Why do 4th print cards have different color saturation? It comes down to changes in printing processes, ink formulations, and quality control shifts that happened during later production runs in trading card manufacturing, especially noticeable in sets like Pokémon’s Base Set where the 4th print run fixed earlier errors but introduced subtle color differences.
Trading cards, those shiny collectibles from games like Pokémon or Magic: The Gathering, go through multiple print runs to meet huge demand. Each run is like baking batches of cookies – the first batch might be perfect, but by the fourth, the oven settings or ingredients tweak a bit, changing the look. In the world of cards, this shows up as colors that look washed out, too bright, or just not as punchy as earlier prints. Collectors spot it right away on holos, those foil cards that sparkle, where the colors seem less vivid.
Take Pokémon’s original Base Set as a prime example. Early prints, like the 1st edition, had issues with ink not drying fast enough. Black ink would smear or transfer when sheets stacked up, creating inverted stamps or white patches where ink got wiped off. This mess was common on commons and uncommons. By the 4th print run, released mainly in the UK, Wizards fixed that wet ink problem. No more smudges or transfers. But in fixing it, the colors shifted. Yellows on holos in unlimited editions from earlier runs were already oversaturated, meaning too much yellow ink made everything glow unnaturally bright across the whole card. Later prints toned that down, but not perfectly – saturation dropped, making colors feel flatter.[2]
It’s not just Pokémon. Magic: The Gathering had its own headaches with print runs. Sets like Fallen Empires got overprinted by hundreds of millions, flooding the market. Printers like Carta Mundi in Belgium had to destroy excess stock and cancel later runs. This rush led to inconsistencies. Colors in one run might pop with deep blacks, but the next could look muddy because inks didn’t mix right. Carta Mundi even mixed up sheets for starter decks, creating “Wyvern-backs” – cards with the wrong reverse side. These production hiccups meant each print run used slightly different setups, affecting how colors soaked into the card stock.[4]
At the heart of it is how printers handle color. Screens on your computer use RGB – red, green, blue light mixing to make every hue. But card printers use CMYK inks: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Converting from bright RGB designs to real-world ink is tricky. Without the right setup, colors shift. Early prints might guess at this conversion, leading to vibrant but inconsistent results. Later prints, like a 4th run, often calibrate better for consistency across huge volumes, but that calibration dials back saturation to avoid errors like oversaturated yellows. The result? Colors that match perfectly from card one to card 50,000, but look less “poppy” than the wild first prints.[1]
G7 certification is a big deal here. It’s a global standard for printers to hit exact color matches. A G7 printer guarantees that burnt orange on one card looks the same on a reprint six months later. They nail “rich black” – not just plain black ink, but a mix of all four CMYK inks for a deep, saturated dark that makes designs jump. Without it, you get “muddy gray” blacks or tinted grays that lean green or pink. Local shops might nail one run, but big 4th prints need this pro level to handle mass production without flaws. Early runs skipped heavy calibration to speed things up, letting saturation run high or low. By the 4th, they lock it in, trading some vibrancy for reliability.[1]
Ink drying plays a huge role too. In those Pokémon 1st editions, black ink stayed wet too long. Sheets stacked, ink transferred, stamps smeared front and back. Some cards got extra ink fixes, others scraped clean for “white stamps.” The 4th print solved this by adjusting drying times or ink formulas. But drier ink or thinner layers mean less saturation – colors don’t sink as deep into the card. UK Base Set prints from 1999-2000 had yellow shifts on commons, where yellow ink slid right or down because of misaligned plates. Inverted fronts happened since backs print first. The 4th run corrected it, but the new alignment subtly changed how inks layered, dulling saturation.[2]
Foil cards add another layer. Holos use special foil stamping. Light areas shine bright, but dark saturated colors cover the foil, muting it. Designers tweak art for foil – swap dark backgrounds to white for max shine, add black borders to icons so they don’t vanish. On regular paper, colors look normal. On foil, everything darkens a tad because silver iridescent foil caps the brightest white you can get. No pure whites, just slightly muted tones. A 4th print might optimize for this better, using opaque fills behind text or faint patterns for cool effects. But that optimization reduces overall saturation compared to non-foil early prints.[3]
Print volume matters big time. Huge runs for popular sets mean printers ramp up speed. Machines wear, plates degrade, ink batches vary. Team Rocket holos in Pokémon had low black ink in unlimited prints – gold frames looked bright, gray text faded. Nonholos got smudged stamps. Later runs fixed it, but with steadier ink flow that sacrificed some boldness. Fallen Empires in Magic overprinted so much it hurt the market, with colors varying wildly across variants. Each common had three or four art versions, but saturation differed because of rushed sheets.[2][4]
Card stock itself changes too. Early prints might use thicker stock that holds ink deeper for richer colors. Later runs, to cut costs or speed up, switch to thinner or coated stock. Coated stock reflects light differently, making colors seem less saturated. Foil stock especially – it’s iridescent, so colors overlay a shiny base that alters perception. Simulate it in design software by layering a foil pattern on multiply mode; you’ll see how whites dull and darks deepen unevenly.[3]
Quality control evolves. First prints test the waters – high saturation risks errors like ink shifts, but it wows collectors. By 4th print, feedback rolls in. Printers dial back risky vibrant mixes for safe, repeatable tones. G7 workflows ensure grays stay neutral, blacks hit rich, and colors match across runs. It’s why a 4th print Longhorn burnt orange looks identical every time, but maybe not as fiery as print one.[1]
Regional differences pop up. UK 4th Base Set prints fixed stamp issues but had their own yellow quirks from local machines. US prints might use different ink suppliers, leading to saturation gaps when compared side-by-side. Wizards learned from this – later sets standardized more, but vintage cards still show those print-to-print tells.[2]
Counterfeits muddy the waters too, but real 4th prints have legit tells. Genuine ones from calibrated presses have even, if subdued, saturation. Fakes often overdo it to mimic early vibrancy, but lack the subtle neutralit
