The rare and highly coveted Magic: The Gathering card Black Lotus has hit the auction block once again. The specific card in question has been signed on its case by the artist, Christopher Rush, and is considered to be a pristine example of the most collectible card in all of tabletop gaming, being graded Gem Mint 10 by Professional Sports Authenticators. The card is expected to fetch a high price when the auction ends on March 16, 2023. The last time that such a card went up for auction, the seller managed to rake in more than $500,000.
Black Lotus was first introduced into MTG back in 1993 as part of the Alpha series. The card is highly prized by collectors and gamers alike, adding three mana of any color to a pool when played. The card has in many ways come to symbolize tabletop gaming and the Gem Mint 10 signed by Rush is an especially significant piece from an historical perspective. Black Lotus is the single most valuable normally printed card in the standard set.
Manager at PWCC Marketplace Peter Petipas who is currently overseeing the auction is well aware of this long history. “This is considered to be the greatest MTG card of all time and is arguably the most important issue in the history of trading card games,” he explained. Petipas went on to say that games like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! largely owe their existence to MTG, Black Lotus being one of the first examples of a “grail card” in tabletop gaming.
“Games like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! would not exist without MTG,” Petipas remarked. “The Alpha Black Lotus is one of the first examples of a grail card in trading card games. The fact that this copy is signed on the case by the legendary Christopher Rush makes it all the more special.”
The timing of this auction is particularly noteworthy given the recent boom in popularity of trading card games, Pokemon for example has been performing especially well on the open market, something frequently attributed to the ongoing pandemic. The auction is expected to provide insight into where the market for MTG cards is currently heading.
The sale of this Black Lotus will most likely also reignite the debate around Wizards of the Coast and its controversial practice of reprinting rare and otherwise highly prized cards. The publisher has been coming under increasing scrutiny for allegedly printing too many cards, calling the value of MTG into question, at least according to critics.
This comes in the wake of a recent market report noting how the company has been increasing the number of new cards released each year, leading to an oversupply of some cards and a consequent decline in their value. The report argues that such a strategy is not sustainable in the long term and that Wizards of the Coast should focus on creating cards which are more collectible rather than flooding the market with new releases. This could potentially cause interest in the game to decline as players become overwhelmed by the number of options available to them.
Wizards of the Coast has of course refuted all of these claims. The company explained in a statement how the supply of new cards will be carefully managed going forward in order to ensure that each one of them remains valuable and desirable on the open market.