Italian The Dark with White Backs

Personal offers and search inquiries about promotional, misprinted, and unofficial Magic items.

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cataclysm80
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Italian The Dark with White Backs

Post by cataclysm80 » Wed Sep 09, 2015 5:28 pm

Italian The Dark exists with normal fronts and blank white unprinted backs.
These cards look very much like artist proofs, however, NO artist proofs were made for this set, which means these are definitely misprints.
The card back was simply not printed on them.
I've seen every card in the set with this misprint except for Angry Mob, Diabolic Machine, Goblin Wizard, Preacher, Rag Man, & Scarwood Bandits.
Each of those cards would have been on the uncommon sheet. (The Dark was made with 2 sheets, common & uncommon.)

I've seen 2 copies of the cards Reflecting Mirror, Riptide, & Wand of Ith. Each of those cards appeared on the sheets multiple times, so there isn't any evidence that more than one of each sheet exists.

Most of these cards that I've seen came from a man in Portugal who purchased them at a flea market because he had not seen cards like these before. They seem to have come from someone who had tried to collect them all.

Separately, I've also seen one (Reflecting Mirror) that a man in Italy had purchased in a collection.

(Edit: A third source of these has been found, more info on that later in the thread.)

I've thoroughly checked the cards under magnification and compared them to regular Italian The Dark cards, and other white back (artist proof) cards I own. These misprints are definitely real cards with unprinted backs. They've not been falsely manufactured or chemically wiped in any way.



I am keeping the Scavenger Folk for my global set, but I want to sell the rest of these.

If anyone is interested in purchasing the whole lot, please let me know.
Yes, Blood Moon and Maze of Ith are included.


If no one contacts me about purchasing the whole lot soon, I'll start auctioning them off one at a time on Facebook and eBay, starting with the cheapest cards and ending with the most expensive cards.
If you're interested in a single card, but not the whole lot, let me know which card(s) and I'll notify you when that card comes up for auction.
If I end up auctioning them one at a time, it may be quite a while before a card that you want gets auctioned.
Last edited by cataclysm80 on Tue Oct 11, 2016 12:54 am, edited 3 times in total.

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palaueb
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Re: Italian The Dark with White Backs

Post by palaueb » Mon Sep 14, 2015 6:19 pm

are they not AP really? I have few of them buyed as AP

you can see it here http://imgur.com/a/Nj8ap

cataclysm80
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Re: Italian The Dark with White Backs

Post by cataclysm80 » Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:04 pm

I'm very glad to hear that someone else has some of these cards.

You have an extremely nice collection, but it's difficult for me tell which cards are white backed from those photos. Which cards do you have that are white backed Italian The Dark? Do you have Preacher? I haven't seen that one yet.

Where did you purchase them from? Did any come straight from the artists?

I have spoken with several of the original artists, including Jesper Myrfors the art director, and they told me that they did not receive any Italian The Dark artist proofs. Also, several artist proof collectors have told me that Italian The Dark artist proofs do not exist. Alexis and Mark who keep track of this info for librarities have also said that they haven't heard of any Italian The Dark artist proofs from the artists.
Last edited by cataclysm80 on Tue Oct 11, 2016 12:51 am, edited 2 times in total.

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palaueb
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Re: Italian The Dark with White Backs

Post by palaueb » Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:17 pm

](*,) you are right! Mines are in english!!! (sorry!)

uhm! then they are more extrange than I thing. Maybe they have a decolored back?

cataclysm80
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Re: Italian The Dark with White Backs

Post by cataclysm80 » Wed Sep 16, 2015 5:33 pm

palaueb wrote: Maybe they have a decolored back?
No, I have looked at them under extreme magnification and with 2400 DPI scans. The white backs on these look identical to artist proof cards which have unprinted backs. If a regular card has been decolored with solvents to remove the ink, it will have a different rougher texture that is visible under extreme magnification. Decolored cards would also show issues around their edges, either from to much solvent getting on the edge and leaving marks on the other side of the card, OR from not enough solvent which leaves small bits of ink still in place. It's extremely difficult to get every edge perfect, especially on so many cards. It's easy to see these differences when you magnify the card to the size of a wall poster.

