“Lord of the Rings” lore tells of the ring bearers who carried the One Ring after it was forged by the Dark Lord Sauron in the fires of Mount Doom.
But there’s a ring bearer who’s never mentioned in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy: Brook Trafton, who found the One Ring a couple months ago, not in Middle Earth, but Toronto. Or rather, Trafton found a unique One Ring card from Magic: The Gathering’s newly released set based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic about elves, hobbits and wizards.
Unlike the ring bearers who preceded him, Trafton — a 37-year-old retail worker — has already given the One Ring to someone else: rapper and singer Post Malone, a well-known Magic player. Trafton told The Washington Post that giving up such a precious card was made easier by Malone paying him a “life-changing” $2 million.
Trafton never would have found the One Ring if he’d stuck to his plan for June 16, the day Wizards of the Coast prereleased its Lord of the Rings set. As a devoted Magic player, Trafton had already preordered a box and planned to pick it up the next day.
But as fate would have it, he awoke early that morning and “had a feeling” that he should venture down to Face to Face Games in Toronto. He was waiting at the door when it opened. He picked up his preordered box and, on a lark, asked if there were extras. There were eight that weren’t spoken for, and he bought two of them.
Trafton knew of the unique One Ring card before the day of the prerelease. The publishing company Wizards of the Coast had created relatively common cards for all the Rings of Power, including the One Ring. But the company had also made stylized versions of those cards stamped with unique serial numbers.
There were still hundreds of copies of the serialized cards for the other rings. But when it came to the “ring to rule them all,” they made “The 1 of 1 Ring,” which was “printed in the Black Speech of Sauron,” according to the Magic website.
“They made it special,” Trafton said.
Others thought so, too, and were seeking it. Three months before the prerelease, a well-known collector put a $100,000 bounty on the card. On June 7, a collectibles company upped that offer, announcing it would pay out $1 million. A gaming store in Spain put out a bounty for over $2.1 million a week later.
Trafton was vaguely aware of all of that when he got home from Face to Face Games. He said he was merely trying to get into the new Magic set and not really hunting for any particular cards. At his boldest, he dared to hope for a serialized version of one of the other rings.
Trafton opened the first extra box and found nothing extraordinary. About six packs into the second, he almost missed it. A veteran of Magic, Trafton was familiar with how packs were ordered: common cards at the front and rarer ones at the back. And so he breezed past it as he raced through the first few cards.
But he did a double take, went back and saw it — Elvish writing etched in gold foil and, most importantly, the “1 of 1 Ring” note in the lower left corner. He realized he had found the One Ring.
“I was instantly filled with adrenaline,” he said.
Trafton reached out to his cousins and friends for advice. They suggested he put it somewhere safe like a bank, advice he followed. The next day, his cousin introduced him to a lawyer who put him in touch with the Notable Group, a marketing agency in Toronto, and “everything kind of took off from there.” When he met with his lawyer and Carli Posner, CEO of the Notable Group, they asked him what he wanted to do with the card.
Trafton told them he wanted to meet Malone, whose real name is Austin Richard Post, and that he was at the top of his list of possible buyers. Trafton is a big fan, not just of Malone’s music but also his love for Magic. Last year, Malone spent $800,000 on a “Black Lotus,” making it the most expensive Magic card at the time.
Trafton’s new team reeled in his hopes about selling to Malone.
“They’re like, ‘Okay, that’s a great idea, but now let’s talk about, you know, adult things,’” he said.
Over the next few weeks, they made plans to sell the card to someone else.
Then, while Trafton was at work on July 20, he got a call from Posner. She told him to drop what he was doing and meet her for an impromptu meeting with Malone, who was in Toronto for a concert.
There was still no real sign that Malone wanted to buy the card or that their upcoming meeting would last more than 30 seconds. Still, Trafton wanted a Magic aficionado like Malone to at least see the card up close before he sold it.
“I know his love for the game, his love for Magic,” Trafton said, adding: “Because in my mind [our meeting] might be the last chance he even gets to hold it or see it or take a picture. Then it might go in someone’s safe-deposit box for 20 years.”
Trafton met Malone at the Budweiser Stage and told him straightaway why he was so intent on showing him the card.
“I wanted you to be able to appreciate this,” Trafton recalled saying.
The two players started talking Magic. After a while, Trafton opened up about his mother dying of cancer in the past year, approaching middle age as a retail worker and how selling the “The 1 of 1 Ring” card was going to change his life.
Malone asked Trafton what his commander was, a Magic-related question about the card around which a player builds a themed deck. Trafton told Malone he could do him one better. He’d snuck his commander deck past security and into the concert. Did he want to see it?
Malone did. After checking it out, the rapper told Trafton he’d take it.
Trafton was confused. Malone repeated himself: He’d buy “The 1 of 1 Ring” card for $2 million.
For Trafton, it was an easy decision — deal. Not only would he get a life-changing amount of money, the card would go to someone who loved the game just as much as he did.
The two shook hands, cheered and hugged. Trafton choked up. Malone gave everyone beers to celebrate and invited Trafton to stay for the concert.
They’ve since completed the deal and, after consulting with financial advisers, Trafton has invested the money in such a way that his returns should cover his rent, groceries and bills. He kept his retail job and expects he’ll be able to retire at 55.
Malone is already making use of his purchase, Trafton said. Since striking the deal, the singer posted a video on TikTok of him playing the card during a Magic game. Trafton said he wouldn’t be surprised if Malone lets other players take pictures with it, a scene he expects to play out repeatedly in the future.
“It’s going to see life. It’s going to be out there as opposed to sitting in someone’s fancy collection for no one to see,” he said.
The cost, of course, is that Trafton no longer has the One Ring. But he has no regrets. The Ring brought him enough money to change his life and an experience he never could have imagined.
For that, it will always be precious to him.
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/08/17/post-malone-magic-card-one-ring/