Excitement for Magic: The Gathering's Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set is growing ever higher as we get closer to release, as is the excitement surrounding the set's One Ring card that has been a constant talking point ever since its reveal. For those unaware, The One Ring is a unique card that will only be printed once, meaning it's going to be extremely valuable, and whoever pulls it out of their pack will probably be set for life.In fact, it's so valuable that many avid collector's are already putting massive bounties on the card before release, with these bounties growing as the release date draws near in some kind of pre-release bidding war. NFL player Cassius Marsh Sr. is one such individual, who recently offered up a flight to California and a $150,000 bounty for whoever the lucky recipient of The One Ring is. Unfortunately for him, he was quickly accused of making a "lowball offer" by multiple players.After going away and promising to return with an improved offer, Marsh Sr. has now raised the bounty to $500,000, making it the highest offer for the card that we've seen so far by a wide margin. Previous offers were ranging between $100k - $200k, but Marsh Sr. has now set himself up as the person to contact should the person who pulls The One Ring want to sell it on quickly and easily.
However, while $500,000 is nothing to sniff at, it's still far below what many think the card will end up selling for. It's expected that whoever pulls The One Ring will put it up for auction, as has been the case with many rare Magic: The Gathering cards in the past. There's very little doubt that this will go down as the most valuable card in Magic's history, and some speculate that it could end up auctioning for well over one million dollars.
At the very least, this entire ordeal has been a rather interesting social experiment more than anything else, as people fall over each other to try and get the upper-hand before release. While it's incredibly unlikely that any of you reading this will end up pulling The One Ring for yourself, the frenzy surrounding it means that you might want to open any packs you buy in the safety of your own home.