cataclysm80
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Re: Italian The Dark with White Backs

Post by cataclysm80 » Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:54 am

A third source of these cards has come forward.
Eddie Goodridge wrote: A collection I bought that once belonged to a WOTC employee had some of these in it. At first, he wanted a lot for them plus the other misprints that were in there (double printed FE and Wyvern back cards among others). I don't recall which specific cards, but I believe they were all common if memory serves correct.
Back when he first showed them to me, he thought they were Artist Proofs, which I told him he might wanna check if they actually made Artist Proofs for the dark in other languages, which he discovered they did not. The collection came from his cousin, who worked at WOTC, and from my understanding one of his cousins jobs was replacing error cards that customers turned in. He had a LOT of misprinted stuff from The Dark, Fallen Empires, Homelands, & Ice Age.
When I finally bought the collection later, he didn't mention that the multiple misprints and oddities were still included. It was an odd ball collection for sure. I found a metal Hurloon Minotaur in a box of commons. I didn't realize the misprints or minotaur were in there at first, until like 2 years later when looking for a common card for a Side Board.
The guys nickname was Ornithopter. He had over 2,000 Ornithopters, including over 500 Antiquities ones.
I've now started individually auctioning / selling the ones I have. June 2016
Because items like these are very difficult to value, I will list the sale price for each card here for future reference.
Keep in mind that this is a 2016 value, and each cards value should go up over time.
I expect that most of these will end up in the hands of long term collectors, so they will be very hard to find in the future, and just as difficult to estimate value.

2016
Miracle Worker $50
Marsh Viper $40
Murk Dwellers $40
Marsh Gas $25
Morale $10
Savaen Elves $25
Goblin Rock Sled $20
Ghost Ship $17.50
Goblin Hero $20
Cave People $20
Sorrow's Path $20
Frankenstein's Monster $27
Festival $7 (private sale to a good friend, not an auction)
Erosion $7 (private sale to a good friend, not an auction)
Inquisition $7 (private sale to a good friend, not an auction)
Brothers of Fire $7 (private sale to a good friend, not an auction)
Scarwood Hag $9 (private sale to a good friend, not an auction)
Scarwood Goblins $8 (private sale to a good friend, not an auction)
Tower of Coireall $8 (private sale to a good friend, not an auction)
Safe Haven $23

2017
Standing Stones $20
Electric Eel $35

2018
Pikemen $10
Squire $30
Venom $30
Goblin Digging Team $18
Goblin Shrine $10
Bog Imp $15
Word of Binding $21
Deep Water $25
Riptide $10
Riptide $12
Sunken City $12
Water Wurm $23
Dark Heart of the Wood $25
Brainwash $12
Goblins of the Flarg $10
Giant Shark $40
Fissure $11
Dust to Dust $22
Fasting $27
Spitting Slug $22
Orc General $11
Fire and Brimstone $16

2019
Holy Light $20
Fire Drake $20
Bone Flute $20
Whippoorwill $20
Curse Artifact $25
Coal Golem $15
Living Armor $20
Runesword $15
People of the Woods $5
Sisters of the Flame $15
Tangle Kelp $10
Banshee $10
Reflecting Mirror $15
Blood of the Martyr $20
Bog Rats $20
The Fallen $25
Book of Rass $13
Necropolis $15
Ashes to Ashes $15
Flood $20
Wand of Ith $40
Tracker $21 (private sale to a good friend, not an auction)
War Barge $13
Fountain of Youth $15
Scarecrow $15
Goblin Caves $13
Inferno $35

2022
Uncle Istvan $100

cataclysm80
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Location: Florida

Re: Italian The Dark with White Backs

Post by cataclysm80 » Sun May 08, 2022 4:05 am

I've also seen a couple Italian Lorwyn cards with this error, and a French Onslaught card with this error (blank back).

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