A Magic: The Gathering collector is parting with an astounding set of 302 very valuable artist proofs, kicking January off with one of the biggest MTG sales of all time. On January 1, they put a complete set of Alpha APs, each one signed by the original artist, up on eBay for $2,200,000. According to the seller, this collection was 20 years in the making and “the pictures don’t do it justice”.
Obviously you’d have to be a very dedicated, very rich fan to part with that much dosh over some cardboard rectangles, but what we’re talking about here is one of the rarest collections we’ve ever seen, to the point where it’s genuinely tricky to put forward even a rough estimate of its true value.
A Chris Rush-signed Black Lotus alone is worth close to a million dollars, and before he bought The 1/1 One Ring for an even higher sum, rapper Post Malone revealed he’d spent $800,000 on precisely one of these. The seller says the card in this collection is rarer than most Chris Rush APs because it’s numbered – something Rush apparently only did for eight Black Lotuses in total.
In case you’re wondering what the big deal is, these are artist proofs of Alpha cards from the very first MTG set. First edition Alpha cards are all pretty pricey, with the more prestigious ranking among the most expensive Magic: The Gathering cards of all time. You’ll recall back in 2022 Wizards of the Coast was able to charge $999 for four packs of cards that just looked like they came from Alpha.
But artist proofs are even more scarce than real cards (or anniversary edition ‘non-tournament legal’ pieces for that matter). Magic: The Gathering cards without their backs, Wizards of the Coast gives a limited number of artist proofs to each card’s illustrator, which they can then sign and sell or simply give away. The older these are the rarer and more expensive they tend to be, and you don’t get any older than Alpha.
Sometimes, MTG artists will add another drawing – usually a sketched version of what’s on the front – on the blank back of their artist proof cards, further adding to their status. That’s another exciting part of this collection: not only is every single card signed, almost all of them are illustrated, with “recreation” artwork by the original illustrator.
Some of these sketches were presumably completed when the APs were first printed, but for others the collector seems to have made it a personal mission to get recreation sketches completed. In the description, the eBay seller describes building the collection as “an amazing journey” where they “met collectors from around the world” and “got to work with all these amazing artists”.
According to the seller, there are only 11 cards where the signed version is not illustrated by the original artist. For each of these, they’ve instead included another unsigned artist proof, with artwork by another Magic artist. For Black Lotus, instead of a second ridiculously rare AP, they added a Blacker Lotus AP from the unset Unglued, with a sketch by Chris Rush on the backside. For the Quinton Hoover APs, the collector chose illustrators who knew the late artist personally.
We’re slightly surprised to see a collection of this magnitude selling on eBay rather than a dedicated auction site. Notably, the eBay user has an email address as their username, so they may be seeking to attract a buyer to arrange a private sale.
According to the description, the collector is willing to meet anywhere in the US to make a sale. They’re willing to sell the Black Lotus separately, but want to keep the rest of the collection together. We’ll be watching this one with great interest, to see what figure it eventually goes for.
For more fun reads, check out our timeline of every event that didn’t (quite) destroy Magic, or fill out your calendar with the 2025 MTG release schedule.
Source: Wargamer
