Booster Variants: Visions

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GlobalBoosterHunter
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Booster Variants: Visions

Post by GlobalBoosterHunter » Fri Jun 02, 2017 5:10 am

Slowly scanning and uploading some pictures of the various boosters in my collection. I am jumping around a bit so I did Visions to get it out of the way.

Scans are here;
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3z_eB ... sp=sharing

I noticed a few things!

From my memory, The Mirage Block was the first to begin printing outside of Belgium.

In the Visions printing we have several boosters stating that they are made in the USA
  • Pre release,
    English,
    Korean and
    Traditional Chinese
All the other boosters state that they are made in Belgium.

So far so good.

We know that the USA facility uses a different crimping style than the Facility in Belgium. The USA version and the Pre Release version both have the American crimping as expected.

The Chinese and Korean boosters have the normal Belgium crimping style and not the expected USA style crimping.

Image

The Chinese and Korean boosters have a booster foil that is less reflective, not so noticeable to the naked eye but the camera and scanner picks up on it.

Image

The Chinese and Korean boosters are all shorter than the Belgique made boosters, as are the US made boosters (pre release and English variant).

So it looks to me like we have Chinese and Korean boosters claiming to be made in the USA, but using a completely different foil wrapper to the Belgium and USA boosters, but remarkably similar to the Pre release booster foil. The Chinese and Korean boosters are sealed using the same style of sealing that the Belgium boosters receive but different from the sealing used in the USA.

The pre release booster is sealed differently from the other US crimps in that the top and bottom crimps are very narrow.

All boosters claiming to be made in the USA are consistently smaller than their Belgique counterparts.

So what is going on?!

Were the Chinese and Korean boosters actually made in the USA, and if so, why is the foil and crimping different?
Why are there three different crimping styles used in the USA? Different factories?

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dragsamou
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Re: Booster Variants: Visions

Post by dragsamou » Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:23 am

Hi Mark

The Traditional Chinese Visions booster, was also included in the Vanguard Gift box:
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/291-rar ... index.html

I need to verify where the Gift Box was printed and what's mentioned about the T-Chinese Booster. Glad I went to scan that info as I just realize that the Visions booster could be either Japanese or Traditional Chinese, I need to update that info in the Vanguard subsection.
EDIT Everything Made in the U.S.A., except the Japanese Visions booster and Mirage Italian Starter Deck (Made in Belgium).

Now, the question is to find out if the Traditional Chinese Visions Booster is similar from one coming from a T-Chinese booster box. That might explain why the foiling and sealing are different. Did you notice anything with the Korean Weatherlight booster that you own ? Therefore they might have been printed in different factories. Sorry that I can't help looking in any of my Vanguard Gift Boxes, they are all sealed.

Image
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GlobalBoosterHunter
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Re: Booster Variants: Visions

Post by GlobalBoosterHunter » Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:35 pm

I will dig out the Weatherlight box and scan those next!

I have no idea where my T-Chinese Visions originated from, but I might buy myself a Vanguard box and take a risk on getting a second one, I noticed a small hole in my current pack so I have to replace it anyway.

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Re: Booster Variants: Visions

Post by dragsamou » Mon Jun 05, 2017 5:46 am

GlobalBoosterHunter wrote:
Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:35 pm
I will dig out the Weatherlight box and scan those next!

I have no idea where my T-Chinese Visions originated from, but I might buy myself a Vanguard box and take a risk on getting a second one, I noticed a small hole in my current pack so I have to replace it anyway.
Hoping that you don't get a Japanese one instead of Traditional Chinese. For me collecting sealed Vintage Box sets it's a real problem, as I would want to keep 2 sealed Vanguard Gift boxes with both boosters, but there's no way I can find out apparently. I wish that on the front/back of the Gift Box they will have use 2 different pics for the 2 different possibilities (As only the T-Chinese booster is shown on the box).
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cataclysm80
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Re: Booster Variants: Visions

Post by cataclysm80 » Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:31 pm

GlobalBoosterHunter wrote:
Fri Jun 02, 2017 5:10 am
Why are there three different crimping styles used in the USA? Different factories?
This may not completely answer your question, but yes, there have been multiple printing facilities in the USA.

United States Playing Card Company printed Alternate 4th Edition.

After that failed, Shepard Poorman printed several products for WotC. Arena promo cards, Chinese & Korean 4th, Rivals Quick Start, and possibly others.

In 1996, Carta Mundi opened a printing facility in Kentucky USA. Not sure exactly which MTG products were first produced at this location.

At some point, PBM Graphics (North Carolina?) began printing WotC products. They tend to do supplemental products like preconstructed decks, Commander, Masters sets, Conspiracy, stuff like that. If I recall correctly, they did Portal Three Kingdoms.

At some point, Yoquinto in Texas USA began printing WotC prodocts. I've no idea what they made.

Eventually, Carta Mundi purchased Yoquinto, remodeled (retooled?) the whole facility, and then moved all their USA operations to Texas, closing the Kentucky facility.


I wouldn't be surprised if each facility had different crimping styles, or if some of them had the same styles as others.

