The Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game has had many sets over the years, but few have achieved the notoriety of “Legacy of Darkness.” Released in June 2003, this set is remembered by many players as one of the major game-changing sets in the game’s history. This was particularly due to the release of the card Yata-Garasu, a card that would later be banned due to its ability to enable the “Yata-Lock”, a degenerate combo that would prevent your opponent from drawing cards.
LOD Off-Centering Issue
However, from a collector’s perspective, the set was also infamous for having significant print issues, particularly when it comes to centering. If you’re not familiar with the term, centering refers to the alignment of a card’s image and borders. When a card is printed, it is supposed to have a balanced and symmetrical appearance, with the image and text perfectly centered within the borders. However, due to various factors in the printing process, some cards can come out off-center, meaning that the image and text are skewed or misaligned in some way. This might not seem like a big deal, but it can significantly affect a card’s value and grading potential.
(Off-center)
In the case of Legacy of Darkness, centering issues were especially prevalent. Many of the most coveted cards from the set, such as Injection Fairy Lily and Yata-Garasu, were notorious for coming off-center, often by a significant margin. This made it extremely difficult for collectors and players to obtain high-quality versions of these cards. Even if you were lucky enough to pull one pack-fresh from a booster, the chances were extremely high that it would be off-center to some degree, making it difficult to grade and reducing its value on the secondary market.
How it Affects Grading
As a result, the off-centering issue in the Legacy of Darkness set made it extremely difficult to obtain PSA 10 graded copies of popular cards like Yata-Garasu and Injection Fairy Lily. Because centering is one of the factors that determine a card’s grade, even a slight misalignment can prevent a card from achieving a perfect grade. This means that the number of PSA 10 graded copies of these cards is very limited, and they are highly sought after by collectors and players. As a result, the value of these cards can be very high, especially for those with good centering.
All of this is to say that if you’re a collector of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, especially if you’re interested in the Legacy of Darkness chase cards, you should be aware of the centering issues of this set. While it’s still possible to find well-centered versions of these cards, they are likely to be much rarer and more expensive due to the infamous off-centering issues. And even if you do manage to get your hands on a pack-fresh Injection Fairy Lily or Yata-Garasu, be prepared for the possibility of disappointment when you try to get it graded.
– PSA 10 – strictlysealed.com
Cardboard Crusade 