By: Kyle Xu

Most people have heard of Post Malone, the famous pop singer and author of many different songs, such as Circles, Sunflower, and Rockstar. But most people don’t know that the musician is also a major fanatic of the card game Magic: The Gathering.

The super fan of the fantasy card game had just bought a rare card from the game in a record sale, helping boost the card’s popularity in the game. Another fan who pulled the new Magic card, depicting the “One Ring” from Lord of the Rings, sold it to Post Malone for $2 million – the first time a playing card from Magic reached seven digits. For Magic, which hadn’t received much attention, these were major improvements.

“It’s kind of like the first time a baseball card ever sold for a million dollars,” said Ken Goldin, a longtime sports memorabilia collector and owner of Goldin Auctions. “To all of the tens of millions of collectors in the world who collect Magic: The Gathering, it basically has solidified their collection and says, ‘Hey, this is serious business.’”

Ryan Stuczynski, GemRate’s founder, says that last year a rare Pikachu card was sold to YouTube star Logan Paul, followed by more than 23 million for $5.275 million in 2021, the second-most expensive trading card ever sold across all categories. Paul flaunted his card with a diamond-encrusted necklace.

The Post Malone-acquired “One Ring” card was Magic’s first one-of-one card release since their partnership with Lord of the Rings. Hasbro’s Magic: The Gathering follows the same playstyle as sports cards, introducing new, rare cards to improve scarcity and excitement among the collection.

The release of the game earned Hasbro $100 million in product sales and will likely inspire a repeat, says Goldin. “It’s gonna lead manufacturers to do more unusual items like the ring card,” he said.

But Goldin also added that if game card companies kept on introducing rare cards, it could lead to inflated pricing, making most card values less and less valuable.

“The quantity of new cards, the confusion of a billion different arts for each card, and the complexity creep on cards that do 17 different things have all made it hard for me to keep up with [Magic: The Gathering],” said one Reddit user.

Sources: NPR