Which category of Cost of Quality would include the cost if a group of new cards is printed today with the wrong expiration date and scrapped before delivery to the customer?

The correct category for the situation described is internal failure costs. Internal failure costs arise when defects are identified before a product is delivered to the customer. In this case, the printing of cards with the wrong expiration date indicates that a defect has occurred during the production process. Since the cards have to be scrapped prior to reaching the customer, this cost represents a failure that is caught internally, hence it falls under internal failure costs.

These costs typically include expenses related to rework, scrap, and failure analysis that occur before the product is sent out. The focus here is on the pre-delivery phase where errors are detected and addressed, leading to additional costs for the organization.

In contrast, appraisal costs are related to measuring and monitoring activities to assure quality, prevention costs involve proactive measures taken to prevent defects from occurring in the first place, and external failure costs pertain to defects found after the product has reached the customer, potentially leading to warranty claims, recalls, or loss of customer trust. Thus, each of those categories addresses different aspects of quality costs that do not apply in this scenario.