The Internet has shown us that people are willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for their hobbies.
From car collecting to horse riding, there’s no end to the kinds of interesting hobbies people will sink large amounts of cash into.
This is a story about the card game, Magic: The Gathering, and how one rare card from the game was recently sold in an online auction for the mind-blowing price of $87,672!
To those who aren’t in the know, Magic: The Gathering is a trading card and digital collectible card game released by the game company, Wizards of the Coast. It can be played by two or more players and there are various rules, which would take too long to get into here.
New cards are released on a regular basis through expansion sets and tournaments are played around the world, including Malaysia.
As with most collectibles, some of the cards can become very valuable over time.
Whether it was due to a limited release, a long time passing, or simply due to it being forgotten or lost, some cards can become very valuable to collectors.
That brings us to the card called Black Lotus, from the original release of Magic: The Gathering.
There are three official printings of Black Lotus in the game; Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited.
The Alpha set of cards have black borders and were printed first, while the Beta set fixed some of the errors in the previous set, while Unlimited was simply a large scale reprint of the Beta set with white borders. All of these cards came out in 1993.
You with us so far?
In any case, there are exactly 1100 copies of each of the ‘rare’ type cards printed in the Alpha set.
This made the Black Lotus card extremely valuable as there aren’t many found in the open market these days.
Additionally, due to its pristine quality, it is one of the best preserved copies of its type in the world today.
Without getting too deep into the rules, the Black Lotus card is a very powerful one that messes with the math of the game, resulting in it never being printed again.
And that brings us back to this story of someone who was able and willing to dish out an astounding $87,000 for a small card about the side of a credit card.
The wildest part is that this isn’t even the most expensive Black Lotus on the market.
That’d be this one, for an unbelievable $100,000. Yes. Really.
So what do you guys think?
Was it worth it for a unique and rare piece of card game history?
Or is the price point just a little too high for your liking?
Header Image Source: Kotaku
