You Won’t Believe How Much This Magic: The Gathering Card Sold For
Still can't believe it. Also can't believe how the drama amongst Magic players so strikingly resembles daytime television.
By 
Jacob Geers
$14,900.
Yup, you read that right. Almost $15,000. The card was a fairly rare “Tarmogoyf”, which was originally printed in 2007. Player and collector Pascal Maynard found this card at one of the world’s largest Magic conferences.
As it turns out, there is actually a little bit of drama surrounding this card’s arrival to eBay. While at the conference, Maynard managed to snag a place in the top eight draft where players pick their cards. Maynard’s draft pick was broadcast on Twitch.tv where viewers saw him get the now infamous Tarmogoyf card. Maynard’s strategy hencefar was almost totally irreconcilable with the card, but he could still just take it just for the financial benefit. Given the choice between taking the valuable card and selling it, or taking a card that would help him win, he took the sure bet, and grabbed the Tarmogoyf card.
Many seasoned Magic: The Gathering players were initially very unhappy with Maynard’s choice, regarding him as a sellout. Fans took to Twitter in rage:
I've devoted my life to Magic. It's very disappointing to see that one of my peers would sell out for so little.
— Reid Duke (@ReidDuke) June 1, 2015
https://twitter.com/OwenTweetenwald/status/605214811736018944
I just lost all respect for Pascal Maynard.
— William Jensen (@HueyJensen) June 1, 2015
Maynard would later reply to them:
Some play because it’s a great, mind challenging game.
Some play as a lifestyle, they want money, but mostly to maintain the ability to travel, eat, pay rent and not have to work a regular job that could affect their availability.
I’m the latter. The truth is that I thought taking this foil Tarmogoyf, was worth more than the percentage I get from having 1 Burst Lightning in my deck. I didnt do it for the actual money, I did it because I thought this X amount of money could possibly mean going to more Grand Prix.I had under 1 minute to take into account everything and I believe Martin Jůza had the best way to resume my quick thought process. He said, “Would you pay 500$ to have Burst Lightning in your draft deck.”
My answer was no. The reason why I agree with what has been said is that I forgot that I had Worlds and Platinum on the line as a result of having such little time to think.
From my lifestyle standpoint, now that I had more than 1 minute to consider what was on the line at that moment, I missplayed.Do I regret ? From the point of view that my goal is to always find the right play in any giving situation, yes. For the story and entertainment it created … Would do it again.
Interestingly enough, Maynard made his choice to pick the card when he thought it would only be worth “retail value” of about $500. As it turns out, even after giving half the proceeds to a charity, he is still laughing at all the haters on the way to the bank with $7,500. Maybe realizing that, most of the haters have now apologized for their initial remarks.
But anyways. Almost $15,000. Still can’t believe it. Also can’t believe how the drama amongst Magic players so strikingly resembles daytime television. 