Medieval Scapini arrived today

daphne

Is there a way you can tell the "good" edition from "bad" edition from box pictures?

There are a lot of Medieval Scapini on ebay but how can I know which one has the printing quality?

Emily

daphne said:
Is there a way you can tell the "good" edition from "bad" edition from box pictures?

There are a lot of Medieval Scapini on ebay but how can I know which one has the printing quality?

I wondered this too. I looked on Amazon at the used decks and there is two different deck boxes but the Amazon sellers might be using stock photos and that might not be the deck you get.

I'm getting more out of this deck than I thought I would and maybe later on would want to hunt a good copy down.

sapienza

The older (good) edition has the window box however I would never trust just the picture on ebay. When I was hunting for one I always sent a message to the seller asking them to tell me where the deck was printed. Only if they came back with 'Switzerland' would I become interested.

I do have a still sealed Swiss printed deck somewhere. I'd need to hunt for it in my cupboards though as I packed a lot of my spares away. Also, I'm not sure what the price would be, I remember paying quite a bit for it, and then there is shipping from Australia to add as well. But I do have it if anyone gets desperate.

Emily

I managed to get a Swiss printing of the Medieval Scapini off Amazon of all places. There was one being sold by a market place seller for £4, came to £6 with the p&p, and it was the box with the opening. I took a leap of faith and ordered it. It came this morning and I've spent a good hour looking at both the Italian and the Swiss printing.

Firstly I love the colour of the Swiss cardstock, they are cream not yellow. Also the colours used, in the Italian printing the blues come across as greenish other colours aren't true to the Swiss printing, they are also darker. But the main thing that really rankles is the quality of printing of the detail in the Italian version, it is terrible, nothing is crisp, lines are blurred, details are lost. My scanner could do a better job of replicating these cards.

The gold and silver highlights do look nice in the Swiss, the gold more than the silver but on the Italian the thickness of the laminate hides all the beauty of the gold and it looks like someone got busy with a silver sharpie.

I'm glad I managed to hunt down a Swiss copy because now I know how badly printed the Italian version is. It's irritating to think that US Games allow this deck to be printed in this way.

daphne

Emily said:
I managed to get a Swiss printing of the Medieval Scapini off Amazon of all places. There was one being sold by a market place seller for £4, came to £6 with the p&p, and it was the box with the opening. I took a leap of faith and ordered it. It came this morning and I've spent a good hour looking at both the Italian and the Swiss printing.

Firstly I love the colour of the Swiss cardstock, they are cream not yellow. Also the colours used, in the Italian printing the blues come across as greenish other colours aren't true to the Swiss printing, they are also darker. But the main thing that really rankles is the quality of printing of the detail in the Italian version, it is terrible, nothing is crisp, lines are blurred, details are lost. My scanner could do a better job of replicating these cards.

The gold and silver highlights do look nice in the Swiss, the gold more than the silver but on the Italian the thickness of the laminate hides all the beauty of the gold and it looks like someone got busy with a silver sharpie.

I'm glad I managed to hunt down a Swiss copy because now I know how badly printed the Italian version is. It's irritating to think that US Games allow this deck to be printed in this way.

Lucky you! It sounds so nice. You make me really want a Swiss edition.

Emily

daphne said:
Lucky you! It sounds so nice. You make me really want a Swiss edition.

I was prepared for it to be another Italian printing, especially when I posted the other day about some sellers just using any images of the deck boxes. And I did go on the cheap price, I thought that as it was an old deck whoever was selling it would just see it as that, an old deck. It has been lightly used but I'm pleased with it.

It might be worth keeping an eye out on Amazon for the cheaper used decks, you might drop lucky too.

nisaba

I have the "bad" edition. It's perfectly good. It's just not golden, is all.

sapienza

Emily said:
I'm glad I managed to hunt down a Swiss copy because now I know how badly printed the Italian version is. It's irritating to think that US Games allow this deck to be printed in this way.

So glad you found the Swiss copy Emily. I also didn't realise how bad the Italian edition was until I had them side by side. To me it seems US Games were just very lazy with how they scanned it. Surely to me if you are going to the trouble of re-issuing a deck you'd take the time to do it properly. The same thing happened when they re-issued the Hermetic, some cards are actually blurred, it's awful. Plus the Swiss one 'feels' better, it's really quite a beautiful deck.

daphne said:
Lucky you! It sounds so nice. You make me really want a Swiss edition.

I do still have a spare Swiss edition somewhere that I'd be prepared to sell once I dig it out.

daphne

sapienza said:
I do still have a spare Swiss edition somewhere that I'd be prepared to sell once I dig it out.

Thank you, you are most kind!!
After Emily explain what a difference, I could not stand my Italian edition anymore and I also took a leap of faith and ordered it.
I am now waiting to see what edition will be.
If it turns out to be again the italian one, I'll have to make you dig that one out.

Emily

nisaba said:
I have the "bad" edition. It's perfectly good. It's just not golden, is all.

I think the gold on the Italian is still there but it's hidden under the laminate, the silver effects look nice but even before I had the Swiss edition, I noticed that some of the details on the Italian were blurry - on most cards you can't read his signature but on the Swiss printing you can.

It does mean that US Games let an inferior version of this deck get printed.