Now that Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is completely released to the public and players have had to time to play around with all the new toys up for grabs, there are some startlingly clear trends. This set is going to have a massive impact on Magic, and the collectibility in terms of value for this set is through the roof.
This is the first time, in quite some time, that we’ve had a single card impact multiple formats so heavily. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer also left a lot of dust in its wake, but The One Ring is absolutely everywhere. Thanks to the card being colorless, it slots into any color of deck and it feels like almost every deck is strictly better for playing it. Able to grant its owner a turn of protection, draw a ludicrous amount of cards, and even replace copies of itself to shake off its downside, it feels like there’s nothing The One Ring can’t do.
Because of this, prices for the card have been skyrocketing, which is bizarre considering that you’re guaranteed to get a copy of The One Ring in each Lord of the Rings bundle. There are a lot more elements at play, however, that is driving one variation of The One Ring’s price to obscene heights.
The One Ring
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that The One Ring is everywhere at this point. Not only is every deck under the sun running this card, but they are all running it in multiples (when possible). This has created an absolutely monumental amount of demand for copies of The One Ring. Heck, I found my copies for $40 at the beginning of the week. That’s a bargain now.
Bundle Variant ($50 – $80)
The cheapest iteration of The One Ring is definitely the bundle variant. Because these Rings are available in every single bundle, it’s the easiest one to get your hands on at the moment. Because of this, non-foil copies of the scene foil of The One Ring are actually worth more than the foil ones. This is because you cannot find non-foil copies of this One Ring in bundles. They are instead found in Collector Booster Boxes.
Either way, these prices are pretty interchangeable, both worth about $55 each. This, however, has not stopped multiple sales for these cards at $80 or more. In a rush for players to acquire copies of The One Ring, it’s not uncommon to see premiums like this being paid.
As you may imagine, with all these ridiculous price spikes, The One Ring’s appearance in bundles has also affected the prices of the bundles themselves. Starting at about $47 during preorder season in May, these bundles have only increased in price since their release. Players now need to spend $90 if they want to get their hands on a bundle, thanks to The One Ring!
Normal Variant ($65-90)
Next up in the absurdity of The One Ring’s pricing fiasco is the normal variant. Opening one of these can instantly grab you $65 if you find the right seller. Foil copies are going for a bit more, selling for between $80-90 on average.
You can find these copies of The One Ring just about anywhere, but they aren’t guaranteed to show up in any one place, which puts them above the Bundle variant since you’re guaranteed to get one of those in every bundle. Either way, the price of these now far eclipses the Orcish Bowmasters, which was the hottest card in the set for quite some time.
Magic Online ($95 – $120)
Interestingly enough, digital copies of The One Ring are more expensive than its base variants in paper. Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of this is how much sense it makes. Anyone who is playing Modern on Magic Online right now needs multiples of these cards. This is an even bigger issue for rental services like Manatraders, who likely has a majority of their customer base requesting multiple copies of The One Ring at the same time. The card is also rather difficult to open on the platform. Players aren’t exactly apt to opening a ton of packs.
For that reason, depending on the variant, The One Ring is currently going for anywhere from $95 to $120. The shortage is so severe that you can currently sell copies of The One Ring for more than what they’re worth.
A reminder that, unlike MTG Arena, in-game currency on Magic Online can be exchanged for US dollars.
Nonfoil Extended Art
Available exclusively in Collector Booster packs, the Nonfoil Extended art version of The One Ring is going for a variety of prices. It’s not uncommon to find a copy of this for about $70, but this card has been sold for between $30 and $100 in the last two days, as of the writing of this article.
The real headliner, however, lies in the Extended Art Foil Variants.
Extended Art Foil ($500 – $1500)
Of all the exclusive Collector Booster Sample Pack cards you can open, this is the absolute best thing you can find. For about a week now, players were made aware that there are some cards that you can only open in Lord of the Rings Collector Booster Sample Packs available in preconstructed Lord of the Rings Commander decks. Needless to say, its very difficult to open a large volume of these, and equally difficult to open any of the chase cards in these.
As alluded to in the opening paragraphs, this level of collectibility has not been seen in an MTG set before. As a result, this caused a lot of confusion for customers and buyers alike.
On June 28, players finally got a comprehensive list of Extended Art Foil cards exclusively available in the Lord of the Rings Collector Booster Sample Packs, and this iteration of The One Ring was on that list. Since that revelation came to pass, prices for these cards on TCGplayer skyrocketed. This is a list of all The One Ring sales that occurred the day that this list was unveiled. The $80 outlier for a lightly played version of this card is particularly interesting, but the message is clear. These cards are expensive.
Serialized Ring ($2,000,000)
We’d be remiss not to mention the one-of-one copy of The One Ring that has turned opening Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Collector Booster packs mainstream. The current high bid on this card is for a bit over two million dollars from an LGS named Gremio Des Dregones. The exact offer is actually two million Euros, which works out to about $2,177,400. Should this card sell for its bounty, it would be the most expensive MTG card ever.
Of course, finding this card is just as hard as its price tag would suggest. Some claims of the card being found have already been made, but, players are unsure whether this is real or fake. Otherwise, this card may show up in a product that has not even been released yet, which has skyrocketed the prices of Lord of the Rings Gift Bundles.
Either way, The One Ring has cast a spell over the MTG world that it rarely sees and has never uniquely seen before. Normal iterations are taking over competitive formats completely, and Wonka’s Golden Ticket is taking over the internet. As may be evident from all this discussion, this card is also disgusting in Commander.
With all the demand over The One Ring, having the card banned or restricted in some formats is starting to become a reasonable question. Players may still be in their brewing phase for this card, but, The One Ring truly seems to be taking over Magic as we know it.
Read More: One MTG LOTR Commander Deck is Much Worse Than the Others!