Can you show me some cool Pokemon Ink misprints or ink errors?

[quuador]

Quote from my collection thread with my Pikachu ink misprints

@quuador

Misprinted Pikachu cards

Ink Misprints:

Next, we’re going over some ink-related misprints. This includes cards that were low on ink; ink lines/smudges; ink dots/hickeys; etc.

We start with an English SM194 Detective Pikachu promo, where the entire card is lighter in color. This probably happened because of uncut sheets being stacked before the ink was properly dried. When I bought this Pikachu, there were a bunch of similar Detective Pikachu promo cards available, most likely all from the same uncut sheet. (The regular Pikachu on the right is there for comparison purposes.)

Next we have two English Holon Phantoms Pikachu cards, which were both low on black ink, causing the texts to be grey. (The Pikachu cards on the right are there for comparison.)

Something similar happened with this English Celebrations Pikachu, where all the black ink appears grey as well:

Next we have the opposite. Instead of being low on ink causing black to appear grey, they’ve used too much ink of a certain color (magenta in this case), causing parts of the card that are supposed to be yellow to appear orange. Here both an English Shining Legends and Crimson Invasion Pikachu like that on the left, with the regular yellow versions on the right as comparison. (Minor note: the Italian Crimson Invasion Reverse Holo Pikachu are also orange like the cards on the left below; I’ve thus far been unable to find a corrected yellow version for this Italian Reverse Holo Pikachu however, so it seems all of those Italian cards have the same uncorrected misprint.)

Here we have an English Furious Fists Pikachu that wasn’t low on ink on the card itself or text, but on the Reverse Holofoil layer instead. As you can see, the lightning bolts on the Reverse Holo on the left are pretty vague, unlike the regular version on the right.

Next we go over some ink lines/smudges. The English unlimited edition Jungle Pikachu has a black ink smudge through its name; the French Pikachu World Collection 2000 Surfing Pikachu has a thin blue ink line anti-diagonally above its name; an English XY Evolutions Pikachu with a horizontal thin green ink line just above its flavor text, going all the way over the card and card borders; another English XY Evolutions Pikachu with a green ink smudge at the bottom border; an English SM76 Pikachu promo with black ink smudge all the way through the bottom; and an English Celebrations Pikachu with holofoil ink smudge horizontally at the bottom as well.

Next we have an English Reverse Holo Evolving Skies Pikachu with thirteen red ink hickeys at the top halve of the card. A big one can be partially seen at the top border; some can be seen in the picture itself; etc. Ink hickeys are caused by debris on the ink rollers, causing circles to appear on the cards. The well-known English “d” edition Jungle Butterfree misprint is an example of an ink hickey as well. Printer hickeys and dots are overall not too hard to find, but this is the first time I saw so many ink hickeys on the same card.

Next we have two English unlimited edition Base Set Pikachu with two different type of ink hickeys at the top part of the left border; an English SM76 Pikachu promo with blue ink scribbles at the top-left of the artwork; a Spanish Crimson Invasion Pikachu with a white ink hickey just above the first attack; and two SWSH039 Sequin Holofoil Pikachu promos, one with a black ink dot above the first attack and one with a red ink dot at the second attack. Loads of both red and black ink drop misprints can be found for this SWSH039 Sequin Holofoil Pikachu.

Next some ink dots that are so small they’re almost unnoticeable. Yet, they are noticeable enough for me wanting to replace them for a clean copy when I received them… The first is a Spanish Vivid Voltage 170/185 Pikachu V with a white/grey ink dot left of the 200 in the second attack; the second an Italian Unbroken Bonds Pikachu with a grey ink dot just below the attack (halfway between the Energy Symbols and “Pikasfera” text); an English unlimited edition Jungle Pikachu with a white ink dot in the bottom border at the right side just below the set number; and a Chinese Amazing Volt Tackle 114/100 Hyper Rare Pikachu with a grey ink dot below Pikachu’s mouth.

And finally we have some ink dots that aren’t on the front of the back, but on the back instead. We have a German Rising Rivals Pikachu with two light grey ink dots (one at the left of the “P” and one below the “M” in the top Pokémon); a Polish Pikachu World Collection 2010 Pikachu with a red ink hickey below the “N” in the top Pokémon; an English Vivid Voltage Hyper Rare Pikachu with black ink smudge going horizontally through the middle of the card; and a golden 25th anniversary Base Set Pikachu with golden ink at the top border.

And I also have some repeated Pikachu ink misprints

Unofficial Pikachu cards

Japanese Vending Machine Series 3 (Green):
The third Vending Machine set has two different versions: a dark and light print. The dark print came first on November 24th, 1998, which contained 52 out of 53 cards, only missing Imakuni?'s PC. A lighter print came later (not exactly when, but the Communication Evolution Campaign ran until April 30th, 1999, so the lighter print run was probably released slightly before that date), which also contained 52 out of 53 cards, with the Bill’s PC replaced with the Imakuni?'s PC. Here below both the dark and light Ooyama’s Pikachu from the set:

English Base Set:
Next we have the English Base Set, which actually contained quite a lot of repeating misprints, most of which are 1st edition stamp variations. The first variation are 3D stamps. For the English 1st edition Base Set yellow cheeks Pikachu, the 3D stamp version is actually the most common to find version. A 2D version for the yellow cheeks Pikachu is actually a lot harder to find.
3D refers to offset hollow letters for the “E” and “ITION” in the word “EDITION”, creating a 3D effect. Here below two English 1st edition Base Set yellow cheeks Pikachu cards, with the 2D version on the left and 3D on the right:

These outlines were most likely printed with the card, indicating where the 1st edition stamp was supposed to go. Judging by the many 3D versions of the yellow cheeks Pikachu, it didn’t worked out too well. In addition to that, some of these Pikachu cards with just the hollow letters “E” and “ITION” could be found in Shadowless ZAP! Theme Decks. This misprint is more commonly known as the ghost/phantom stamped Pikachu.

