By: Eric Xu
Magic: The Gathering is a popular card game created in 1993, which has been increasing in popularity ever since. The game has now become even more recognized, and the business of rare cards is booming.
Magic: The Gathering (MTG) was created by Richard Garfield, a mathematician who created the game for his undergraduates. This game slowly got the attention of different people, and drastically rose in popularity during 2008 to 2016. This is the first Trading Card Game (TCG) that was released. The cards hit the shelf in 1993, while the famous game Pokémon was released in 1996. This old card game is still somewhat popular, and the selling of one certain card for an extreme price has helped it even more.
Post Malone, an American rapper, decided to buy a 2 million dollar Magic: The Gathering card. This card is called the ‘One Ring’, and is a crossover from MTG and The Lord of the Rings, and is a one-of-a-kind card. Soon, there will be more of these rare cards, some possibly worth even more that the ‘One Ring’. This means that there are opportunities for people to earn money by selling these rare cards. Multiple other TCGs are rising in popularity, such as Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokémon, and they also may have more opportunities than MTG. Also, more cards are being graded, which is a process where professionals grade cards depending on their condition, centering, and more. They rate it on a scale from 1-10. This can possibly raise the prices of these cards, and as more and more cards are being sent to get graded, the amount of money in these businesses are increasing.
As TCG is getting more popular, and Post Malone bought the ‘One Ring’, the money inside of Magic: The Gathering is increasing, and so are the opportunities for earning money from these rare game cards.
Sources:
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192404827/mitg-pokemon-game-card-collecting
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-twenty-five-year-journey-of-magic-the-gathering#:~:text=Magic%3A%20The%20Gathering%20d%C3%A9buted%20in,with%20fantasy%20illustrations%20to%20match.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/how-to-play