1993 Magic: The Gathering Alpha Black Lotus

Black Lotus from Limited Edition Alpha, the first Magic: The Gathering set, is the most expensive card the game has produced. It is an artifact that costs nothing to cast and can be sacrificed for three mana of one color, which is why most formats ban it. The usual estimate is about 1,100 Alpha copies; CGC's population report listed 43 numerically graded in October 2024, and the top-graded copies have sold for $511,100 to $3 million since 2021. This file covers the card, its print-run estimates, the population snapshots and the dated sales record, and shows where the sources disagree.

The card and the set

In the mtg.wtf card database, Black Lotus is number 232 in Alpha (LEA), a rare artifact illustrated by Christopher Rush, with the current rules text “{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add three mana of any one color.” Alpha was released on August 5, 1993, with 295 black-bordered cards (74 commons, 95 uncommons, 116 rares and 10 basic lands) and a print run of about 2.61 million cards, according to MTG Wiki. Black Lotus was printed again in Beta and in the white-bordered Unlimited edition the same year and left out of Revised (Wikipedia). CGC's July 2025 sale report puts it plainly: Black Lotus “was not printed in Magic: The Gathering after Unlimited Edition.”

Wizards of the Coast's official reprint policy, dated May 4, 2016, lists Black Lotus among the Limited Edition cards on the Reserved List. It says that “reserved cards will never be printed again in a functionally identical form” and that, starting in 2011, no reserved card is printed “in either premium or non-premium form.” MTG Wiki dates the first published list to March 4, 1996. Wizards' 30th Anniversary Edition, on sale from November 28, 2022 for $999, could include a retro-frame Black Lotus, but those cards have a different back and are “not tournament legal,” Wizards says. In play, Wizards' banned and restricted list, read October 22, 2026, restricts Black Lotus to one copy in Vintage and bans it in Legacy and Commander.

Card outlines (circled numbers):

1. Alpha corners: MTG Wiki gives Alpha a corner radius of about 2 mm, against about 1 mm on later tournament-legal cards; mixed into other cards, Alpha cards counted as marked.
2. Beta: the same black border with the tighter corners. Black border and corners together separate Alpha from Beta.
3. Unlimited: the white border marks the third 1993 printing. Wikipedia's estimates for Black Lotus are about 1,100 Alpha, 3,300 Beta and more than 18,000 Unlimited copies.

The grader's label names the printing, but check it against the card. Our Magic card grading guide walks through the border, corner and back checks that separate Alpha from Beta, Unlimited and the gold-bordered Collectors' Edition.

How many were printed

Wizards of the Coast has not published a per-card print run on any page opened for this file, and the estimates that circulate differ slightly:

MTG Wiki gives the 2.61 million total for the set but no per-rare figure. Treat “about 1,000 to 1,100” as an estimate, not a count.

Population snapshot

The two PSA figures disagree, and PSA's own population report was not opened for this file, so treat both as reported counts rather than PSA data. CGC's numbers come from CGC's own releases. A 2022 Fanatics Collect lot for a PSA-authenticated, artist-signed copy also printed “PSA Population 1 of 3” for that autograph grade. See the population report guide for how these counts are kept.

Notable public sales

Top-grade Alpha Black Lotus results, 2021–2026 (bars to scale)

1. Jan. 2021 · PSA 10 · eBay via PWCC$511,100
2. Mar. 2023 · PSA 10 · PWCC$540,000
3. Apr. 2024 · CGC Pristine 10 · private sale$3,000,000
4. Sept. 2026 · PSA 10 · Goldin$2,208,200

Sources disagree on what counts as a record. ICv2 wrote on September 20, 2026 that the Goldin PSA 10 “hammered a record auction price for this card type”; Star City Games wrote a day later that the $2.2 million “doesn't set the record for a Black Lotus auction.” Both agree the April 2024 private sale of the CGC Pristine 10, $3 million, remains the highest price for an Alpha Black Lotus, a figure reported by CGC and cllct. Neither source gives the exact closing date of the Goldin auction; Star City Games says it ended on a Saturday, and PriceCharting lists it on September 20.

Two kinds of Black Lotus sell for Alpha-level money without being Alpha cards. Heritage sold a Beta artist proof, CGC 8.5 and signed by Rush, for $615,000 in March 2023; ICv2 called it “the highest amount paid for a Black Lotus card at auction” at the time. Wikipedia also reports that Post Malone bought a signed artist proof for $800,000 in 2022. Those are different cards from the Alpha issue.

Not tabled: PriceCharting lists Heritage results for grade-9 copies ($156,000 in November 2021, $174,000 in December 2022) and Wikipedia lists a 2013 eBay sale at $27,302, but the lot pages behind those figures were not opened for this file.

Price-guide estimates

PriceCharting says values for grades with no sales data are estimates built from other grades. Its PSA 10 line showed $1,104,110 with a change of −$1,104,090 on the day it was read, which does not match its own listed $2,208,200 Goldin sale, so it is not used here.

Checking a copy

• Confirm the printing: black border and the rounder Alpha corners, not Beta's tighter ones; a white border means Unlimited, and a gold-bordered back means Collectors' Edition (how to tell them apart).
• Rule out the 30th Anniversary Edition: Wizards says its cards have a different back and are not tournament legal.
• Read the cert record, not only the label. The Fanatics Collect lot text for cert 64433229 says PSA deemed the card Altered even though the holder does not show it. Verify any cert on the grader's site (how) and check the holder against the fake-slab guide.
• Note what is signed: the $511,100 and $540,000 PSA 10s were signed by Rush on the case, not on the card.
• Compare like with like: same printing, grader and grade, autograph or not, and whether the price includes the buyer's premium (how card auctions work).