Trading card vendor posts $1 million bounty for MTG’s serialised The One Ring card
Like a golden Wonka ticket, except nobody should pay $33 for a chocolate bar.
Collectibles dealer Dave & Adams has kicked off the inevitable speculation race for that one-of-a-kind, serialised The One Ring card from Magic: The Gathering’s upcoming Tales of Middle-earth set by posting an audacious and eye-popping $1 million bounty.
The card in question is an oddity for MTG because there will only be a single copy of it printed, packaged in a booster and ostensibly released into the public: a one-of-one, serialised The One Ring printed in a traditional foil and with all the text switched to the Black Speech of Mordor.
Dave & Adams, a US-based TCG vendor that traditionally deals in sports collectibles but also sells MTG, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, announced June 7th that it would pay a cool $1 million to anyone willing to part with their serendipitous pull.
Those hoping to reach their hand into the metaphorical river will have to shell out serious cash in their search because this specific version of The One Ring will only appear in collector boosters, which are currently selling on Amazon for roughly $33 per pack. One collector booster is packaged in each Tales of Middle-earth gift bundle, meaning there’s technically a small chance the Precious will appear there, as well.
Dave & Adams initially limited the bounty to 30 days but lifted that restriction later the same day, according to the company's website. Now, cardboard hunters have an indefinite length of time to deliver this allegedly already pringled card into the dealer’s hands.
This isn’t MTG’s first flirtation with serialised cards but, alongside the serialised Sol Rings, represents the company’s most full-throated endorsement of the practice, to-date. While there’s nothing wrong with serialised cards per se, their limitation to collector boosters is yet another of Wizards of the Coast’s fingers upsetting the scale balanced between game and collectible. Remember that all of this started in 2019 with an initiative called Project Booster Fun.
Expect to see more of these stunts cropping up in the future as Tales of Middle-earth draws closer to release on June 23. Dave & Adams doesn’t include any information on how someone might report their acquisition of The One Ring, but the dealer does include a pre-order link for sealed MTG products. Personally, I believe Elijah Wood never returned the card after secreting it away in his pocket on that promo shoot.