‘My hands were literally shaking’: Ultra-rare ‘One Ring’ game card found by Toronto collector

One trading card to rule them all has been found in Ontario.

The “One Ring” is a collectible, one-of-a-kind, card created for the table-top fantasy game Magic: The Gathering as part of a collection celebrating J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings series of novels.

The card, with its gold lettering printed in the Black Speech of Sauron — one of Tolkien’s fictional languages — could fetch millions of dollars. Who pulled it is a mystery, which is a good indicator of just how rare the card is. The ring-bearer has chosen to remain anonymous to protect their precious possession.

But they are a retail worker who lives in Toronto, they said in a statement provided to CBC News through an agency they’ve hired to handle the once-in-a-lifetime sale.

“My hands were literally shaking. I couldn’t believe it was real,” the card owner said in an email through the Notable Group, the marketing and PR agency representing them. “These things don’t happen to people like me.”

So far, one Spanish card reseller has publicly posted an offer of 2 million euros ($2.89 million Cdn) on their website for the card. In early June, before the card was found, a shop based in Buffalo, New York offered a $1 million US ($1.3 million Cdn) bounty for the One Ring.

Meanwhile, the owner says they have no plans to quit their day job.

Card had to be flown to California for authentication

The price of the card may be so high because it finds itself at a valuable intersection, appealing to the Lord of the Rings and gaming card collectors alike, according to James Hammond, co-owner of MAXimum Cards and Collectibles in Whitby, Ont.

“The ability to have the one ring, there’s nothing out there like it,” he said.

Hammond and his co-owner gave the card’s owner some advice on what to do after making the incredible pull. The card wasn’t purchased at the Whitby store but the person who made the life-changing pull is the cousin of a frequent customer.

The card was authenticated by Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), which is the largest third-party trading card authentication and grading company in the world, according to its website.

Once the owner found the card, they wanted to get it authenticated by PSA as soon as possible, according to Halifax-based Brad Hartlin, who is with PSA Canada.

How card grading works

Brad Hartlin, who represents PSA Canada, a company that grades sports cards and sends them to the US says there’s a process that goes into getting a card graded and potentially selling them for large amounts of money.

“It was like, yeah, jump in line,” Hartlin told CBC News. “You’re the 20th person that said they had the card.”

But after doing some due diligence, the specifics of which he’s not at liberty to share, Hartlin said he was 99 per cent sure this was the one ring.

He flew to Toronto, secured the card from the owner’s representatives, then jetted off to California. Once in Los Angeles, he took the card from the airport to PSA headquarters in Santa Ana. It was authenticated, graded as mint and Hartlin got on the overnight flight back to Toronto.

“This is such a unique moment,” he said. “I truly believe when someone buys this card, you’re not going to see it on the marketplace again for a long, long time.”