The standard cards that Pokémon card collectors want are nice cards that are well centered. But what if I told you that’s not what all collectors look for? And what if I told you that there is a huge difference between off-center vs miscut Pokémon cards, and that the difference matters… a lot.
There you are, opening a Pokémon pack, just like all the others you’ve opened before. You start flipping through the cards until you find that one or some of the cards look… off.
Maybe the Pokémon card is off center just a little bit. Maybe it’s mis-cut so poorly that it has another separate card as part of it!
If you’ve never seen a card like it before, you’ll probably have a lot of questions. Is it real? How did this happen? What should I do with it?
There’s no doubt that these and other questions might be going through your mind. Fear not, this article is here to help. We will answer all of these questions and more in the article below.
Let’s get to it!
How Do Pokémon Cards Get Miscut?
Let’s talk about how Pokémon cards are made for a minute. Cards first get designed, drawn, and printed on a smaller scale to test out the game itself.
Once they confirm the cards are designed and spec’d the way they want, it goes to the manufacturing process. The printing process for Pokémon cards actually prints a lot of cards on one large sheet rather than being printed individually, like the picture shown below.
Once printed on the sheet, the cards get cut by a machine, checked, then packed up and sent out. And as it turns out, the machine doesn’t always cut the cards properly.
While there is a “quality assurance” team, the Pokémon company printed over 9 Billion cards in 2021 and the number seems to continue to increase. That’s a lot of cards to sort through.
So, those manufacturing issues are what leaves you with an off-center or mis-cut card. If you want to see the manufacturing process in action, check out this video.
Now that we’ve covered why it happens, let’s cover the differences.
What’s the Difference Between Off-Center and Mis-Cut Pokémon Cards?
The difference between an off-center and a mis-cut Pokémon card is simply how poorly the card was cut. And that can be measured by a small black dot, better known as an “alignment dot”.
In off-center Pokémon cards the picture of the card is simply not in the center of the border. If we look at the below card, we can see that there is far more border showing on the left and bottom edges. This card would just be classified as “off-center”.
This next card though is still off-center, but it’s off enough that you can actually see a black dot in the bottom left corner. That black dot is typically the minimum requirement for a card to be classified as a mis-cut rather than an off-center Pokémon card.
There are much more drastic mis-cuts than the above. If you can see a black alignment dot though, your card is a mis-cut Pokémon card.
Why Does It Matter?
We’ve covered what the difference is and why it happens. Why does it ultimately matter though?
I’ll separate the two as the answers do differ.
Off-Center Pokémon Cards: Why Does It Matter?
As stated above, off-center Pokémon cards are ones where the picture is slightly off from the center. It therefore has more border showing on one edge vs another.
If you find an off-center Pokémon card, it unfortunately it won’t do really anything for you. As a matter of fact, it might hurt the value of the card overall, depending on the severity or lack thereof of the centering.
People spend higher dollars on well centered cards vs off-center ones for grading purposes. Centering is a major factor in cards grading well so having a card that is off-centered will actually hurt the value of the card overall.
Is it the same for mis-cuts though?
Mis-cut Pokémon Cards: Why Does It Matter?
Now, if you have a card that is very poorly mis-cut and/or has a black alignment dot, what does that mean for you? The answer is actually very different from the one above.
Mic-cut Pokémon cards are actually highly sought after by certain collectors and will typically fetch far more than what the card would have been worth in its original state. And the rule of thumb is the more expensive the card, the more someone would be willing to pay for a mis-cut version of it.
So please don’t throw away any cards that don’t look right or are badly mis-cut. Just head over to reddit and post what you have to see what kind of interest it gets.
Summary
While there is a limited difference between an off-center and a mis-cut Pokémon card, the collectability and value of them differ immensely. Mis-cuts have serious collectors behind them and will typically be worth more than the card in its original form.
The long short then? Don’t throw away any Pokémon cards that look or are cut oddly. That might be an error and be worth a pretty penny to someone else.
Curious what grade your Pokémon cards might get? Check out my other article!
Want to learn about how the condition of a card affects the value? Look no further.
Curious if Pokémon cards may be a good investment? Read my thoughts on it here.
Thanks for reading!