Is this an albino card?

General
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I recently purchased this card and posted pictures here. I posted it aswell in a pokemon misprint group on facebook yesterday. There the question appeared if it might be sunfaded, I thought it’s a low (mainly low yellow) ink card. A guy said he was 100% sure that it is an ink error (“Based on how colors fade (magenta first, yellow second, cyan third) this is not a sunfade, but a legit low ink error”), other guys said it’s only sunfaded.

I came to the conclusion that it sure had seen some sun, because the psa label is a lighter red than usual, but it also might be an “albino”, because there is an experiment online where a dude sunfaded some cards and only the border changed color (Link: Here). See the meowth/staryu for example, the only thing that faded was the border, the picture itself was perfectly colored like before. My tyranitar has the same color not only on the border, but also the background and the rest of the card which should be yellow.
Now, can someone who has more experience help me with that? Please, only if you’re really sure, there were so many speculations that it’s sunfaded but no real facts. When I look at the guy’s experiment with the sunfaded cards, it seems like this one isn’t only sunfaded.

Thanks!


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Sunfaded. The entire card (not just the border) + the red on the PSA label is even faded.

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… did you read my text above?

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The fire-energy symbols are also not fully red. I think this for sure is sun fading and not an ink issue. PSA wouldn’t give a PSA10 to a card with colours that are this off. I know PSA does a terrible drop at giving qualifies on Pokémon cards, but a card with discolouration due lack of proper ink spreading should get maximum a PSA8 PD. If graded without qualifiers, any card with discolouration (based on their own ‘grade scale’) should hit PSA4 at best.

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i’m aware of that. that’s why it’s either low ink on another color aswell or sunfaded or both, i already said the card was sure exposed to some sunlight. but interesting is the yellowish part which counts as an “albino” if it is a real one. btw the dude who said it’s an ink error is a printer by profession and he claims to know his business “i have a pretty good grasp as to whats a legit printing error vs damage, or engineered”. he said magenta fades first, yellow second - which means the red should be even more sunfaded than the yellow if the card is only sunfaded, which obviously isn’t the case, the red just got lighter but the yellow would’ve turned completely beige. and this is the opposite to the fact that magenta fades first, yellow second.

there is also no explanation why the yellow in the picture and overall is the same color as the color on the border which should fade the fastest and the most.

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Squirtle on the right is an albino card, Staryu and Meowth are sunfaded (Over a week in 90+ degrees in the sun). Which one looks more similar to mine? The squirtle has the same low ink color everywhere, the staryu and meowth mainly (almost only) on the border. I still think it’s both, sunfaded but also an albino before, prove me wrong. Again, there were lots of speculations and I tried to do the best research I could, so if anyone really has a clue, please tell me! :blush:

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PSA label being sun faded should end any speculation

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You could call it the “Slightly Charred Tyranitar”. :slightly_smiling_face::+1:

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RIP Tyranitar

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Sunfaded. Hope you did not pay to much for it

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Unless he watched it get printed at the factory, he is 100% full of it.

Takes longer than a week for a card to look this way. I’m working on an “albino” card that’s been sitting in a Florida window since March and it still has a little ways to go.

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are you guys are even trying to read what i wrote or take position to anything i stated? i don’t see any arguments atall, only other speculations haha. come on, anyone with arguments? that doesn’t help me… i’m fine when it’s sunfaded, but in order to return the card, there need to be evidence, not just “the label is sunfaded, so the card is aswell”. thanks :blush:

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Which card are you referring to? Mine or the ones the dude tried to sunburn?

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You will never find 100 percent evidence of it not being albino bordered but acebrens statement should indeed end any speculation.

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I’m afraid I’ll have to agree with the general conclusion of sun-faded, based on the discoloration of the label, energy symbols, and card itself besides just the border. But to back it up with some arguments:

First of all regarding the Meowth and Staryu you’ve posted, stating the border discolored but the cards themselves not. Those were only exposed to sun for a week according to the FB post, which isn’t a long time. The border is indeed the first to fade on old WotC era cards, but eventually the card itself starts to fade as well after a longer period of time.

Here some sun-discolored Pikachu cards I own in varying states of fading (the first one is still incoming, so not my picture):

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600×800 156 KB
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The last one was exposed to the sun on purpose in a sunny country for almost an entire year.