What also happened with a lot of English Base Set cards is that the blank ink of the 1st edition stamps was running low on ink, causing grey stamps instead of black stamps. For Pikachu, this only occurred on the English 1st edition Base Set yellow cheeks Base Set Pikachu. (It’s likely this can also occur on red cheeks Pikachu. It’s just a lot more rare, since I have yet to see a red cheeks Pikachu with a grey 1st edition stamp.)

What also happened sometimes with English 1st edition Base Set cards, is that the 1st edition stamp wasn’t properly dried yet before the uncut sheets were stacked, causing part of the ink to end up at the back of the sheet that’s on top of it. This caused a mirrored grey/black imprint of a 1st edition stamp on the back of the card. In some cases these back imprinted stamps were also white, although I have no idea what the reason for that is. These back imprinted stamp misprints only occurred on red cheeks Pikachu cards. Here both a grey/black and white back stamp (the fronts are exactly the same as a regular English 1st edition Base Set red cheeks Pikachu).

As you may (or may not) know, English 1st edition Base Set Holofoil Rares have two different variations of 1st edition stamps: thin and thick. This refers to the width of the “1”. All 1st edition cards after the Base Set, as well as all non-English Base Set cards, all have the thin 1st edition stamp variation. All non-Holo English 1st edition Base Set cards, and most of the Holofoil Rares, have the thick 1st edition stamp variation. It is however possible to find a 1st edition stamp which is somewhat in between the regular thin and thick stamp variations on non-Holo Base Set cards. This is a very rare occurrence, and I’ve only seen it around ten times thus far. I’ve only seen it once on a yellow cheeks Base Set Pikachu, which I’m happy to say I own (it’s also a 3D stamp like most yellow cheeks Pikachu, but let’s ignore that and focus on the width of the “1”):

I’ve also seen the red cheeks Pikachu with thin stamp two times thus far, but unfortunately I don’t own this variation yet.

And the final repeating misprint for English 1st edition Base Set Pikachu cards, isn’t related to the 1st edition stamp. This repeating ink misprint only occurs on English 1st edition Base Set red cheeks Pikachu cards, and is more commonly known as the ‘blue pube-achu’ misprint. This misprint has a very tiny blue ink dot near the border left of the Colorless Energy of the Gnaw attack, as well as a hair-like black ink misprint at the top-left border.
This variation was first discovered in February 2021 by @willyboy , and based on his searches he estimated roughly 5-10% of the English 1st edition Base Set red cheeks Pikachu will have this repeating misprint.

And the final English Base Set variation (that I have at least), is one with a thin black ink line going all the way through the copyright information at the bottom. I’ve only seen this misprint three times, which can all three be found in this video of TCA Gaming, one of which I bought soon after I saw that video.

Japanese Pokémon Card Trainers volume 1 Pikachu:
The next repeating misprint in chronological order is another Japanese card. The Pikachu promo that was included in the Pokémon Card Trainers magazine volume 1 on May 28th, 1999 can have a white ink circle at the top border, just above the last letter of Pikachu’s name. It’s not too uncommon to find, and I estimate about 20-25% of these Japanese Pikachu cards have this repeating misprint (this is just a guess based on how many times I’ve seen it; it could be more or less). Just like with the “d” edition Jungle Butterfree, an ink drop was probably stuck to the print rollers, creating this ink circle misprint at the same position on all the cards it affected.

English Gym Heroes:
Next we have another repeating misprint I’m unfortunately still missing. Just like the Base Set, other sets can have grey 1st edition stamps as well due to low ink. I’ve only seen this occur for the English Team Rocket, Gym Heroes and Neo Genesis sets thus far, although I’m still missing the Pikachu from the Gym Heroes set from August 14th, 2000.

English Neo Genesis:
As mentioned above, I’ve only seen the grey 1st edition misprint on English Gym Heroes and Neo Genesis sets outside of the English Base Set. Although I’m missing the Gym Heroes Pikachu, I do have the grey 1st edition stamp Pikachu from the Neo Genesis set of December 16th, 2000:

English XY Evolutions:
Next on November 2nd, 2016 we had the Evolutions set, containing a reprint of the Base Set Pikachu. Just like the original English Base Set, the English Evolutions set had a surprisingly high amount of errors. For the Pikachu, there are actually four different color variations when comparing it to the regular version. One is just a slightly darker shade of purple and not too noteworthy; one has too much blue ink causing the purple to become dark blue instead; one has too much red ink causing the purple to become maroon instead; and one is low on red ink, causing both the background and Pikachu to be a lot lighter. The last color variation only occurred on Reverse Holo versions of Pikachu, and the other three only on non-Holo versions. In the picture above we have both regular versions at the top, and the four error color variations below it.

English Team Up:
And the final repeating misprint for Pikachu occurred on the 33/181 Pikachu & Zekrom GX. On this error, the middle Lightning Energy symbol of the Full Blitz attack is grey, and it also has a line going through Pikachu just above the Full Blitz attack. This error would only occur on Pikachu & Zekrom GX cards that were in the Pikachu & Zekrom GX League Battle Deck of May 22nd, 2020.

Greetz,
Quuador