Complete Beta Set Valued at $265,641 on Japanese Antiques TV Show

Last updated on June 13, 2025

Counterspell | Illustration by Mark Poole

Picture this: You're up late at night watching Tokyo television (you're in Japan in this scenario). You're watching Nandemo Kanteidan, the Japanese equivalent of the Antiques Roadshow, and a man from Osaka, Japan brings in a complete collection of Beta Magic: The Gathering cards for appraisal. What number would you put on that man's collection? How about an astonishing $265,000 (roughly 38 million yen)?

A Complete Collection of Magic History

Source: Reddit

Limited Edition Beta is MTG's second ever set release. It's essentially an overhaul of the original Limited Edition Alpha set from 1993, with corrections to cards and a few additional cards that didn't make it into Alpha for various reasons. Together with the following Revised Edition, Alpha-Beta-Revised make up the original trio of Magic's early releases, and pretty much anything from that era is steeped in vintage collectability.

Beta features 302 cards total, which includes three different versions of each basic land, all 10 original dual lands, a complete set of the Power Nine, and of course, Dingus Egg. Notably, Beta actually holds the original printing of Volcanic Island, the only OG dual to be left out of Alpha (same goes for Circle of Protection: Black).

Collectors will recognized the Power Nine as the hallmark cards from this era. They're considered the most powerful cards ever printed (Nadu, Winged Wisdom wasn't around at the time), and include the following:

• Black Lotus
• Ancestral Recall
• Time Walk
• Timetwister
• The five Moxes: Mox Jet, Mox Emerald, Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, and Mox Sapphire.

There's a stark difference between the price of Alpha cards and Beta cards, but the second-edition versions are still incredibly valuable. A Beta Black Lotus alone goes for tens of thousands of dollars, and that's assuming they're not in pristine condition (cards that have been around for over 30 years rarely are).

But our hero from Osaka brought much more than just the most well-known Beta cards. He had a 100% complete collection of the set, including all the chaff and filler people love. All the Animate Walls and Glasses of Urzas and Raging Rivers $265,000 could buy. To be clear, the individual didn't sell their collection for the full $265,641, that's just the price the appraisers put on it.

Not Quite First

Source: Cardmarket

This isn't the first time a sale like this has been made. Back in 2022, an anonymous German collector had three complete sets of Beta valued by Cardmarket for €1,000,000, which is just over $1,000,000. The items weren't being sold or put on auction, just appraised for value, but it was still quite the attention-grabber to see that much Power in one place, all held in the hands of one individual collector.

The thing about Alpha–Beta cards is that they really don't have any room to go but up. Not only are they dripping with status and prestige, but many of the notable cards from those sets are on Magic's Reserved List, which means they can't legally be reprinted in new sets. That's a huge double-edged sword for players and an everlasting point of contention in the Magic community, but it's a key reason cards like the Power Nine will basically always maintain their value. And that's exactly how you end up with a quarter-of-a-million-dollar pricetag on something like a full set of Beta MTG cards.