This escalated quickly is a popular and often overused punchline, but in the case of Magic: The Gathering’s The One Ring 001/001 card, it may be the best way to describe events of the past days. Several days ago, Cassius Marsh Sr. offered $500,000 to the person who brings him the coveted card which has not actually been released yet.
The former NFL player threw in some extra perks, such as sightseeing and partying with the man. Cassius Marsh Sr. was upping the reward from the $150,000 he offered initially after fans weighed in and said that he had missed the mark – by quite a big margin if you consider the latest offer tabled by collector bounty hunters Dave and Adam’s, a card shop, that has been hunting down ultrarare cards from Pokémon, MTG, and others for the past 30 years.
The offer was made two days after the NFL athlete agreed to pay a pretty penny for the card but he has now had his bid topped by the shop. The events are incredulous to somehow a card that has not even been released yet already costing $1 million.
To collectors, this is a serious sum, but nothing they would baulk at if offered the opportunity to own the highly-coveted card. MTG cards have frequently sold for $10,000 – $50,000, depending on their rarity, but seven figures are fairly uncharted territory.
Should Dave & Adam’s be good and deliver on their bounty offer, this would make it the first and only trading card game to have ever sold for $1 million. Previously, a Pikachu Illustrator card sold for $840,000, causing furore all of its own.
The hype around the card has excited fans who intend to buy the upcoming Lord of the Rings set and perhaps hope to pull the precious card out of their packs. Yet, finding it does not mean that it will be sold. If a card is selling for $1 million right now, imagine what it could be worth in years.
A fear of missing out though may actually influence people into submitting their copies early and making sure that they end up with the card all the same. There is another thing that could potentially throw a spanner in the works – a booster pack with the card in it may never get sold if a local hobby store fails to move inventory, sitting on top of one million worth of a single MTG card.
Thinking about all the possibilities is tantalizing and it will definitely have some people try to perhaps purchase a few extra packs on the astronomical off chance they get the card. The set is due to release on June 23 for fans to try their luck.