Magic: The Gathering Alpha Black Lotus PSA 10

Magic's first press run

Magic: The Gathering grew out of a 1991 meeting in Oregon between Richard Garfield, a doctoral candidate in combinatorial mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, and Peter Adkison, a Boeing systems analyst who had just started a small Seattle company called Wizards of the Coast. Adkison passed on Garfield's board game RoboRally but said he wanted a portable game; on a hike near Multnomah Falls, Garfield hit on collectible, color-themed cards that each player would build into a personal deck.

The first set, Limited Edition, debuted in a limited release at the Origins Game Fair in 1993 and went into general release on August 5, 1993. Its first press run of 2.6 million cards, known as Alpha, sold out quickly, and a second run, Beta, followed in October. Officially they are one set: Wizards expected that people would not be able to tell them apart.

They could. The printer used different corner-rounding dies for Beta, so Alpha cards have noticeably rounder corners than every Magic card printed since. Alpha has 295 cards; Beta added two cards whose art had not been finished in time and new basic land art, for 302.

Alpha came in 60-card starter decks with two rares and in 15-card booster packs with one rare. Rares were printed on separate sheets in far smaller numbers than commons, and the usual estimate is about 1,100 copies of each Alpha rare. Black Lotus was one of them.

The most powerful card ever printed

Black Lotus is an artifact that costs nothing to cast. In play, its owner can sacrifice it to add three mana of one color, letting a player cast spells turns earlier than an opponent. A 2016 PSA article noted that with the right combination of cards, a player could win on the first turn. It heads the Power Nine, the nine cards considered the most powerful in the game's history.

The early designers made rares powerful on purpose, on the theory that limited supply would keep them scarce in play. They did not foresee players spending hundreds of dollars to own several copies; they assumed spending would stop at around $30 to $50.

The art is by Christopher Rush, who illustrated more than 100 Magic cards and helped design the five mana symbols. He was also the first artist from outside Japan to illustrate a Pokemon card. Rush died on February 10, 2016, at 50. Both PSA 10 copies that set records in 2021 and 2023 carry his signature.

Sold out in a weekend

Wizards did not have the money to produce the cards in time for Gen Con in Milwaukee that August. Adkison took a single box of cards to the Origins Game Fair, demonstrated the game to a game manufacturer's representatives, and came home with $40,000 in funding. At Gen Con, the shipment of 2.5 million cards arrived a day late and still sold out by the end of the convention. By October 1993, Wizards had sold all 10 million cards it had ordered across Alpha and Beta.

The original rules said every game was played for ante: each player set aside a random card from the deck, and the winner kept both. Nobody treated the cards as collectibles yet; collectors later told PSA that early copies were played hard and stored in primitive nine-pocket binders, which left dents and wear.

Wizards later put Black Lotus and the rest of the Power Nine on its Reserved List of cards it promised never to reprint. The white-bordered Unlimited edition of December 1, 1993, was the last time the card was printed for tournament play.

From $27,302 to half a million

In 2013 a high-grade copy sold online for $27,302. An Alpha Black Lotus graded 9.5 sold in April 2016 for $38,000 and another 9.5 brought $166,100 on February 27, 2019. A 2016 PSA article guessed that a PSA 10, if one came up, would bring $40,000 to $55,000.

Then the PSA 10s appeared. On January 27, 2021, a PSA 10 Alpha Black Lotus signed by Christopher Rush sold for $511,100 in an online auction, more than triple the previous Magic record; bidding had passed $700,000 before the seller restricted it to preapproved bidders. PSA's own sales log dates the result January 28. On March 16, 2023, another PSA 10 signed by Rush sold at auction for $540,000, beating the 2021 price by $28,900.

The record moved to another grading service in 2024, when an Alpha Black Lotus graded CGC Pristine 10, unsigned, sold privately for a reported $3,000,000, paid in bitcoin. Some observers questioned whether the private sale was what it appeared to be. A signed artist proof Black Lotus, a different card, sold privately to the musician Post Malone for $800,000 in 2022.

