A PSA 10 Gem Mint Black Lotus, from Magic: The Gathering's Alpha Edition, has been bid up past $300,000 on an eBay auction run by PWCC (as of late on Tuesday, January 19). We earlier reported that bids had exceeded $700,000.  We asked PWCC about the change. "All bidders on our high-end items are actively vetted to ensure their ability to follow through with payment," a PWCC spokesperson told ICv2. "If they are not able to be verified within the given window their bids are removed and a temporary block is placed on their account until they are able to reach out to be verified by our Marketplace Trust team. Due to this, there may at times be some fluctuation in the high bid while our Marketplace Trust team works through the currently active bidders on that auction."

Regardless of the reduction, this auction for a coveted Alpha Edition Black Lotus is looking like it will finally give the recent gem mint Charizard auctions a run for their money as far as highest price realized for a CCG card (see “Record-Setting Sales Number for 'Pokemon TCG 1st Edition' Sealed Product “). This PSA 10 Gem Mint Black Lotus features an on-case autograph of artist Christopher Rush, who created the artwork for this iconic card (see “RIP Christopher Rush“). It is one of seven PSA 10 Gem Mint Alpha Black Lotus cards in existence, and as of the updated publication of this article, the high bidder sits at $310,300. 

High-grade Alpha Edition Black Lotus cards have periodically come up for auction, but haven't realized anywhere near the current high bid. In 2019, a PSA 9.5 Alpha Black Lotus went for $160,000 (see “Rare 'M:TG' Alpha Black Lotus Nearly Doubles Price of Last eBay Auction “), and in 2020, Daniel Chang of Vintage Magic LLC sold another PSA Gem Mint 10 Alpha Black Lotus for $250,000. 

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