Introduction to Error card collecting, and Printed Fold

I originally wrote this up as a guide for new collectors on a Basketball card collecting Facebook group back in December 2015. With some modification, I'm pasting it here and will give each kind of error it's own post. Also keep in mind that the rarity refers to NBA and NASCAR only. I am aware some errors are more common in baseball.

Production Errors are a specialized aspect of the hobby which takes luck and persistence to chase, as errors by nature are usually unique, but not always. I once opened a box of 1995-96 Hoops Series II where almost every single card was an error. There are 11 basic kinds of production error, some of which are easy to find, some of which are incredibly rare.
In order of most common to least common:
1. Off-center, with part of another card. These are not as common as they once were, but common to find in the 1990s. I have never found one in the Panini era. I have over 100 of these in my collection, including multiple sets with dozens of them.
2. Caught in packaging. Some people consider these damaged, but that isn't correct. The cards come out of packs this way, and in quite a few cases they were not actually caught in the pack but didn't cut properly, both are referred to as caught in packaging. This is just as much a production error as any of the others on this list.
3. Missing foil. Foil first appeared on cards with 1991-92 Upper Deck, which had a foil hologram on the back of each card. Almost instantly cards without foil started to appear (and yes, there are cards from UD known missing the hologram). These can be spectacular, which I will show in future posts, to just having a missing stripe. There are cards known missing all foil and some known just missing parts of foil.
4. Missing or mis-applied UV coating. The shiny UV coating on cards can be applied wrong just like foil can be. These are the 4th most common in my collection, but I got an entire blaster of 2001-02 EX where every card had the UV coating applied wrong. This is the hardest error to capture in a scan.
5. Mis-aligned foil or effects. Each card that has foil, or other various effects, can have them mis-aligned. This also includes cards with the wrong card's foil applied. I have a 2009-10 Upper Deck Jameer Nelson card with Baron Davis's foil, for example. Mis-aligned foil is a common error.
6. Assorted printing error. This can be many different things, but the most common in a run in the ink.
7. Miscut. There are two different kinds of miscut cards. One is when the card is not lined up properly when it is being cut from the printing sheet, leaving the card not quite a proper rectangle. The other is when the card is normal shaped, but includes a small portion of another card. I will post both examples.
8. Two cards combined. This is a rare error- I know of less than 10 that exist total, I have two of them in my collection. This is where the front of one card is a different card than the back.
9. Single side printed. Another very rare error, this is where one side of the card is printed like normal, and the back of the card (or front) is totally blank. I know of only 6 that exist, 2 of which I pulled from packs. NOTE: some sets have blank backed versions that are not errors, but part of the packaging that has been trimmed down to card size.
10. Printed fold. These are the most rare errors...I know of a grand total of 1, that is in my collection. I've never even seen another version online. It's so rare that I have never seen an NBA card with this error, the example I will show is a NASCAR card. This happens when the paper that makes the card is fed into the machine that does the printing and it's not flat.
As a bonus, you can occasionally find a card with more than one of these errors occurring on the very same card. They are rare but not impossible to find.

 I know that most people who read Cardboard History probably know most of the above already, but I always meant to share this in a post here. I didn't expect it to take me 3 years to do so.

First- one of the most unique errors I have, is Printed Fold. It's a rarity for sure- I didn't even see one in person until my 25th year in the hobby, and it remains the only one I've ever seen. I got it in a lot of NASCAR cards I purchased from a member of the Trading Card Database who was no longer collecting the sport.

2004 Press Pass Dale Earnhardt Victories #32

You can see it on the left side of the card, and it runs from top almost to bottom. Amazingly, the version I have is from a tin-issued set, so I've never seen a pack pulled example.

Stay tuned because I'm going to run through each different kind of error I list in that countdown with it's own post.