“This is not a joke,” reads the first sentence of the listing’s description. Early in the morning on New Year’s Day, eBay user thelotusvale listed what looks like one of the most impressive collections of Magic: The Gathering cards ever hosted on the online auction site. “What I’m offering is a set of first edition APs,” the listing reads. “Some call them Beta APs. This set took about 20 years to build. Luckily, I started back before they became super hard to find.”
First reported by Wargamer, the set includes 302 “Alpha” cards, early art proofs of the first MTG cards with no back imagery. A limited number of these were given to illustrators by Wizards of the Coast to sign and resell, meaning these are not playable cards, and instead are strictly for collection purposes. Every single one of these 302 cards is signed, with most of them having the more highly coveted glossy back. The 22 that have the lesser matte back “should be considered placeholders until you find a glossy back AP, if any still exist,” the user posted in the description.
“Additionally, all cards include recreation art by the original artist, with 11 exceptions,” which have a second, unsigned copy of the card with recreation art done by other artists. “I specifically chose those artists because they were among the original MTG contributors, they knew [the card’s original designer] personally, and they were not artists represented in this first edition set. As part of this effort, I requested that they each hide a “Q” somewhere in the art, and they all did. Some a little too well. One actually requires a black light to see.”
In a brief FAQ section at the bottom of the listing, the seller states that they are unwilling to break up the set, save for an exception of the coveted – and controversial – Black Lotus card. They are open to going anywhere in the United States to meet someone to complete this multimillion dollar sale, and open to a trade for collector’s edition sets.
The seller described the process of building the set as both “very expensive” and an amazing journey. “I met collectors from around the world, and I got to work with all these amazing artists. For the connections I’ve made with these two groups of people, I will be forever grateful.”
If you have a spare $2.2 million lying around, you can own this collection right now. Otherwise, you can watch in eager anticipation to see where this historic set ends up next.
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