Perfect Condition Alpha Black Lotus Sells For an Astonishing $2,200,000

Last updated on September 21, 2026

Black Lotus | Illustration by Raoul Vitale

On Saturday, Goldin Auctions sold a PSA graded Gem Mint 10 Alpha Black Lotus for $2.2 million dollars as part of the Summer Goldin 100 auction series. This pristine Black Lotus is one of only three copies that PSA has graded as being in perfect condition, despite having come out 33 years ago.

Source: Goldin.co

Is This The Most Expensive Black Lotus Ever Sold?

As remarkable as the $2.2 million dollar price tag is, it’s not the most expensive Magic sale, or even the most expensive Black Lotus. That record was earned in 2024, when a CGC graded a Pristine 10 Black Lotus (of an equivalent grade to the one sold last week) sold for $3 million dollars.

A significant sale with a similar number is Post Malone’s purchase of the 1/1 The One Ring in 2023 for over $2 million. A specific number was never disclosed, but it’s reasonable to assume that the unique serialized card sits somewhere between Goldin’s Lotus and the CGC Pristine. Of note, Malone’s purchase of The One Ring was the first time a Magic card sold for over a million.

Why Is Black Lotus So Expensive?

Black Lotus | Illustration by Steven Belledin

Though Black Lotuses rarely go for millions, the card demands high prices on the resale market. A quick perusal of different services shows that Ancestral MTG has an Alpha Lotus for $57,500 (plus a Beta for $31,00), Journey’s End Games has an Alpha Lotus listed for $72,000, and Card Kingdom has an Alpha Lotus for a whopping $89,999.

The price comes in part from the card’s iconic status. It’s the best card ever printed, the pinnacle of the Power Nine, and a critical piece of the game’s history. But scarcity also comes into play here. Black Lotus is part of the Reserved List, so Wizards will never reprint it on paper (several digital printings have been released, including the Magic Online-exclusive Vintage Masters and several digital promos), so the supply is restricted to cards printed in Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited. Those sets came out 33 years ago, so, as you can imagine, the supply’s tight; there’s no telling how many Lotuses are lost. Forgotten in the school yard in the scramble to back to class, left in the rental when summer vacation ended, or simply neglected—while these Magic cards are obscenely valuable today, they were a toy when the game came out. Sleeves are a relatively modern invention.

Another element to note is the different print runs between those three sets. The Beta Lotus from Ancestral MTG goes for $20,000 less in part because there were more Beta Lotuses than Alpha (though factors like condition still apply). Peter Adkison, former CEO of Wizards of the Coast, disclosed some rough numbers about the Alpha and Beta print runs in 2021. Between booster packs and Starter Decks, about 2.61 million Alpha cards were printed while Beta’s print run was a cool 7.63 million, so more than triple Alpha. Adkison estimates there were about 1,008 Lotuses printed in Alpha. Considering how time has whittled down their number, the existing market represents a fraction of that, though how few Alpha Lotuses survive is unclear.