The Magic Librarities

I am hoping someone out there can give me an idea of just how special this is. Personally, I have been handling Magic cards since about when Antiquities came out, and I have NEVER seen this before myself.

I have here in front of me a foil copy of Honor the Fallen (Mercadian Masques rare), in English. The back of the card and the front of the card do not agree on "up". Looking at the face of the card, all is fine. But if you flip the card, the back is "upside down". The back also appears misprinted in the sense that the edges are not uniform (I'd have said "miscut" except from the front it was obviously cut properly).

Anyone have ANY experience with a card like this?

Yeah, there are a ton of Masques foils like that. Generally $30 or so for random ones. There's a Misdirection on ebay right now for about 10 times what it's actually worth.

Thanks for the reply. Are they all Rares? Does it seem to be the case of a single sheet going through incorrectly, or several? Any idea?

$2000 for the Misdirection does seem a LITTLE steep :-) Although if there were ever a card whose name screams for being printed inverted...

It's all rarities as far as I know. I've seen a decent number of them over the years.

Tha_Gunslinga wrote:It's all rarities as far as I know. I've seen a decent number of them over the years.

I can confirm this since I own some Uncommons and Counterspell which is Common.

I also recall seeing a Dark Ritual for sale before.

SCG sold a Brainstorm. I have a Food Chain and possibly one or two others.

I can also confirm a Land Grant which a friend of mine has.

So Mercadian Masques cards, in all rarities, are know to be quite "common" as upside-down backed versions.

I wonder what other sets we know about. I own upside-down backed cards from:

English Tempest Commons
English Invasion rares (+ miscut back)
Japanese Invasion FOIL Commons
English Odyssey FOIL Commons (+ miscut back and square cut)
Portal English Rares

I'd be interested in learning about other sheets with this kind of error.

Are the Mercadian Masques cards all foil with this issue (the one I have is), or are there regular ones as well?

Also - if anyone who collects such cards is interested in this one, make me an offer: -)

Masques ones are the most common from what I've seen. Apart from the sets listed, I've some from japanese Saga too.

I have at least 2 dozen cards with upside down backs.

They are locked up right now, but I have listed the ones I can remember. There are at least a half dozen in addition to those below -- for the life of me, I can't remember what the other ones are.

All are English except the Greater Good:

Foil Tempest Ravenous Rats
Foil Arena Plains
Non-foil Asian? Saga Greater Good
Non-foil Saga Rewind
Non-foil Saga Exhume
Non-foil Saga Annul
Foil Masques Mercadia's Downfall
Foil Masques Intimidation
Foil Masques Thrashing Wumpus
Foil Masques Forest (x2)
Non-foil Masques Rain of Tears (x2)
Non-foil Visions Knight of the Mists
Non-foil Visions Coercion
Non-foil Visions Parapet
Non-foil Visions Tremor
Non-foil Visions Giant Caterpillar

Wow! Thanks, everyone, for all the replies. I think it's safe to say that these upside-down or inverted cards, while not exactly run-of-the-mill, are not unheard of. That's good to know - I was afraid I was going crazy or something.

It's somehow depressing that in 16+ years of handling Magic cards, including several years of running an online shop, this is the first one I have ever seen.

Then again I've never held a Summer Magic card in my hands, but at least I know of their existence :-)

Again, thanks for the information!

I used to have two foil Uncommons like that from English Darksteel. I have some Chinese Saga basic lands like that.

I've got two English Weatherlight commons (Goblin Vandal, Shadow Rider) with upside-down and miscut backs.

Just as a warning.

During Onslaught some foils had a tendency to peel very cleanly while being handled, usually during shuffling (without sleeves naturally).

Some players and traders used this to their advantage glueing the foil-layer back on the cards upside down. As the foils cannot really be bend tested, this was very hard to tell, unless the foil layer was creased or misaligned with the card. I personally aquired a couple of these that I use in my casual Highlander-deck just for kicks (and in opaque sleeves...). They all have small creases on the top edge, but the guy I got them from told me that they were the worst off from the batch he made.

So not all of the upside down foils are natural. I would trust all the old template foils, but at least Ons-block cards could be 'manufactured.'