The value of Magic: The Gathering’s Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth booster boxes has dropped by nearly $100, following the recent discovery of the One Ring serial card.
While the launch of the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth deck for MTG should have just been exciting with the introduction of cards for popular characters like Samwise, Frodo, Gandalf and more, the serialized One Ring Card has mostly taken over the conversation. There is only one version of this card in the world, making it worth up to $2 million, something that has gone mainstream and even spread outside of the MTG community.
Well, as I’m sure you already know, the One Ring card was recently withdrawn in Whitby, Canada, ending the quest and dashing the hopes of anyone hoping that a pre-existing card would make them a multi-millionaire. Wizards of the Coast may have already made a fortune with its Lord of the Rings crossover, but it looks like the boost provided by the One Ring may already be starting to fade.
As pointed out by Redditor alexstam123456789 on the MTGfinance subreddit, the market value of Lord of the Rings Collector booster boxes has already dropped somewhat in the past few days since the discovery. The TCGplayers chart shows that the June 27-29 boost collector’s box was previously valued at $478.69, just one day before the One Ring was found.
Since then, the value of the Collector accelerator has steadily declined, all the way down to $391.55, the lowest since early June. This confirms that the price increase seen on the chart towards the end of June was probably just fueled by collectors looking for the One Ring.
That being said, it’s worth noting that the value of these boxes has fluctuated somewhat since the One Ring was found. Although it saw a big drop to below $400 at one point, TCGplayer currently has a listed box with a market value of $401.63, suggesting that it is slowly making its way back. It’s doubtful it’ll ever get back to the high 400s it was before, but it shows the boxes are still selling and have value.
This may be due in part to the inclusion of stock Sol Rings, which can also be found in Collector boosters. While these don’t fetch as high as $2 million, rarer foil versions still sell for thousands of dollars. Despite the drop, the boxes still seem to be selling relatively well. Just not as good as when I might get $2 million from them.