The Facts!
- WotC begins publicly acknowledging the Dark Persian #17 promo in May 2000.
- That same month, there are rumors of Dark Persian #17 already being in the hands of the public. These rumors allege that the release of the card was delayed was because it was printed with no HP on it. When members of the customer support Q & A were asked to comment on this rumor, they had no comment.
- In July, someone asked the WotC customer support Q & A about the “error” that “delayed” the release of the Dark Persian #17 promo.
- The card was formally released in the August 2000 issue of Nintendo Power. This card is mounted on a paper insert. It is clear from the commonality of the No HP error that it was not inadvertently distributed in the magazine.
This information can be gleaned in the painstakingly documented WotC Chat Logs from 2000.
Conjecture!
- Dark Persian #17 was probably intended to release in the June 2000 issue of Nintendo Power.
- This may have been promoted as such, but we do not have documentation for the teaser.
- It was publicly known that there was an error with the original print run as early as May 2000.
- The print run for the No HP version of the card was possibly the entire intended print run.
- The unusable cards were probably intended to be destroyed, but were leaked in large quantities by WotC staff.
- Instances of the error card were probably released to collectors in May 2000.
Some of these details are hard to confirm beyond a doubt, but I think we can piece together a story here. The card was going to be released in the June 2000 issue of Nintendo Power. The supply of cards was printed and then the error was identified. Since it affected the entire print run, the card could not be released in June as planned and was pushed two months to August 2000.
As with any printing error like this, the intention was probably to destroy all the cards, But a considerable population of the cards still got distributed, likely from WotC employees who absconded with copies. Since the cards were never mounted for the magazine binding, it seems like the error was probably determined before they were sent to the next facility after printing.
The same old user who compiled the chat logs linked above also referenced being aware of a WotC leak. This post is from 2017.
Around this time, it was still common to see eBay sellers with numerous copies of this card. This was the impetus for this old thread itself in 2017. So while this card has always been available, it seems they may have become more available after the Pokémon Go boom when people holding on to old contraband liquidated their stock onto the market.
Always found this card mysterious and the circumstances of its release under-discussed.
