It’s all over. After a whole two weeks of people opening packs of Magic: The Gathering – Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth booster packs, causing the Collectors Boosters to retail for two to three times the normal retail price worldwide, one lucky person has pulled the special 1 of 1 Elven language version of The One Ring.
News of The One Ring’s discovery was first revealed on Twitter by the Magic: The Gathering fan account, Hipsters of the Coast, who shared a link to the card’s certification on Friday, indicating that whoever did find the card promptly had it graded. The card, which was illustrated by Finland-based artist Veli Nyström, received a mint 9-grade ranking, making it just shy of being considered a “virtually perfect card” according to authentication and grading company Professional Sports Authenticator.
Looks like PSA is officially confirming that the 1/1 One Ring has been found:https://t.co/zCMgAVANaq pic.twitter.com/Fkiw3BBEY9
— Hipsters of the Coast (@HipstersMTG) June 30, 2023
“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them,” The official Magic: The Gathering Twitter account said, quoting author J.R.R. Tolkien, in response to the One Ring being found. “We are thrilled to hear the tale of a new Ring-bearer in possession of the serialized 1:1 The One Ring! This journey is finished, but the adventure with #MTGxLOTR continues!”
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them.
We are thrilled to hear tale of a new Ring-bearer in possession of the serialized 1:1 The One Ring! This journey is finished, but the adventure with #MTGxLOTR's continues! pic.twitter.com/nlKqJ02Qqk
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) June 30, 2023
According to the Wall Street Journal, the bearer of The One Ring wishes to remain anonymous. Bounties for the card have reached well into the seven figures, with Dexerto reporting that Spanish gaming store Gremio de Dregones was offering $US2.1 ($3) million for it. Should the owner take them up on that offer, The One Ring will immediately become the most expensive Magic card ever, handily beating the Black Lotus, which has repeatedly sold for upwards of $US500,000 ($694,100).
The One Ring was only available in Magic: The Gathering’s 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 serialized one of one, and etched Elvish Black Speech replacing the usual English printing.
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 are still a number of other serialized cards in this Magic: The Gathering set that are fetching high prices into the thousands – including the Dwarven and Elvish serialized Sol Rings. In addition to other serialized cards, there are still other reasons to collect this set, like the amazing art cards that recreate moments from the book series, variants of the standard card set, and the standard cards themselves.
While the quest for The One Ring has ended for now, you can still pull other versions of The One Ring from other Magic: The Gathering – Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth sources… Like one of the FIVE Bundles that we have up for grabs thanks to the wonderful people over at Wizard of the Coast Australia. If you live in Australia and want to win one of these bundles for yourself, you can enter our competition mentioned here before July 12, 2023.