Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Magician LOB-005 1st Edition PSA 10

Yugi's wizard

Every hero needs a signature move. In Kazuki Takahashi's Yu-Gi-Oh!, which began in Weekly Shonen Jump in September 1996, the shy teenager Yugi Mutou shares his body with an ancient spirit from the Millennium Puzzle, and his best-known monster is a robed sorcerer: Dark Magician, called Black Magician in Japan. Collectors pair it with the signature monster of his rival, Seto Kaiba: Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

The story eventually gives the monster a past. In the series' ancient Egypt storyline, the priest Mahad fuses his soul with his spirit monster, Illusion Magician, while fighting the Thief King Bakura, and becomes the Dark Magician, continuing to serve the Pharaoh in that form.

As a real card it is a Level 7 DARK Spellcaster with 2500 attack and 2100 defense, a step below Blue-Eyes in raw numbers. Its text is a single line in quotation marks: 'The ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense.'

Takahashi, Konami and Upper Deck

Takahashi, born Kazuo Takahashi in Tokyo on October 4, 1961, drew Yu-Gi-Oh! from 1996 to 2004; the manga sold more than 40 million copies. He died on July 4, 2022, off Nago, Okinawa, reportedly while helping three people caught in a rip current.

Konami turned the fictional game, Duel Monsters, into a real one in Japan in 1999. Upper Deck Entertainment announced exclusive North American distribution rights on February 11, 2002, noting that more than 3.5 billion cards had already sold in Japan, and released the first English set less than a month later. In 2009 Guinness World Records named Yu-Gi-Oh! the top-selling trading card game in the world.

The first English set

Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon went on sale in North America on March 8, 2002, in 1st Edition and Unlimited versions. Its 126 cards came from two Japanese sets of 2000, Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon and Phantom God. Packs held nine cards and boxes 24 packs; the set had 2 Secret Rares, 10 Ultra Rares and 10 Super Rares, and a box usually gave up just two Ultras.

Dark Magician, card LOB-005, was one of those Ultra Rares, alongside Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Gaia The Fierce Knight and the five pieces of Exodia. A collector quoted in a 2019 survey of the set singled out 'Yugi's Dark Magician, Joey's Red-Eyes B. Dragon and Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon' as the beloved monsters that made it special.

That spring Americans were watching the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and lining up for the first Spider-Man film.

What makes a Gem Mint 1st Edition

A 1st Edition card has '1st Edition' printed on its face and a gold Eye of Anubis seal; other prints have a silver one. The PSA population report lists the North American 1st Edition separately from the Asian-English, European, Australian and other language versions, so the label must say LOB 1st Edition.

Collectors divide the North American 1st Edition into glossy and 'wavy' card stocks; the wavy foil was not an intended variation but now often brings a premium. Quality control was poor. Collectors in the 2019 survey listed centering problems, ink splotches, factory lines, square-cut corners, edge dings and color that ranges from very light to very dark, which is why so few copies grade 10.

PSA's CardFacts page lists 88 LOB-005 1st Edition copies at PSA 10, 297 at PSA 9 and 194 at PSA 8.

Sales

PSA's sales record shows four PSA 10 auctions between mid-2024 and the end of 2025. Certification 84140848 sold for $7,000 on July 13, 2024, then again for $6,400 on August 22, 2024. Another copy sold for $6,200 on May 18, 2025, and another for $7,499 on December 29, 2025.

PSA 9 copies of the same card have sold at auction for about $1,000 to $2,550 since 2021, a fraction of the PSA 10 price, with a few unexplained results under $500 in 2023.

Prices for PSA 10s climbed sharply in 2026. Pricing records show copies changing hands between $13,200 and $25,000 from April to September 2026, with wavy copies among them, though those records do not say whether each sale was an auction or fixed-price. Figures of $3,700 in July 2025 and $17,924 in 2021 that circulate for this card could not be confirmed on a page fetched for this story.

Still Yugi's card

Dark Magician has been reprinted many times, in Yugi's Legendary Decks, Yugi's Collector Box and a Legendary Collection mega pack, and it remains one of the franchise's most recognizable monsters. None of those reprints carries the LOB-005 code and 1st Edition marking of the 2002 original.

In the first English set, it is the hero's card, printed four numbers after the rival's dragon.

The numbers

Set

Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon (LOB), 126 cards; 2 Secret, 10 Ultra, 10 Super Rares

Packaging

9 cards per pack, 24 packs per box; about 2 Ultra Rares per box

Card

LOB-005, Ultra Rare; Level 7 DARK Spellcaster, Normal Monster, 2500 ATK / 2100 DEF

PSA population (1st Edition LOB-005)

PSA 10: 88; PSA 9: 297; PSA 8: 194; PSA 7: 79 (PSA CardFacts)

Timeline

1. Sep 17, 1996

   Yu-Gi-Oh! begins serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump.

2. 1999

   Konami launches the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game in Japan.

3. Feb 11, 2002

   Upper Deck announces exclusive North American distribution rights.

4. Mar 8, 2002

   Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon goes on sale in North America with Dark Magician as LOB-005.

5. Oct 14, 2003

   Upper Deck announces the original booster packs, including LOB, will be retired.

6. Jul 7, 2009

   Guinness World Records names Yu-Gi-Oh! the top-selling trading card game.

7. Jul 3, 2019

   A grading-company survey of the set describes its wavy and glossy stocks.

8. Jul 4, 2022

   Kazuki Takahashi dies off Okinawa.

9. Jul 13, 2024

   A PSA 10, cert 84140848, sells at auction for $7,000.

10. Aug 22, 2024

    The same PSA 10 sells again for $6,400.

11. May 18, 2025

    A PSA 10 sells at auction for $6,200.

12. Dec 29, 2025

    A PSA 10 sells at auction for $7,499.

The world in 2002

• Jan 8, 2002

  President George W. Bush signs the No Child Left Behind Act.

• Feb 3, 2002

  The New England Patriots win their first Super Bowl.

• Feb 8, 2002

  The Winter Olympics open in Salt Lake City.

• May 3, 2002

  Spider-Man opens in theaters.

• Jun 12, 2002

  The Los Angeles Lakers win a third straight NBA title.

• Oct 27, 2002

  The Anaheim Angels win their first World Series.

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, Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Magician LOB-005 1st Edition PSA 10 is number 75 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 (86 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• In Japan the card is called Black Magician.
• In the series' backstory, Dark Magician is the priest Mahad, who fused his soul with his spirit monster.
• The card's entire text is one line: 'The ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense.'
• One PSA 10 slab sold twice in six weeks in 2024, for $7,000 and then $6,400.
• Five of the set's ten Ultra Rares are pieces of Exodia, which makes Dark Magician one of only five other Ultras.