Prismatic Evolutions Errors Guide: what to watch for?

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by @rubenmisprints

Prismatic Evolutions is one of those sets that will surely go down in the history of the Pokémon TCG — whether because products have been hard to find since the release date (we’ll see if and when reprints will come) or because the allure of the Eeveelutions never really fades.

But let’s also look at which misprints have shown up in this set – texture errors, for instance, are pretty common here (thanks to the Poké Ball and Master Ball reverse holos), but there are also some truly unique pieces that have made their way out of the factory.

Texture/Holo pattern errors on Poké Ball & Master Ball reverse

Textures have historically been one of the key elements in Pokémon cards prone to misprints, simply because it’s pretty easy for the application process to go wrong. In Prismatic Evolutions, we’ve seen examples like:

  • Vertically misaligned textures
  • Horizontally misaligned textures
  • The texture is missing partially


The texture is vertically misaligned on this Groudon


The texture is horizontally misaligned on this Duskull


The texture is misaligned on both axis on this Eevee


The texture is partially missing (vertically) on this Buddy-Buddy Poffin


The texture is partially missing (horizontally) on this Sprtizee

Cards with holo pattern missing

Some standard reverse holo cards from Prismatic Evolutions are completely missing their holo pattern. This likely happened because the layer of white ink wasn’t properly applied on certain sheets during printing


The holo pattern is completely missing on this Noibat

Black ink smeared

Some cards were also printed with smudged black ink. It’s not a severe misprint — in most cases, only the card name and the set logo are affected by this issue.


Professor’s Research with black ink layer partially smeared

Textures have historically been one of the key elements in Pokémon cards prone to misprints, simply because it’s pretty easy for the application process to go wrong. In Prismatic Evolutions, we’ve seen examples like:

Ghosting error: NFL card printed on a Pokémon card

After quite some time, we’re once again seeing a Pokémon card affected by a ghosting error — something that rarely happens.

Since the printers used for Pokémon cards also handle various other TCGs and products, there are occasions when the rollers aren’t cleaned properly between print runs. When that happens, leftover ink from the previous job can transfer onto the new sheets, creating this kind of unexpected misprint.

If you want to know more, you should read my guide about how Pokémon cards are made.


Dreepy with some elements of a NFL card (DK Metcalf)

Miscut cards

So far, this set hasn’t produced any noteworthy miscuts, apart from the usual off-center/miscut cards. One interesting example, though, is an Eevee card miscut, revealing the colors bar along the left edge — which match the colors of the artwork.


Eevee with colors bar on the left

Comments

2 responses to “Prismatic Evolutions Errors Guide: what to watch for?”

  1. Extras Avatar
    Extras

    Nice list! I wish there were more of those seahawks error cards. Those are going to stay out of my price range 😀

    1. admin Avatar

      Thank you!! 🙂 probably there are multiple copies of that error out in the wild

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