Pokémon card errors and misprints explained
How a Pokémon error differs from a misprint, damage or a fake, the error types CGC names on its labels, and what The Pokémon Company will exchange.
By the Rip.fan Editorial Team.
Published 8 min read
People use “error” and “misprint” loosely. A useful working line separates two kinds of fault. One is a mistake in the card’s design or text, printed the same way on every copy until someone corrects it, such as a typo. The other is a slip on the press, the cutter or the pack sealer that affects only some copies: a miscut, a crimp, a missing layer of ink. CGC calls both kinds errors. It names many of them on its labels at no extra fee and declines a few. A card with an error is its own card and needs its own price check, and some cards sold as misprints turn out to be worn, damaged or fake.
What is the difference between an error and a misprint?
There is no agreed split. CGC’s glossary defines an error card as one that contains a mistake, such as a misspelled name, wrong statistics or the wrong picture. It adds that errors are often caught before the print run ends, and calls the fixed card a corrected error. Its error guide then uses “error” for production faults as well, from miscuts to crimps. Rip.fan’s working split, for the rest of this guide, falls between these two kinds:
| Design error | Production misprint | |
|---|---|---|
| What went wrong | The card was drawn, written or set up wrong | A press, cutter or sealer slipped |
| Which copies | Every copy of a printing, until it is corrected | Some copies, sometimes a whole sheet |
| How you confirm it | Compare with the set list and with later copies | Compare with a normal copy of the same card |
| Examples | A typo in the card text; a missing set symbol | A miscut, a crimp, a missing ink layer |
A 1st Edition Fossil Zapdos shows a similar difference. The card is missing its holo pattern, and it also has a faulty holo cutout at the top left, shared by every English 1st Edition copy and by perhaps half of the Unlimited copies before the fix. Because every 1st Edition copy has the cutout, CGC leaves it off the label.
Which documented Pokémon errors do collector references list?
Base Set has four design errors:
- a typo, “D.efending”, on Beedrill
- Energy symbols turned 90 degrees in Diglett’s text
- no word “Stage” on Blastoise
- a damage number left out of the text on Shadowless Ninetales
For Jungle, the errors include the early Unlimited holo rares that left the factory with no set symbol (the small flower taken from Vileplume’s head) and early 1st Edition Butterfree on which an ink bubble made the stamp look like “Edition d”. Every card in the Japanese Expansion Pack exists with and without a rarity symbol, and the copies without one are believed to be the earlier print, with errors fixed later. One is Venusaur, whose Pokémon number reads 68 instead of 3.
A missing symbol needs one more check. Base Set cards have no set symbol at all, and the Base Set 2 and Legendary Collection reprints of Jungle cards carry their own symbol and number, so a blank space on an original Jungle holo marks the no-symbol print. Our guides to vintage Pokémon sets and 1st Edition and Shadowless cards explain those printings.
Which production errors does CGC name?
CGC names dozens of error types, with Pokémon examples for most. Grouped by the stage where each happens:
| Stage | Error types CGC names | Pokémon examples in CGC’s guide |
|---|---|---|
| Ink | Additional or insufficient ink, a missing or misaligned print layer, offset “ghost” images, obstructions and printer hickeys | A Base Set Starmie with its yellow layer shifted; a Fossil Slowpoke with a large hickey |
| Back of the card | Albino back (black ink only), blank back, wrong back, inverted back | A German Base Set Growlithe with a Magic back; Sword & Shield era Energy cards with albino backs |
| Foil and texture | Missing holo layer or pattern, holo splice, doubled holo pattern, wrong holofoil, incomplete, misaligned or missing texture | A Base Set 2 Charizard with no holo layer; a Team Rocket Dark Charizard with a holo splice |
| Cutting | Minor miscut, miscut, major miscut, off-center, square corners, square cut, rotated, narrow, short and twisted miscuts, fold over, paper jam | A Hidden Fates Sylveon GX with a twisted miscut |
| Packing | Partial crimp, crimped, crimped and cut | A 1st Edition Base Set Machamp with a full crimp |
CGC sets its miscut names by how much of the neighbors shows. A Minor Miscut shows half or more of a corner alignment dot, or loses some of its own design without showing another card. A Miscut shows part of at least one other card, and a Major Miscut part of at least two. CGC’s Off-center type covers clearly uneven borders that stop short of a miscut’s alignment marks. Our centering checker turns border measurements into a split and shows which CGC and SGC grades allow it.
