An incredibly rare Magic: The Gathering card from a new expansion was found on Friday. It could be worth seven figures. The owner has remained anonymous, but the card could sell for over $2 million. Since it was found, Magic packs from the same set have fallen in value as collectors give up the hunt. Loading Something is loading.
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The hunt for the one ring is over and aspiring ring bearers from across the land have called it quits.
This isn’t a brief summary of “The Lord of the Rings.” Instead, it’s all to do with Hasbro’s trading card game, Magic: The Gathering, which released an expansion this month that crosses over with JRR Tolkien’s beloved fantasy series.
The new set of cards includes a one of a kind copy of the “One Ring”, the object of untold power from the series that sets off an epic struggle among men, elves, dwarves, and orcs. There are versions of the card throughout the set, but the one of a kind version is printed with the Black Speech inscribed on the ring in the books and the movies.
Commonly sold in “booster packs” of 15 cards, the discovery of the “One Ring” was authenticated on Friday morning by the grading company PSA, and given a “mint 9” grade. Its holder has remained anonymous.
—Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) June 30, 2023 While the search is over, the card’s ownership may not be settled. According to The Wall Street Journal, two seven-figure bids have already been made, with the highest amount coming from Francisco Rubio. The owner of card shop Gremio de Dragones in Valencia, Spain, he has offered over $ 2 million for it.
The second eye-popping offer comes from Buffalo, New York, where Adam Martin, owner of Dave & Adam’s Card World, had previously set a $1 million dollar bid, but has declined to enter into a bidding war.
Such offers will make the “One Ring” Magic’s first seven-figure card. According to Hasbro, the odds of finding it were less than 0.00003%, fueling unprecedented interest among both players and non-players.
Its search had also sparked unparalleled price points for Hasbro. When the new set was released on June 23, the value of collector boosters — a box that contains 12 packs of cards — roughly doubled from prior sets, earning a peak of $518.45. But, with the “One Ring” card’s discovery, the prices have since fallen by over $100.
Hasbro’s pricing has been a prior point of contention among fans and commentators. In February, Bank of America downgraded the toy company for overproducing Magic cards in order to prop up near-term earnings, while degrading the long-term value of the asset.
Players have also increasingly shown frustration with the expenses required to play the game, with many viewing Magic as increasingly a luxury hobby. With more players alienated, this has also had an effect on local card shops that earn from selling the cards.
“There’s a lot of wallet fatigue,” Brooklyn-based Action City Comics owner Eric LaGaccia told Insider earlier this year. “In order to be competitive, you want the latest cards, and the cards you just spent a lot of money on are now obsolete.”
In April, Bank of America extended its underperform rating for Hasbro, estimating continued underperformance for Magic products in the year’s second half. At that time, the bank forecast a $42 price target. The stock closed at$64.79 on Monday.