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BillBo
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Re: Booster Variants: Visions

Post by BillBo » Wed Nov 01, 2017 11:52 pm

cataclysm80 wrote:
Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:31 pm
BM Graphics (North Carolina?) began printing <snip> supplemental products
I didn't know that, thx for sharing! Do you think this explains why many of these cards feel so differently (cheap, fake) compared to cards from regular sets?
I collect land cards, just that.
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GlobalBoosterHunter
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Re: Booster Variants: Visions

Post by GlobalBoosterHunter » Thu Nov 02, 2017 12:07 am

Thanks for that info, I will see if I can work out when all the various facility changes were made by looking at the booster varieties.

I will add it to the list!

cataclysm80
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Re: Booster Variants: Visions

Post by cataclysm80 » Thu Nov 02, 2017 1:28 am

GlobalBoosterHunter wrote:
Thu Nov 02, 2017 12:07 am
Thanks for that info, I will see if I can work out when all the various facility changes were made by looking at the booster varieties.

I will add it to the list!
Awesome, I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Here's some info from the Carta Mundi USA website...
Carta Mundi wrote: In 2006, as a result of the tremendous growth in the U.S. market, Cartamundi acquired Yaquinto Printing Company. Established in Dallas, Texas in 1961, Yaquinto provides a complete turnkey service from prepress through fulfillment and delivery. Specializing in UV & plastic printing, trading cards & collectibles, card games, POS/POP items and folding cartons, Yaquinto is the largest acquisition in Cartamundi’s history!

In mid-2007, Cartamundi USA Headquarters was relocated from Kingsport to the Yaquinto facility in Dallas. To accomodate the growth, a new state-of-the-art building is in development for 2008.

Renovation of a new 300,000 sq. ft. facility in Dallas began in September 2008. By January of 2009, after more than a year of engineers, contractors, inspectors and movers, Cartamundi USA fully occupied its new home.
In 2009, to better service the needs of both our card and game customers, Cartamundi USA acquired the equipment and personnel needed to become a first class specialty packaging provider. As a result, we began offering these services to non-card customers.

cataclysm80
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Re: Booster Variants: Visions

Post by cataclysm80 » Thu Nov 02, 2017 1:34 am

cataclysm80 wrote:
Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:31 pm
PBM Graphics (North Carolina?) began printing <snip> supplemental products
BillBo wrote:
Wed Nov 01, 2017 11:52 pm
I didn't know that, thx for sharing! Do you think this explains why many of these cards feel so differently (cheap, fake) compared to cards from regular sets?
I've talked with one of the employees who worked there printing a variety of things, including Magic cards. He said that they regularly received samples from the other print companies, in an effort to get consistent print quality.
He didn't say how successful the were at accomplishing that goal. :-D

I'm one of the admins on the Facebook Misprint Group, so I've seen a lot of misprints. I'm convinced that PBM has lower standards for quality control than the other print facilities. We see far more misprints from products produced by PBM, than we see from other printing facilities.

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dragsamou
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Re: Booster Variants: Visions

Post by dragsamou » Thu Nov 02, 2017 7:32 am

cataclysm80 wrote:
Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:31 pm
At some point, PBM Graphics (North Carolina?) began printing WotC products. They tend to do supplemental products like preconstructed decks, Commander, Masters sets, Conspiracy, stuff like that. If I recall correctly, they did Portal Three Kingdoms.
According to this topic, PBM was involved in:
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/forum/v ... PBM#p87220
P3K, 7th, all the saga sets, Invasion block, Odyssey, Garfield vs Finkel (Deckmasters set), Beatdown, too many.
cataclysm80 wrote:
Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:31 pm
At some point, Yoquinto in Texas USA began printing WotC prodocts. I've no idea what they made.
Eventually, Carta Mundi purchased Yoquinto, remodeled (retooled?) the whole facility, and then moved all their USA operations to Texas, closing the Kentucky facility.
We know for sure that Yaquinto printed those:

DCI Legend Membership Poker Deck Cards
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/623-rar ... index.html

"On another note, the US English Urza's Saga booster rare sheet was at least printed by Yaquinto, as it says:
"yaquinto job# 3601 MTG: Urza's Saga Booster (EN)"

Urza's Saga (October 1998) 10
A blister pack version exists:
ISBN: 1-57530-624-7
UPC: 7-42818-06613-4
WOC06613
Made in Belgium: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Made in the U.S.A. : English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
To be verified: English (blister pack)
Doesn't exist: Russian
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3z_eB ... ppQ0U/view

P3K is another possibility as mentioned (link about PBM):
As for P3K, I think Yaquinto may have had that run too. We released a lot of sets in tandem. It wasn't uncommon for product to be compared ( we would receive samples from carti mundi and Yaquinto ) to keep consistent product quality.
cataclysm80 wrote:
Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:31 pm
I'm convinced that PBM has lower standards for quality control than the other print facilities. We see far more misprints from products produced by PBM, than we see from other printing facilities.
On what specific sets, this is based ? Cause out of the list provided by a PBM employee the sets mentioned are of real good quality with very few misprints.
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