I don't know if it's just me, but when 151 first came out, I got the mew premium box and pulled the Blastoise. I was so awed by the ring effect it had and just put it away. With the scalping and vending machines its hard to get product, getting fortunate enough to get a booster box from my vending machine at work.
I pulled my 3rd Blastoise card and realized the holofoil was different. Its not a ring but just a ray.
I wonder if its due to mass production they skipped this or maybe my card is flawed 🤷♀️
by Smart_Membership9910
49 Comments
That’s super interesting. Hopefully just an error because the ring looks super nice
And this is precisely why everybody who only collects English cards and refuses japanese cards is braindead. EVERY SINGLE CARD looks INFINITELY better in Japanese. The quality difference is not even questionable.
Mine has the ring pattern and I pulled it right after release. Fits with what you are saying
Had the same with my bubble mews, my shitty texture came out the booster bundles, the better texture came out of a mini tin
I wonder if in time people will get more advanced in tracking variants like we have for the WOTC era.
I have seen this with the Venasaur except the new Venasaur had more texture than the old one.
Wow, I need to go check mine, I’d dont remember the ring effect, makes it look much better
Mine is entirely different wow
I just pulled a Blastoise from
Blooming waters that I purchased less than a month ago from Target and it has the rings
I have a Dialga VStar that I pulled myself with barely any texture. For SV cards, I only got chipped foil, so far.
I’m definitely going to go check mine, because I bought three boxes in the beginning of the 151 and I got blast ice too, so I’ll check it out
This is super interesting
Prepress definitely upgraded the files.
Can American Pokemon companies just call japan and ask how they’re printing. This is ridiculous, I hate how atrocious our quality control is.
## Blastoise
Wow! good post. Thx for info. **not being sarcastic
I opened a pack today and noticed the code cards and the Pokemon cards themselves seemed thin and flimsy. Anyone else?
It’s looking like korean quality now
One on the left is an error it’s textureless
I’ve pulled 6 of those over the course of 7 to 9 months. Every single one of them look like the one on the right
I wonder if it has anything to do with them hiring more printers to meet demand, and these printers not printing to the same quality?
Really interesting. I have a Venusaur SIR that I pulled on release, and then one I pulled a month ago; I’ll have to compare when I get home
Its an error print/misprint. I have 3 of those and all of them have the swirl. Get it graded as a misprint/error card!
i noticed with the prismatic mini tins i grabbed at target a few days ago that the foil wrapping on the packs felt cheaper as well, the wrapping around the tins was also different, went around the whole thing as opposed to the initial print run where you could slide it off
The ring looks like it could be from the curvature of the card… kind of like a convex surface…
I did prefer the small batch home brewed blastoises of the olden days.
Any decently “rare” card is nowhere near gradable these days unfortunately. Idk if anybody else has this issue.
Or it is a fake ?
Yeah the left one doesn’t have the correct texture pattern. It should be like the right one
valid observation
Pretty standard. Compare XY full arts of the same copies. It’s actually hilarious how different one can be from the next.
Napkins are getting thinner. Ketchup packets are getting thinner. There’s like five chips in the fun size Dorito bags… lol etc. Everyone is cashing in on maximizing profits. I would not be surprised.
Mmm nice, it’s got that subtle swirl. Now let’s see the Japanese version of that card.
Pulled from a bundle a week ago with rings, cant guarantee the bundle wasnt super old though, sometimes in Aus we end up with stuff from original prints literally 2 years later.
Man English pokemon card quality is just ass it’s so ass compared to literally all other regions.
I like the differences and quality issues. Caused more demand for quality cards and gem mint 10 creating more money for the market :/. Except for when I pull all the off centered cards which is always
Mine is like the right side
So now I need two of these
100% but I noticed it back in sword & shield as well. Variations in sparkle, texture quality, cardstock stiffness, and glossiness of the back finish have all varied in different sets, print runs, or eras of course. It would be very difficult to source enough material from one single supplier and there are different places that print the cards. So many variables.
I know they have different company and factories, but different quality is nuts
I recently bought the JP Blastoise and was in awe of the swirl. I never had seen it in all of the raw English ones I’ve considered buying. Turns out it used to be there and they’ve lost it.
Potentially, a missing layer error.
Nah check the same textured card 5 times from any set and the depth differs. It just differs with printing. It’s not as consistent as Japanese printing. I have multiple copies of many cards that some look way more textured
This is like comparing Japanese to English
Prob cutting some corners to meet demand?
This will cause collectors to go and look for higher quality cards tho
Same thing happened with the Giratina VStar Gold from Crown Zenith. There was already a quality difference between Japanese and English, but then even the English version had some waves to completely no waves.
Ew
It’s such an underrated card imo (in terms of I think it’s the best card in the set). Love the artwork and the ring effect adds to it
Now I’m a bit sad mine doesn’t have the ring on :(. Ik looks so much better with it.