Post Malone pays fan $2m for Magic: The Gathering 'One Ring' card
- Published
A Toronto retail worker made an unbelievable discovery this summer and is now $2m (£1.57m) richer for it.
Brook Trafton found a rare collectable game card for table-top fantasy game Magic: The Gathering (MTG).
As a lifetime player of the game, he tells BBC News that finding the card was a "childhood dream".
"I was overwhelmed with joy and emotion," he says. "How can someone like me actually find something so astronomical?"
When Mr Trafton called the store he bought the pack from to ask how to verify its authenticity, they first hung up on him - thinking it was a prank.
It turns out the next steps after finding a card like this are similar to winning the lottery. Mr Trafton knew he had to put it "somewhere safe".
"I called around to every bank I could get a hold of to find a spot within like a half hour."
He also retained a lawyer the next day.
"I find it was even crazier than the lottery," he says. "I wanted to tell everyone, but I couldn't. I had to keep it a secret. I didn't even tell my dad."
As a fan of Post Malone, who is a known enthusiast of the fantasy game, the thought of selling a card to the American rapper had occurred to Mr Trafton before he struck lucky.
The ultra-rare card is part of a Lord of the Rings-themed version of the table-top game
Post Malone, whose real name is Austin Richard Post, previously spent $800,000 on another rare MTG card.
Mr Trafton had several other offers on the table and was at his retail job when his public relations firm called him, and said he needed to leave work because "you're going to meet Post Malone, he wants to meet you, take some pictures with the card".
What was supposed to just be a backstage meet-and-greet turned into an "unexpected" sale, when Post Malone started asking what the current bid price was.
"As soon as he saw [the card] he said yes," Mr Trafton recalls. "I said 'pardon, like, what do you mean?'"
"He's like, 'yes, I will take this card.'"
After shaking hands, Post Malone gave Mr Trafton a beer to celebrate and the sale was officially finalised the day before Mr Trafton's 37th birthday.
"It was so magical," Mr Trafton says. "I'm not going to lie. I cried a little bit. I cried a lot."
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- Published17 May 2023
