The Lord of the Rings’ special One Ring Magic: The Gathering card sold for a record-breaking $2 million in 2023, but that record has already been broken with a 1993 Black Lotus selling for $3 million.
As reported by Kotaku, the 1993 card was graded a “Pristine” 10/10 and comes from the original Magic: The Gathering set, Limited Edition Alpha (commonly known as Alpha). Black Lotus has historically been the most sought after Magic: The Gathering card, but others have sold for several hundred thousand dollars at most.
This Black Lotus is from the original printing of the first Magic: The Gathering set, however, compared to previous versions which have typically been from Beta, the second printing of the first set. Only two Pristine versions are known to exist, including this one.
Its perfect score is also incredibly rare, not just because it’s a more than three decades old piece of cardboard, but because trading card grading takes into consideration printing alignment and other intricate elements, which can’t be controlled by whoever opens the card.
The buyer said he may have overpaid somewhat for the card but, as he isn’t looking to sell it immediately, is confident it will only grow in value over the years. “It’s really hard to price these high-end cards, but I feel like $3 million is about right,” he told Kotaku. “Maybe I did overpay a bit, but I’m not buying to flip it. In the long run, it should do fine.”
The previous record holder, The One Ring, was bought by rapper Post Malone in August 2023 for the $2 million amount. Wizards of the Coast announced The One Ring card months before, revealing a special version would be printed in Elvish as a “one of one” copy in Magic’s Tales of Middle Earth set.
The value of trading cards has also been made clear through the number of people trying to steal them. $300,000’s worth of Magic cards were stolen in 2023, while a heist was launched against a game store in 2022 that saw $250,000 worth of Pokémon merchandise stolen. Suggesting these incidents (and therefore the value of cards is on the rise), Tokyo police reported an unprecedented number of trading card thefts in the latter half of 2022.
The most expensive card ever sold (at least on record) is a mint condition Japanese Pokémon card called Pikachu Illustrator — originally given away to just 39 art contest winners in 1998 — which is valued at $5,275,000.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
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