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We found the most expensive - $75,000! - Magic: The Gathering card at PAX West 2025 (No, we didn't buy it)

One of the rarest cards in Magic: The Gathering history can be yours if you're at PAX West 2025 (and you have tens of thousands of dollars to spare)

We have found the most expensive Magic: The Gathering card at PAX West 2025 — and it’s so rare that other dealers were able to guess just what card it was from its price alone.

Journey’s End Games, at booth 3113 in the Summit Building of the Seattle Convention Center, has what the store’s Hunter calls “an Alpha Black Lotus in moderately played condition for $75,000 from 1993,” which he humbly described it as “one of the most iconic Magic cards ever,” adding, “You just don’t see a lot of the alpha Black Lotuses anymore.”

That’s putting it mildly: one of the original set of releases, the card — illustrated by Christopher Rush — isn’t just one of the most rare of all Magic cards, it’s also the most expensive Magic: The Gathering card ever, with a copy in pristine copy selling for $3 million back in 2024.

The “moderately played” version of the card at PAX West? A steal by comparison at $75,000. (Yes, $75,000. That's still cheap if you compare it to $3,000,000.)

Here’s what you could be yours if you could somehow manage to afford it:

As if the card didn’t seem special enough on its own, there’s no small amount of fun to be found in talking to other dealers about the card; when researching what the most expensive card at different dealers throughout the show, booth workers would ask what the priciest card we’d found yet. Impressively, multiple other dealers correctly managed to identify the Black Lotus from its price alone… but then, how many $75,000 cards could there really be at the show?

PAX West 2025 runs through September 1 at the Seattle Convention Center.


Whether you are a Commander player, a regular at your local game shop's FNM event, or simply love collecting Magic: The Gathering cards, you've landed in the right place. From Universes Beyond to the furthest reaches of the Magic Multiverse, we've got you covered here at Popverse. 

About PAX West 2025

PAX West is a celebration of gaming and gaming culture featuring thought-provoking panels, a massive expo hall filled with the best publishers and studios, new game demos, musical performances, tournaments, and a community experience unlike any other.

Dates

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Location

Seattle
United States

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Graeme McMillan

Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.

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