Celestial Edition 15th, how I hate thee? Let me count the ways… (2)
In my previous entry in this series I went over why I consider re-do sets, like CE15 was, were a bad idea and may have affected negatively the long term of the game by causing retailers to hold back on stocking the game, fearing these kind of products that would devalue existing stock.
I also put forward that, while players were very happy about getting extra rares in their product for the same price, what they were getting was also worth less. The same way printing money without control causes said money to be worth less and causes overall prices to rise, when you get three, instead of one, rares in your booster for the same price, it lowers their value. Not that most players are buying cards for their secondary market price, instead of playability, but that’s a factor to keep in mind. Anyway…
Other reason that made me hate re-do sets, and CE15 in particular was how hard and frustrating was (and remains to be) to collect them. The original CE base set was released June 2009, and therefore it had a copyright date of 2009. CE15 was printed March 2010 and it had a copyright date of… 2009. So, other that taking them out of an unopened booster of each, how do you tell a CE card for a CE15 one? (Note: This leaves aside for the moment the issue of deck reprints.) First of all, a number of cards got some kind of revision. Some of them were errataed or got clarified text:
As you can see Agasha Ueda (art by Jason Engle) had its cost changed for balance reasons. Additionally, some other cards got updated flavor text to account for storyline changes:
If my records are right, there are 35 (out of 395) cards in the numbered CE->CE15 set with these differences. What about the rest.
Well, you see, if you look again to the first (CE) image, the one on the left… it is a lie! Well, it is probably correct, as far as AEG computer files were at the time but, for some reason. The first few sets with the new face layout (Imperial Gift, Glory of the Empery, Death at Koten, and Celestial Editon had their bold trait (keyword) line printed with a different and larger type. So probably this is easier to tell putting two such cards side to side, but a CE card would have slightly larger blood trait type:
«A New Year», from Celestial Edition, original printing
Same card, Celestial Edition 15th Anniversary
CE is blockier, and bigger. Also, there is less difference between capital and regular letters.
As I mentioned previously, the version of the CE cards that was actually printed (as opposed to the computer files used in the above) examples, would have the blockier, bigger type. In a few cases, this would even cause the line to wrap at a different point.
However, while all Personalities do have a trait line, this is not true of all other card types. So, how do we go about identifying them?
CE15 was printed with lighter colors and, more important, on a notiveably lighter cardstock. While most other cards surrounding CE weight over 1,80 and up to 1,90 grams, CE15 weights between 1.60 and 1,70 grams. There might be some variance within the same printing, and keep also in mind a played card is not as reliable, as it will probably have accrued some weight over time due to several factors, like dirt, or even the natural oil from human hands.
Overall, I have found weight to be the most reliable method. Because of the unusually light card stock, you can conclude that a card that weights 1.70 or less must be from CE15.
Additionally, and because it has been 15 years since, I cannot say 100% for sure, but I’d say not all 395 cards were reprinted in CE15. Instead a bunch were left out to make room for some cards from other sets that needed errata. For instance:
This PotD card was errataed to be singular for balance reasons. There were a few others in this situation. If this went in CE15, and not in a rare slot, what was taken out to make room for it? A surefire way to tell, would be being able to check the CE15 C and U uncut sheets but lacking that… let’s say that unless you have opened a number of booster displays, it’s hard to prove a negative. Currently, I have a couple of CE cards that are missing from my CE15 set, so these are my candidates for NOT being part of CE15:
Rich Coffers (C)
Ride Through the Night (U)
So, my question for the more hardcore collectors would be… do any of you have copies of these two cards in your CE15 collection that would pass the weight test (1.70 grams or less)?
to be continued…