Magic: The Gathering Beta Black Lotus PSA 9

The second run of the first set

Magic: The Gathering's first set, Limited Edition, went on general release on August 5, 1993. Its first press run of 2.6 million cards, now called Alpha, sold out almost at once, and Wizards of the Coast ordered a second run that arrived in October 1993. That run is Beta. Officially it is the same set; Wizards had expected that nobody would be able to tell the two apart.

Beta was roughly three times the size of Alpha, given as 7.3 million or 7.8 million cards depending on the source, and it sold out as quickly as its predecessor. It fixed a number of Alpha misprints, added two cards whose art had not been ready for Alpha, Volcanic Island and Circle of Protection: Black, and gave each basic land a new illustration, lifting the card count from 295 to 302 so the product could be advertised as having 'over 300 cards.'

Estimates of how many Black Lotuses Beta contained differ. Wikipedia gives about 3,300, against about 1,100 for Alpha and more than 18,000 for the white-bordered Unlimited edition. A 2021 price history of the card cites 3,025 copies of each Beta rare, 1,008 of each Alpha rare and 17,700 of each Unlimited rare. Either way, Beta Black Lotus is about three times as common as Alpha and several times scarcer than Unlimited.

Three mana for nothing

Black Lotus is an artifact that costs nothing to cast. Its owner can sacrifice it to add three mana of one color, which lets a player cast spells turns ahead of an opponent. It is one of the Power Nine, the cards considered the most powerful in Magic's history, and it is banned in every competitive format except Vintage, where a deck may hold one copy.

The card's designers made the early rares powerful on purpose, assuming scarcity would keep them out of most decks; they did not anticipate players spending hundreds of dollars to own several. Wizards later placed Black Lotus on its Reserved List of cards it promised never to reprint, and it has not appeared in a tournament-legal set since Unlimited in December 1993.

The art is by Christopher Rush, who illustrated more than 100 Magic cards for Wizards of the Coast and helped design the symbols for the five colors of mana. Rush died on February 10, 2016, at 50.

A game nobody could keep in stock

Wizards of the Coast had been a small Seattle company when Peter Adkison agreed to publish Garfield's card game in 1991. When the game launched in August 1993 the company's shipment for Gen Con in Milwaukee arrived a day late and still sold out by the end of the convention. By October 1993 Wizards had sold out its entire supply of 10 million cards, and the company was reluctant even to advertise because it could not keep up with demand.

That October is when Beta reached stores. Players at the time used the cards as game pieces, and the original rules called for every game to be played for ante, with the winner keeping a card from the loser's deck. People did not think of these cards as collectibles when they were released.

From $15 to $50,000

An early hobby-magazine price guide, its first issue published in June 1994, valued a Beta Black Lotus at a median of $15, with a high of $22.50. Prices climbed fast: by October 1995, sixteen months later, the same guide put it at $275.

For more than a decade after that, Beta copies were worth more than Alpha copies. The steeply rounded Alpha corners made those cards ineligible in some tournaments, so players preferred Beta for their decks. Once the corners stopped mattering to most buyers, Alpha's greater scarcity won out again, and Alpha is now worth more.

Grading changed the market again. In the winter of 2004, PSA 9 copies of Black Lotus were changing hands for about $2,200 to $3,600. On May 26, 2024, a PSA 9 Beta Black Lotus sold for $50,000.00 through an online marketplace. At the very top of the Black Lotus market, Alpha copies in PSA 10 sold for $511,100 in 2021 and $540,000 in 2023, and a CGC Pristine 10 Alpha sold privately for a reported $3,000,000 in 2024.

How to identify it

A Beta Black Lotus has a black border and the same artwork and text as the Alpha card, with no expansion symbol or copyright date; the bottom left carries only the artist credit. The difference is in the corners: the printer used different corner-rounding dies for Beta, so Beta corners are tighter, matching every card printed after it, while Alpha corners are steeply rounded. Unlimited copies have white borders.

Wizards has also issued non-tournament versions, including artist proofs, Collectors' Edition cards, oversized cards and 2023 30th Anniversary proxies with a modern frame and a different back. None of them is a Beta Black Lotus.

Black borders show every chip, and collectors told PSA that early copies typically carry play wear and dents from being kept in primitive nine-pocket binders. Finding one that grades Mint after three decades is the challenge.

The numbers

Set

Limited Edition Beta, 302 cards (Alpha had 295)

Beta print run

7.3 or 7.8 million cards, depending on the source

Black Lotus in Beta

About 3,300 (Wikipedia) or 3,025 (2021 estimate)

Black Lotus in Alpha / Unlimited

About 1,100 (or 1,008) / over 18,000 (or 17,700)

Card

Artifact, zero mana; sacrifice for three mana of one color; restricted to one copy in Vintage

Timeline

1. Aug 5, 1993

   Magic: The Gathering goes on general release; the Alpha run sells out.

2. Oct 1993

   The Beta run reaches stores, including Black Lotus; Wizards sells out its 10 million cards.

3. Dec 1, 1993

   The white-bordered Unlimited edition is released, the last tournament-legal printing of Black Lotus.

4. Jun 1994

   An early magazine price guide lists Beta Black Lotus at a median of $15.

5. Oct 1995

   The same guide lists Beta Black Lotus at $275.

6. 2004

   PSA 9 copies of Black Lotus trade for about $2,200 to $3,600.

7. Feb 10, 2016

   Artist Christopher Rush dies at 50.

8. Jan 27, 2021

   A PSA 10 Alpha Black Lotus sells for $511,100, a trading card game record.

9. 2023

   Wizards' 30th Anniversary set reprints Black Lotus as a non-playable proxy with a modern frame.

10. May 26, 2024

    A PSA 9 Beta Black Lotus sells for $50,000.00 through an online marketplace.

The world in 1993

• Jan 20, 1993

  Bill Clinton is sworn in as the 42nd president.

• Jun 11, 1993

  Jurassic Park opens in theaters.

• Jun 20, 1993

  The Chicago Bulls win their third straight NBA championship.

• Jul 19, 1993

  President Clinton announces the 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy for the military.

• Aug 1, 1993

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

Price record

A realized private sale is a completed transaction outside an auction room. The amount is what changed hands on the date shown. Private sales are reported less consistently than auction results, so a single comparable carries less weight than a run of them.

By reference price, Magic: The Gathering Beta Black Lotus PSA 9 is number 35 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 (80 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• For more than a decade, Beta Black Lotus was worth more than Alpha because Alpha's rounded corners could get a card ruled out of tournaments.
• In June 1994 an early magazine price guide listed a Beta Black Lotus at as little as $9.75.
• Beta added basic land art partly so the box could promise 'over 300 cards.'
• Wizards had expected that nobody would be able to tell Alpha and Beta apart; a change of corner-cutting dies gave it away.
• Christopher Rush, the card's artist, also helped design Magic's five mana symbols.