MTG: Black Lotus breaks Sale Records Twice in a Single Month

Any Magic:The Gathering fan or player knows by heart not only this famous card’s name, but its history, effect, and the prices it reaches in auctions every once in a while when a new copy is sold for collectors.

The Black Lotus, a card from the Alpha printing in 1993, is one of the rarest TCG cards in the world. Only 1,100 of them remain nowadays, spread across the world, considering all those who got it back then still have it. Its effect is one of the strongest in the game, which caused it to be banned and become part of the infamous “Power Nine”, arguably the most powerful cards ever printed.

Such a rare and iconic card always brings out various interested parties whenever a copy is auctioned, which means every time it does, there’s always the possibility of the previous record sale price for this card being broken. The last time this happened, it was January 2021 and the card was sold for $511,000.

But even for such a rare card already known for its record-breaking prices, 2023 was more unbelievable: Not one, but two sales in the same month broke the previous $511,000 record.

Earlier in March, a copy of the card in a case signed by late artist Christopher Rush was auctioned on March 16th. The card was a PSA 10 Graded Alpha Black Lotus, and was sold over at PWCC March Premier Auction. This copy is one-of-two owned by David Edwards, a famous card collector. The copy had a starting price of $1,000, and over the course of two weeks, quickly surpassed the previous record by $30,000 more, reaching a final price of $540,000.

A week later, another copy of the card sold for a $100,000 more, at $614,000.

This copy is lower graded, only a “Near Mint/Mint +8.5” copy, but instead of having a signature on its case, the same Christopher Rush signature is spread across the actual card, which caused its bigger price when compared to the better graded copy sold earlier in that month.

This is the highest reported and confirmed sale price for the Black Lotus ever, which makes it the “most valuable Magic: The Gathering card ever sold at auction.”

However, if we are to believe some reports, there might have been a higher price fetched privately, such as Post Malone’s $800,000 signed artist-proof Black Lotus, of unknown condition.

Very soon we could have another card sale making history too as Tyler, The Great Warrior, a one-of-a-kind Yu-Gi-Oh! card is reportedly up for sale after twenty years, and there’s no telling which price it will fetch.