since the page is smaller, the users seem more willing to help out where needed. They even often alert connoisseurs of certain misprints by name to new listings.
Cardsphere
Finally, Cardsphere is a fabulous resource to use to sell your misprints in Magic! If you're reading this, think of a directory map in a typical American mall, if you will. The sign pointing at the map's location and saying "YOU ARE HERE" in all caps springs to mind!
As misprints begin to proliferate on the market, confirmation biases will pop up. At the risk of propagating those biases, we'd love to hear from you. Have you ever pulled a misprinted Magic: The Gathering card? What was the weirdest misprint you've seen? Sound off below!
