Sorry, card gremlins; Magic: The Gathering’s The One Ring (1 of 1) has officially been pulled and graded, meaning the frenzied search (and questionable hoax pull claims) for the serialised card is over. However, in what’s perhaps the biggest RIP, the card was graded by PSA and only received a Mint 9 grade, falling short of the coveted Gem Mint 10.
It’s not clear what exactly bumped the card down a grade, but regardless, eye-wateringly large purchase offers for the Precious continue to flood in. According to the PSA website, cards that receive a 9 on the PSA grading scale are in “superb condition” with only minor flaws, such as slightly off-centering, minor print imperfections or very slight wax stains on the reverse. Let’s hope the lucky collector didn’t accidentally get any stains on the card, and the grade came purely down to printing.
The newest bearer of The One Ring wishes to remain anonymous, according to the Wall Street Journal, which is completely understandable given how feral collectors have gone trying to score the card.
𝙅𝙐𝙎𝙏 𝙂𝙍𝘼𝘿𝙀𝘿
The One Ring is found, authenticated, and now rules them all. pic.twitter.com/k4flMy8VXF
— PSAcard (@PSAcard) June 30, 2023
The One Ring was only available in Magic: The Gathering’s The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth English language Collector Booster packs and was set apart from other iterations of the card by its gold foiling, a serialised one of one, and etched Elvish Black Speech replacing the usual English printing.
Collectors around the globe scrambled to pull the card, which had a $2 million USD bounty on it, with Magic: The Gathering fans and those simply keen for expensive cardboard all getting in on the action. Collector Booster box prices soared to an average market price of $478 USD, with some resellers trying to cash in on the hype with even higher prices. Since the news of The One Ring being pulled broke, the boxes have fallen to an average market price of $391 and look to be on the way down further.
Despite the drop in Collector Booster box prices and the hype likely to slowly die down now The One Ring is out of the booster pool, there’s still a number of other serialised cards in this Magic: The Gathering set that are fetching high prices into the thousands – including the Dwarven and Elvish serialised Sol Rings.
While getting The One Ring graded and remaining anonymous is a very responsible move from the new Ring-Bearer, I still think it would’ve been way more iconic to do something cursed with it (ie: put a bite mark into the card, a very cool and normal thing to do, or burn it and forge its ashes into an actual wearable One Ring), but each to their own I guess.
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