A Magic: The Gathering card shop has set a $1 million “bounty” on a card that’s part of publisher Wizards of the Coast’s The Lord of the Rings collaboration. The One Ring card, of which there is only one serialized copy, won’t be released until June 23, but collectors have already determined that it is, indeed, very precious.
There was always going to be a bidding war. Dexerto noted in March that well-known MTG collector Dan Bock was willing to pay someone $100,000 for the card, but Dave & Adam’s Card World in Williamsville, New York upped the ante tenfold with its bounty offer this week.
The collectibles shop announced via Twitter on June 7 that it would hand $1 million over to whoever produced the rare card before July 17.
“Good luck,” the tweet said, along with an encouraging set of emoji hands.
The serialized Ring card features art by Finland-based artist Veli Nyström, who has previously designed Orc Army cards for MTG. It shows the smoldering ring in a reflective foil treatment, absent of the cards’ usual borders.
Text on the card appears in one of LoTR author J.R.R. Tolkein’s constructed languages—the sloping Elvish language Quenya—but on its website, Wizards of the Coast disclaims that “The one-of-one Ring is not a mechanically unique version.” Non-serialized English variants of the card show that it lets its caster “gain protection from everything until your next turn,” similar to a card like Teferi’s Protection, and “at the beginning of your upkeep, you lose one life for each burden counter on The One Ring.”
That is, apparently, still worth $1 million. In the context of the luxury card collector world, that is less than a Pikachu card is worth to Logan Paul, and nearly double the price of the most expensive existing Magic card, the Alpha Black Lotus.
Maybe it is worth it. I guess a LoTR card is more portable than, like, a boat, or a mortgage, or paying your employees better.