As you can see in the first picture: it starts with just the border and the card itself is only very slightly lighter than a non-albino card (and color variation of the card itself is normal anyway, as you can see from all these Base Set Pikachu cards for example). But after a while the entire card starts to fade as well.

Also, @silversnorlax204 made this excellent article about UV exposed cards, both raw and PSA-graded: www.elitefourum.com/t/uv-light-testing-8-month-conclusion-group-one/21895/1

Here his conclusion video:

Also, one other thing with misprints like this: there is no concrete way to distinguish an actual printed albino misprint with a sun-faded albino misprint. Similar as there is no concrete way to distinguish a pack-pulled and NFC (not factory cut) square cut card. And no concrete way to distinguish between a pack-pulled imprinted no name Yu-Gi-Oh card and someone carefully removing the name to fake it.
I have no doubt in my mind there are real albino misprints, square cuts, and imprinted Yu-Gi-Oh cards pulled from packs or boxes (I’ve even seen some videos of people pulling cards from those last two categories), but after it’s out of the pack, it’s similar as those ‘fake’ alternatives. So they might be real, but they also might not be, and because of that a lot of people aren’t interested in them (as you have also noticed from the responses above thus far).

Anyway, based on the pictures I’d say it’s indeed sun-faded, considering the card itself and PSA-label are lighter in color as well. But whether it really is a legit albino or sun-discolored albino, without video evidence of it being pulled from the pack, there isn’t really a way to prove or disprove it I’m afraid.

Greetz,
Quuador

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hey man, i was waiting for you to post here, i saw your posts about that before, thank you! now i can work with that. either way, if i keep or return the card, has this one any value as you can’t really distinguish between a “fake” albino and a real albino, as both look the same? i paid over $1000 for that one, so i don’t know if i should try to return it or keep it. thank you!

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@pokaholic Np. And that’s up to you I guess. 1k isn’t too bad of a price tbh. The last two unlimited edition PSA-10 Shining Tyranitar sold for 1.5k on June 14th and 1.05k on June 23rd according to pokemonprice.com. It’s hard to distinguish between fake and real albino cards, but they’re usually still worth a little more than the non-albino card overall. Although I’m not entirely sure if that also applies to high-end cards PSA-10 cards like this. Unfortunately albino cards aren’t sold too often to get a good indication about the price. I mean, for those albino Pikachu cards in the previous post I paid around 15-20 USD each, so almost 20 times as much as a non-albino Base Pikachu, but with cheap cards like that it’s a different story, since I know the Tyranitar won’t sell for 15-20k, haha. :wink:

Anyway, I can’t make that decision for you. You could send it back and buy a non-albino Tyranitar PSA-10 instead or use the money for something more certain of attaining or increasing in value over time. Or if you like the card either way, keep it. It’s your money after all.

But if you’ve bought it thinking it was a legit albino misprint, it might indeed be better to return it now that you still can, before you regret you’ve spend 1k+ on it a few months from now. As I said: it’s your money/card.

Greetz,
Quuador

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The border is printed on a separate layer from the rest of the card. Having both the border faded and the body of the card faded is actually evidence of sunfading.

The reason people keep pointing to the label being faded is that it’s an indication that this card has been excessively exposed to sunlight. By Occam’s razor we don’t need to invoke any additional explanation since sunlight is both a sufficient and simple explanation for the effect seen.

The best evidence for missing ink layers would be to magnify the dot pattern. If one or more colour layers are 100% missing and the others are 100% present that’s the bare minimum evidence I would need to see before I believe any card is so-called “albino”

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Yeah I mean after all, it is still a special version of the tyranitar, if it is now an albino or not, as long as it looks the same, who cares.
Imma keep it, maybe someone is interested, maybe it will just stay in my collection. thanks :blush:

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so my card is actually sunfaded to the max (or close)? As it normally takes really long until anything else than the border fades. And the red doesn’t look that badly faded actually. Well idk.
I asked my seller’s seller about the card and he also thought it’s an ink error, he also thought PSA cases are UV-resistant somehow.
I think I have a hard time to magnify the dot pattern rn because my transmission-electrone microscope is in maintentance at the moment, thanks though.