Fan discovers he has one of the rarest MTG collections ever, and it's worth $1m

One fan discovered that he's been sitting on one of the rarest MTG card collections in the world… and it's worth around $1m. 

Having been interested in Magic: The Gathering for over 25 years, the German collector - who prefers to remain anonymous - decided to have his old MTG cards appraised at Cardmarket after seeing that values for one of the best card games had risen during Covid. And even though he was aware that some of his cards were worth a decent chunk of money, he had no idea he was sitting on such a goldmine. 

In all fairness, it's because he has one of the most unusual collections anywhere. Namely, he bought not one but three full sets of original MTG cards in the 1990s (known as the Limited Edition Beta) including the ultra-rare Black Lotus that's worth up to $49,000 by itself.

"In the past twelve years of grading, most trading cards we grade are for financial but also nostalgic reasons," says head of Cardmarket grading George Settnik. "The first card you pulled from a booster pack, a card you find beautiful, or a gift for a friend. It is not unusual to see high-value cards, but an entire Beta collection is something you never see. To have three full Beta set collections? That is truly a once in a lifetime collection."

However, this wasn't out of pragmatism or a hope to one day resell them; it was just for personal enjoyment. As he noted "I wasn't wealthy. It wasn't high income. It was more that I had little expenses otherwise, and I could and would treat myself this way. Whenever my finances allowed, I ordered one of the sets from a friend who was able to get them from the United States."

Although most of us will never get our hands on such rare cards, we do have a chance to pick up remakes in the upcoming MTG 30th Anniversary Collection. This set provides four boosters containing 60 reprinted cards from the Limited Edition, but has come under fire for costing $999. 

Fortunately, the current set (an MTG Warhammer 40,000 crossover) and the next Magic release are considerably cheaper. You can grab The Brothers' War Gift Bundle with a bonus Transformers foil card for $50.98 at Amazon, for example.

Today's best MTG deals

Want to start your own collection? You can check out the latest MTG card offers as found by our bargain-hunting software below.

For more tabletop shenanigans, don't miss these must-have board games, the top board games for adults, or the best tabletop RPGs. It's worth keeping an eye out for Black Friday Pokemon card deals as we approach November, too.