What makes a 10 so rare

A genuine Alpha Black Lotus has a black border, the steeply rounded Alpha corners and no expansion symbol, copyright date or trademark symbol; the bottom left carries only the artist credit. Beta copies have tighter corners, and Unlimited copies have white borders. A 2023 30th Anniversary reprint uses a modern frame and a different back and is not tournament legal.

Black borders show every chip and nick, and the rare's position near the front of starter decks and packs exposed it to damage. Collectors told PSA in 2016 that play wear and dents from early nine-pocket binders were the biggest problems.

PSA's census as fetched in October 2026 lists 3 PSA 10s, 21 PSA 9s and 41 PSA 8s among 114 graded. PSA's 2016 article reported seven PSA 10s out of 102 submitted; the census does not explain why the count is lower today.

The numbers

Set

Limited Edition Alpha, 295 cards: 116 rares, 95 uncommons, 74 commons, 10 basic lands

Alpha print run

2.6 million cards; about 1,100 of each rare

Later printings

Beta (about 3,300 Black Lotuses), Unlimited (over 18,000); never reprinted for play since

PSA 10 population

3 (PSA census as fetched October 2026)

PSA 9 population

21 (same census)

PSA 8 population

41 (same census)

Total graded by PSA

114 (same census)

Timeline

1. 1991

   Richard Garfield meets Peter Adkison of Wizards of the Coast in Oregon; the idea for Magic follows.

2. 1993

   Limited Edition debuts in a limited release at the Origins Game Fair.

3. Aug 5, 1993

   General release of Magic: The Gathering; the Alpha run of 2.6 million cards sells out.

4. Oct 1993

   The Beta run follows; Wizards has sold out its 10 million cards.

5. Dec 1, 1993

   The white-bordered Unlimited edition, including Black Lotus, is released.

6. 2013

   A high-grade Black Lotus sells online for $27,302.

7. Feb 10, 2016

   Artist Christopher Rush dies at 50.

8. 2016

   PSA reports seven PSA 10s out of 102 Alpha Black Lotuses submitted.

9. Feb 27, 2019

   An Alpha Black Lotus graded 9.5 sells at auction for $166,100.

10. Jan 27, 2021

    A signed PSA 10 Alpha Black Lotus sells for $511,100, the highest price then paid for any trading card game card.

11. Mar 16, 2023

    Another signed PSA 10 sells at auction for $540,000, a new Magic record.

12. Mar 2024

    A CGC Pristine 10 Alpha Black Lotus sells privately for a reported $3,000,000.

13. Oct 2026

    PSA's census lists 3 PSA 10s.

The world in 1993

• Jan 20, 1993

  Bill Clinton is sworn in as the 42nd president.

• Feb 26, 1993

  A van bomb explodes beneath the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing six.

• Apr 19, 1993

  The 51-day standoff at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ends in a fire that kills 76.

• Jun 11, 1993

  Jurassic Park opens in theaters.

• Jun 20, 1993

  The Chicago Bulls win their third straight NBA title.

• Aug 1, 1993

  The Great Flood of 1993 on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers reaches its peak.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Magic: The Gathering Alpha Black Lotus PSA 10 is number 12 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (79 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Alpha cards are so easy to spot by their rounded corners that tournament rules require opaque sleeves for any deck that includes them.
• Wizards of the Coast's shipment for its Gen Con debut arrived a day late and still sold out by the end of the show.
• Christopher Rush, the Black Lotus artist, also drew a Mewtwo promo, making him the first artist outside Japan to illustrate a Pokemon card.
• The 1998 joke set Unglued parodied the card with 'Blacker Lotus,' which gives four mana but must be torn to pieces.
• Alpha omitted Volcanic Island and Circle of Protection: Black because their art was not finished in time.