The One Ring may very well be the most famous MTG card in its 30-year history. The Black Lotus is iconic, but the story created by The One Ring was nothing short of inspirational, capturing the mainstream world by surprise.
The original Serialized One Ring that had everyone losing their minds was a one-of-one deal. The card quickly saw asking prices of past two million dollars, and was eventually found in the Toronto, Ontario area. Post Malone, a famous rapper who doubles as one of MTG’s biggest personalities eventually acquired the card.
This One Ring isn’t quite as rare as the previous ordeal, but that doesn’t mean it’s cheap. The Holiday release for Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth unleashed a new series of serialized cards, and this particular copy of The One Ring appears to be at the top of the list.
Another #1 The One Ring
A new #1 The One Ring has been opened in South Jersey at The Comic Book Store. Notably, unlike the two-million-dollar serialized ring, this is not a one-of-one deal. There are 100 serialized One Ring cards with the new borderless poster art. The other one-of-one One Ring also had exclusive artwork, while this variant of The One Ring has nonserialized copies. Those copies are still pretty expensive, however.
The new Lord of the Rings Holiday release features two series of serialized cards. The new Borderless Poster art cards feature 20 Mythic Rare cards that have been reprinted in Secret Lair-esque artwork. These cards have each have serialized copies numbering between 1 and 100. That said, many players aren’t a fan of these serialized cards since the serialized number is directly on the text of the cards, making them more illegible than they already are.
“The art is cool but the serial number cutting into the text says everything.”
ViolentBeggar22
The other collection of serialized cards in the Holiday release represents the new chase rarity for the Realms and Relics Box Toppers. In the first release, the Surge Foil Realms and Relics were considered chase cards, but their secondary market value has crashed thanks to the Holiday Edition release.
How Much is it Worth?
For anyone thinking that this will be the next million dollar card, it will likely be far from it.
The incredible level of exclusivity that the one-of-one serialized Ring enjoyed isn’t a part of this printing. It is still a #1 serialized Ring, but there are 100 of them out there, not just one. For that reason, This One Ring isn’t going to sell for anywhere near a million dollars. It may not even sell for ten thousand dollars.
That said, early speculation does suggest that it may sell for around that area. Recently, the #420 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer was sold for $6900, reportedly about half of the #1 price for that card. The One Ring’s serialized variants are a lot rarer than Ragavan, and both are rather iconic MTG cards. Throw in The One Ring’s iconic standing in its original IP, and it’s not hard to believe that this could sell for $10,000.
Ultimately, we have no idea what this card is going to sell for. There are very few sales recorded for any of the serialized borderless poster variants of the Lord of the Rings holiday release cards at the time of writing this article.
For what we do know, a majority of the new serialized cards from the Holiday Release of The Lord of the Rings are only selling for about $500-1000 on eBay. That said, the numbers and cards are much less iconic than the #1 The One Ring. Additionally, serialized Elven Sol Rings from the original Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth release did sell for around $7300.
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Player Reaction
Even though Wizards of the Coast spent extra effort making sure that these new pieces of wacky artwork were legible, some MTG players don’t like these new game pieces for exactly that reason; illegibility:
“Imagine spending thousands for these”
goofydubois
Considering the mixed reception the Borderless Poster artwork received for The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, these serialized cards could very well be worth even less than we thought. The serialized stamp obscuring the text of the card, in particular, was a decision that many players especially disliked:
“God I hate how the serial number gets on top of the card text.”
Nousagian
“Damn. I didn’t even notice until you said something. That’s literally trash.”
ViveIn
Either way, while this One Ring isn’t nearly as notable as before, it is still on-track to be worth a pretty penny.
This isn’t the only #1 card to an iconic part of Lord of the Rings discovered recently. If you want to take a look at the #1 Gandalf reveal, you can do so here.
