Bidding For The Serialized 001/001 One Ring Is At $100,000!

Wizards of the Coast is going all out for the upcoming Lord of the Rings set. Fans guessed that there would likely be a "The One Ring" card, and they were right. However, I don't think many foresaw them only making one. To be clear, the normal version of The One Ring will be printed like usual. But there is a special serialized version of which there will only be one. Yes, only one copy in existence, in total.

A one-of-card is almost unheard of in MTG and it's going to be a very coveted item. So much so in fact, that collectors are already offering up some insane prices for the card if/when someone pulls it. I say "if" because it may never see the light of day. More on this later. For now, let's take a look at The One Ring, the prices people are offering and the rest of the Rings of Power as well.

“Keep it secret. Keep it safe.” - Gandalf

The One Ring And The Starting Bid

There are quite a few things that make a card only having one in existence a very interesting situation. First, and foremost, is that's it's going to be very expensive. One well-off MTG Collector has offered up a massive $100,000 to anyone lucky enough to pull the card. He did, however, have a few stipulations for the sale. Check out his post:

I suppose that's an understandable request for someone dropping that kind of money on a card. But it's more likely in place so that no one else would have a chance to top his offer. If no one else knows that the card has been opened before it's sold they can't offer a higher price and get the card. If the card does surface, it'll likely fetch a price substantially higher than that on the open market. So, I don't think whoever gets it will abide by that stipulation. Would you? I know I wouldn't.

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Next, you have to consider the possibility that it will be opened by a big game store or something. After all, they do order/open larger quantities of boxes than your average person. If this were to be the case, it would likely be auctioned off to the highest bidder; Which people have joked will be Post Malone.

All this is assuming that the card makes it into someone's hands at all and it may not. As I said, the fact that it would be expensive was never a question. So, let's take a look at a few other considerations.

The Card Is Stored Away

WOTC store back certain amounts of all of their products in case they need them later. This is exactly how they found all of those original Legends boxes from 1993 that they used for Dominaria United - They had tucked them away in some warehouse. They do this with all their products and LOTR: Tales of Middle-Earth will be no different.

So, the box that contains the one ring may remain stored somewhere, laying dormant and waiting on someone to find it, much like the ring in the original stories. Given that it is only a single card, it's somewhat likely that this is the case and the card remains in limbo for quite some time. Next, there are some rather unfortunate scenarios to consider.

It's Opened By Someone Who Doesn't Know What They Have

We've all heard stories about young kids (or were the kids) opening packs back in the day and ultimately destroying what would have been very expensive cards. Collector Boosters are a little pricey for super casual players but you never know... Someone could pull The One Ring and never know they were sitting on a goldmine. If this were the case, it would be possible for the card to meet some grisly demise. And at that point, the world may never even know.

Other Things To Take Into Consideration

Card Quality

Do you ever open a pack of cards and get some sweet Mythic Rare only to discover that it's warped, creased, has rolled corners, or it's curled? I know I have. What if someone pulls The One Ring and it has some sort of damage? Considering that many of the serialized cards from The Brothers' War weren't great quality it's a legitimate concern.

If there were to be some sort of blemish or imperfection it probably wouldn't diminish the value too terribly but it seems like it would have to affect it in some way. And what an upset it would be to have the card surface and not be a good shape. One has to wonder if WOTC took extra precautions to ensure that the card came off the press in immaculate shape.

Counterfeit Versions

Having a card be a singleton is weird in this regard. If someone pops up saying that they found/pulled/bought the true One Ring, what happens? Is there any way to authenticate that the card is the card? If such a claim was made, would others stop looking for it with no confirmation? Would some poor soul buy a card without knowing for sure it was real?

All these questions are hypothetical but having a card that is a true "one-of" does make for some odd circumstances and I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility to have a situation similar to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where the fraudulent Golden Ticket made people stop looking. If the true card never surfaced, we'd never know if it was true or not.

If someone buys this thing is they're going to go to the end of the earth to authenticate it (or you would hope) but proxies/counterfeit cards are very good these days and people do get conned on very expensive cards. Maybe cynicism is getting the best of me here but I think these are some interesting things to take into consideration.

The Other Great Rings

If you're unfamiliar with The Lord of the Rings, there were a total of 20 great rings forged - Three were given to the Elves, Seven to the Dwarves, and Nine were given to Men. Then, the final ring, "The One Ring" was forged in secret to rule over all the others by Sauron.

The quote, "One ring to rule them all. One ring to find them. One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." sums this all up in a chilling manner. The point of my recap here is that there are rare serialized versions of Sol Ring that represent the other rings as well. While they're numerous compared to The One Ring, some of them are still going to be very rare.

Each card comes in a limited non-foil, nonserialized version, and a serialized double rainbow version. The number of each version is dedicated by how many that race received in the book multiplied by 1000 for the nonserialized version and 100 for the numbered ones. So, the numbers shake out like this:

• Elven Version:
  • 3,000 non-foil, nonserialized
  • 300 serialized double rainbow foils
• Dwarven Version:
  • 7,000 non-foil nonserialized
  • 700 serialized double rainbow foil cards
• Human Version:
  • 9,000 non-foil nonserialized
  • 900 serialized double rainbow foil cards

These are going to be highly sought-after cards as well and they dodge many of the problems that The One Ring has. From a lore point of view, WOTC did an amazing job on this portion of the set. I think they captured the feel of the books and movies well as far as these Sol Ring go and I couldn't be happier with them.

Conclusion

If you're a Lord of the Rings fan the concept behind these limited cards has to be exciting. It is for me. From a gameplay point of view, The One Ring is pretty awesome and you can do a lot worse than having the other rings represented as the iconic Sol Ring. Only time will tell which lucky (or unlucky) mortal gets Sauron's ring. Comment down below and let me know if you think someone will pull it and how much it will sell for. My official, on the record guess, is a lot!