A retail worker from Toronto who made the once-in-a-lifetime discovery of an ultra-rare game card has sold the precious possession to the artist Post Malone.
Despite the life-changing sale, the seller plans to keep working his day job in retail
Lane Harrison · CBC News
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A retail worker from Toronto who made the once-in-a-lifetime discovery of an ultra-rare game card has sold the precious possession to Austin Richard Post, better known as the rapper and artist Post Malone.
The “One Ring,” found in June 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 Ring series of novels.
Because of the card’s value, the person who found it originally chose to remain anonymous. But on Tuesday, Brook Trafton revealed himself as the one who pulled the card to rule them all. He posted a video on Instagram of himself selling the card to the popular recording artist and noted fan of the game.
“This to me would be, you know, just setting myself up for the future, investing in something. And once I feel like I can no longer work or maybe I want to try something else, I can,” he says.
Trafton sold the card with help of the Notable Group, a marketing and PR agency. The group’s CEO Carli Posner said she couldn’t confirm what taxes and fees might be associated with the sale.
How Post Malone ended up with the card
Trafton says he was invited to meet Malone while the artist was in Toronto for a concert appearance. The meeting was so that the artist could see the card in person.
Once the two were together, he says things escalated quickly and Malone took the lead on turning the meeting into a purchase.
“It happened so fast. Like, I can’t even tell you [what happened]. It was amazing,” he said.
In the video, Malone can be seen opening a black protective case to get a look at the mint-condition card, which includes fiery artwork and the gold ring with lettering printed in the Black Speech of Sauron — one of Tolkien’s fictional languages.
At one point in the montage-style video of their meeting, Malone says, “I’ll take it.”
Trafton says he showed Malone his Magic: The Gathering tattoo and he looked through Trafton’s entire Magic: The Gathering deck.
Malone known fan of the game
This isn’t the first time Malone has spent big on a Magic: The Gathering card.
He’s previously purchased on for about $800,000, he told the Howard Stern Show in June 2022.
The card Malone bought from Trafton was authenticated by Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA). Halifax-based Brad Hartlin is with PSA Canada and flew the card to California for authentication, without ever meeting Trafton.
Hartlin called Malone the “biggest celebrity Magic: The Gathering card collector there is.”
He says this card was the first card released by Magic: The Gathering with a serial number saying it is one-of-one. He says there may be other one-of-ones down the line but this one is special.
“This card is going to stand out for a long, long time as being the number one,” he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lane Harrison is a journalist with the CBC based in Toronto. He previously worked for CBC New Brunswick in Saint John. You can reach him at lane.harrison@cbc.ca
