Another Magic: The Gathering card (MTG) has joined the six-figure club.
On January 19th, a pristine copy of a 1993 Magic: The Gathering Lord of the Pit Alpha rare card was sold for a total of $105,000 in the PWCC January Premier Auction.
While this isn’t the first time a sale for a Magic: The Gathering card has reached the six-figure mark, this is the first Magic: The Gathering Lord of the Pit card to be sold for greater than $100,000. Other Magic: The Gathering cards that were previously sold for more than $100,000 were a few copies of the Black Lotus from both the Alpha and Beta sets of the card game, including the auction record for any Magic: The Gathering — an Alpha Black Lotus signed by artist Christopher Rush that PWCC Marketplace sold for $511,100 in 2021.
Aside from being the first and only Lord of the Pit card to join the six-figure club, the rare card also broke the previous public auction record for a Lord of the Pit card, which was set at $5,101 in 2021.
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Magic: The Gathering Lord of the Pit card
Illustrated by acclaimed artist Mark Tedin, the Lord of the Pit card fully embraces Magic: The Gathering’s darker tone with a bone-chilling depiction of a demon being summoned from a portal that seems connected to an unknown inferno.
Card grading company Beckett has only graded 84 copies of the Alpha Lord of the Pit card to date, and none are graded as high as the Pristine 10 card that was sold earlier this January 2023.
“A first-print Lord of the Pit in Pristine condition is nearly impossible to come by,” said Peter Petipas, Manager of Trading Card Game at PWCC Marketplace. “This is one of the most powerful monster cards released in the Alpha printing so it’s rare to find a copy that hasn’t sustained damage due to heavy play.”
Magic: The Gathering Alpha cards
Released by Wizards of the Coast in August of 1993, the Alpha printing is the first print run of the original Magic: The Gathering trading card game designed by Richard Garfield.
According to the original Wizards of the Coast CEO Peter Adkinson, the Alpha print run is composed of 295 unique collectible playing cards, including 116 different rare cards, with approximately only 1,008 of each rare card released.
When did Magic: The Gathering come out?
Magic: The Gathering was first released in 1993. Known as the first-ever trading card game, Magic: The Gathering had approximately 35 million players as of December 2018. During the game’s growing popularity from 2008 to 2016, over 20 billion Magic: The Gathering cards were reportedly produced.
How to play Magic: The Gathering
A player in Magic: The Gathering takes the role of a Planeswalker, a powerful wizard who can travel between dimensions of the multiverse. Players battle against one another by casting spells, using artifacts, and summoning creatures as depicted on individual cards drawn from their individual decks. Spells and attacks have a corresponding damage point, and players basically defeat other players once they manage to reduce their opponent’s life total from 20 to 0.
Can be played by two or more players, Magic: The Gathering has two game formats: constructed and limited. Limited game formats involve players building a deck spontaneously out of a pool of random cards with a minimum deck size of 40 cards. Constructed formats, on the other hand, require players to create decks from cards they own, usually with a minimum of 60 cards per deck.
Where to play Magic the Gathering
Magic: The Gathering can be played either in person with printed cards or on a computer, smartphone, or tablet with virtual cards through the Internet-based software Magic: The Gathering Online or other video games such as Magic: The Gathering Arena and Magic Duels.
Where to buy Magic: The Gathering cards
Magic: The Gathering cards are available for purchase online on Amazon and in-store in various toy and collectible retailers worldwide. Don’t know what Magic: The Gathering cards to buy? Click here.
Who owns Magic: The Gathering?
Magic: The Gathering is owned by Wizards of the Coast, which is now a subsidiary of Hasbro. Back in 1999, Wizards of The Coast was acquired by Hasbro for $325 million, making Magic: The Gathering a Hasbro game.