How does CGC grade and label an error?
Send it under CGC’s Error service. A card with a printing error must go through this service, at no extra fee on top of the grading tier. The error’s name goes on the label. For a crimped card, for example, CGC uses Partial Crimp when only part of the crimp shows, Crimped when all of it shows, and Crimped and Cut when the sealer also cut off a piece. Our guide to reading a CGC label covers the rest of the label.
A few rules shape what gets graded at all:
- Square-cut cards. CGC will not grade a square-cut card from the Wizards of the Coast era unless its provenance traces back to a Wizards employee, because so many were cut outside the factory. It keeps an internal register of every known uncut sheet to help it authenticate error cards.
- Missing foil. CGC gives two answers: “Missing Foil” is on its list of cards it does not grade, yet it has authenticated a Base Set 2 Charizard missing its holo layer. Ask CGC before sending such a card.
- Holo bleeds. CGC does not recognize so-called holo bleeds as errors.
- Paper jams. CGC counts a crumpled paper jam as an error, because it happened before the card was cut, and it does not affect the card’s final grade.
- Altered or fake cards. Any card CGC finds altered, counterfeit, cleaned or restored gets no numeric grade and no holder.
Is it an error, damage or a fake?
Some odd-looking cards turn out not to be errors. CGC gives several ways to tell:
- Two dents, front and back. Two vertical indentations showing on both sides are roller damage from packing. A pinched layer, a factory error, is a raised line on the holo side only.
- Faded colors. A card faded by sunlight can look like one missing an ink layer. Under UV light, a sun-faded card has lost its normal UV reaction, while a true missing-layer error reacts normally.
- No texture. A textured card with missing texture may be a real error, but CGC warns that most counterfeits share that trait. Our guide to spotting fake Pokémon cards covers the other checks.
- Square corners. CGC warns that uncut sheets, Wizards-era and recent promo sheets among them, have occasionally reached the secondary market, where dishonest resellers cut cards from them and label them as miscuts or square-cut errors. See our guide to spotting an altered card.
- Surface marks and whitening. These are wear. Our guide to card condition problems shows how TCGplayer and the graders treat them.
Will The Pokémon Company replace a misprinted card?
Usually not. It covers manufacturing errors in purchases from other retailers, with tight limits:
- The product must have been released within the last year, and you must make contact within 10 business days of buying it.
- Booster packs are exchanged only as whole packs, never as single cards, and only if more than half the cards have manufacturing damage, such as a crease or a dent right through the card.
- Minor surface marks and printing defects do not qualify.
- You need the receipt, the number under the barcode, photos of the faulty cards and of the opened product laid out, and a short description. Purchases from Pokémon Center go to Pokémon Center’s own support.
So a single miscut or ink flaw in an otherwise normal pack does not meet these conditions.
What should you check before you buy or sell one?
- Name the kind. Is it a design error on every copy, or a production fault on this copy alone?
- Compare it. Set it beside a normal copy, and check the number and text against the set list. Our guide to reading a Pokémon card shows where each detail sits.
- Ask how it was checked. For a raw card sold as an error, ask whether a grader has seen it; CGC names the error on its label.
- Price the exact card. An error and the normal card are different cards. Look up sold prices for the same error with our guide to finding what a card sold for, and use the card price lookup for the normal printing.
For more on grading choices, see whether a card is worth grading and the Pokémon hub.
Frequently asked questions
Which Pokémon card error is most common?
Miscuts are the error type most often sent to CGC, and they turn up far more than most other kinds. Among print layer errors, CGC finds a shifted black layer especially plentiful on Ultra Prism commons and uncommons.
How many cards are printed on one sheet?
Usually 110, though sheets of 100 and 121 cards are also used. A press can print up to 15,000 sheets an hour, or up to 1.8 million cards, so one slip can reach many copies before it is caught.
Are double-printed cards real errors?
They can be, but they are exceptionally rare in Pokémon. CGC thinks many are make-readies: press check sheets used to set alignment and ink levels that reached the cutter and went into packs.
When did textured cards begin?
With Black & White: Next Destinies, released February 8, 2012. One rare texture error since then is an inverted texture taken from another card, such as a Celebrations Zamazenta V that carries the texture of Flying Pikachu V from the same set.