Neo genesis common sheets were fairly common a few years ago. Someone took scissors to their sheet.
I donāt know what you mean by ālegitimateā. But these were WOTC produced. Then ācustomā cut.
I personally wouldnāt trust any square-cut card to be factory cut. These cards are from a legitimate sheet, but someone has very likely taken scissors to them.
ODV has been sharing their uncut Neo Genesis common sheet recently on Instagram:
Is it possible to tell if the cards were cut with a scissors vs stamped out? I know that there is typically a small flip on the corners for stamped out cards.
They look hand cut to me. If they had at least the shape of a real card that would be hard to mimic with scissors
The usual tell I see from hand-cut cards is a weird curvature of the card. This usually occurs because someone has cut along a path versus a single-cut. Cutting along the path of a paper/card surface will cause fibers along that surface to be pulled which causes warping.
Stamped/single-cut cards will usually have an even indentation or cut marks that are consistent throughout the edges.
The unfortunate thing is that, while less common than straight scissors or a cutting board, having access to a single-cut tool isnāt beyond the ordinary. This is one of those errors that is replicable if you have the means to do so.
I believe Square Cuts are real as a misprint and have some but it is impossible to tell if itās legit or not (being cut by the company versus cut by a regular person).
Edit: I didnāt even see the picture until now. See how the long edges curve up at each point? This is what I usually see from cutting-boards. 100% hand cut and not legitimate.
But could it be that handcuts curve because they have stored the uncut sheets rolled up so then all the cards adopt their previous form?
Hmm. That is also a possibility, however thatās still a consistent sign that itās been hand cut from a sheet. Cards that have been printed and pressed to be straight wouldnāt show any curve, they would look like any other Pokemon card.
The other possible refutation is natural curvature due to moisture or just how card warping happens for older sets. In that case, itās better to tell in person and by hand. Curvature caused by natural warping feels different than curvature by hand cutting - you can also feel along the edges where itās more of a sheer (hand cut) rather than a straight cut. The last event I went to at Hartford Regionals I had a few people come up to me to show me their Square cuts after seeing I had a few. If I had only seen pictures of them, I would have been inclined to believe them, but there was a few that were very obviously hand cut as soon as you touch it with your hands.
I pulled the below a couple of days ago and if I didnāt pull them myself I would 100% say that they were hand-cut, so even though I thought I could do it in the past, I am not sure if I can tell the difference between a ālegitimateā miscut anymore.
Especially the Poochyena, Squirtle and Geodude top left hand corner which look like they were hand cut by a child.
