The Pokemon Trading Card Game has stood as one of the most successful trading card games of all time, playing a large role in propelling Pokemon to be the highest-grossing media franchise of all time. There have been countless Pokemon cards released over the years, with The Pokemon Company consistently releasing new expansions that add new Pokemon and variants on old Pokemon and cards to the game. However, it appears as though the English Pokemon cards have had a pretty glaring error on them for decades now, as pointed out by Twitter user TAHK0.
As pointed out by TAHK0, the Pokeball on the back of Pokemon cards is opening on the wrong side. The card shows the red lid of the Pokeball opening up and detaching itself from the button in its center. However, the Pokemon anime and other media establish that the button is actually attached to the red lid portion of the Pokeball.
TAHK0 points out in a followup tweet that it's likely that the reason for this is that Pokeballs actually went through a number of different designs in Pokemon's early years. Eventually, a final design was settled on, but for some reason or another, the Pokemon trading cards have not changed their logo.
TAHK0 went on to point out that Japan actually did go through the trouble of changing its Pokemon trading cards so that the Pokeball on the back opens correctly. Originally, the Pokeball on the back of Pokemon trading cards in Japan opened just like the English one, but later cards changed it so that they opened correctly, with the button attached to the top portion of the device.
Considering how popular the Pokemon Trading Card Game is to this day, it's somewhat surprising that the Pokeballs on the back of the cards haven't been fixed. However, now that the error is getting attention online thanks to TAHKO's tweets, maybe The Pokemon Company will make an effort to fix the Pokeballs on the cards.
Fans will just have to wait for future Pokemon Trading Card game expansions to see if any changes have been made.
Source: ComicBook