A rare Magic: The Gathering card, the highly-sought after Alpha print Black Lotus card with black borders, sells for a significant amount of money on eBay.
Since its launch in 1993, Magic: The Gathering has remained one of the most popular trading card games out there, with over 20 million players and an endless stream of expansion packs. Magic: The Gathering‘s popularity has seen some of its rarer cards become worth big bucks, such as the rare Alpha print Black Lotus card that recently sold for a staggering $87,672 on eBay.
For the uninitiated, Alpha prints for Magic: The Gathering are the black border cards, as opposed to the more widely available white border cards. 1,100 of each rare card in the Alpha prints were made, making the Alpha print Black Lotus Magic: The Gathering card one of the most difficult to find, so the fact that it sold for such a high amount is really no surprise.
Due to its rarity, some Magic: The Gathering fans may not even know the purpose of the Black Lotus card. In the game, the Black Lotus card gives players three mana, meaning players can potentially have four mana on their first turn. This made the Black Lotus card notoriously overpowered, which is part of the reason why it wasn’t reprinted in subsequent versions of Magic: The Gathering, and is banned in some versions of the game.
Despite its power and rarity, some people may still be wondering why someone would be willing to pay so much money for a trading card. However, Magic: The Gathering trading cards being worth serious money is nothing new, and in fact, it has made collectors of the cards a target for thieves.
Take, for example, the hobby store in Austin, Texas that was robbed a few years ago. The thieves in this robbery literally ripped the hobby store’s door off its hinges and made off with its rarest Magic: The Gathering cards, which were reportedly worth over $75,000 total.
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if Wizards of the Coast ever decides to bring Black Lotus back to Magic: The Gathering in a significant way. Wizards of the Coast has been known to lift bans on overpowered cards in the past, so it wouldn’t be totally out of the question for Black Lotus to make a return in some capacity at some point down the line.
