A Redditor recently shared the sad saga of six pallets worth of Magic: The Gathering cards, which were discovered in a Texas landfill. Reddit user u/Latin0 shared a variety of photos to Imgur between February 25 and February 27, showing a variety of MTG sets left to rot. MTG Secret Lair, Modern Horizons 2, and Unfinity cards can be spotted among the debris.
Latin0 tells Reddit they were throwing away trash in their trailer when they discovered the cards. “I saw magic cards close to where I was dumping, looked for the source and I took a pic”, they add. It seems Latin0 isn’t a regular MTG player, as they tell Reddit, “I only know of MTG because of Reddit posts I’ve seen over the years.” This means they likely weren’t aware of the potential value of their find at the time.
It’s difficult to say how much the cards could have been worth. However, the eagle-eyed Dicebreaker team found one MTG Redditor who made a pretty good guess. In reply to Latin0, u/Mirrormn gave the following guesstimation:
“If there’s six pallets, six layers per pallet, 12 cardboard boxes per layer, and four display boxes per cardboard box, then you’re talking about 1,728 display boxes. At $150/box (actually I looked on eBay and MH2 booster boxes are selling for closer to $200, but we can be conservative), then, yeah, you’re looking at close to $260,000 of product.”
We can only speculate on who would order (and then dump) six pallets worth of MTG cards. However they reached the landfill, u/Latin0 says they met a grim end. “The cards are gone”, Latin0 says after returning to the landfill. “I don’t think anyone driving those dozers knew or saw what was inside them.”
Latin0 did manage to take a few items from the heap, though. One package they grabbed ended up with Latin0’s coworker and their family. “We face timed, no Black Lotus card”, they tell Reddit. Latin0 also kept two cards from a 2021 Secret Lair drop: Dack Fayden and a generic Island card. “I’m keeping them to remind myself of a ‘woulda coulda shoulda’ moment of my life”, Latin0 tells Reddit. “Probably worth little but will mean a lot to me.”
“I do regret not taking a box or two”, Latin0 says. “I didn’t know they were worth thousands of dollars”, they add. There’s no way to confirm how much the trashed cards could have been worth, but Latin0’s photos seem to have whipped Magic Reddit into a frenzy.
In response, Latin0 repeatedly reminds fans no one is allowed to remove items from the landfill. “The cards are all under layers of trash, and each day two to four layers are being added”, they tell Reddit. “Don’t try to come and look for some. They are all damaged.”
“My biggest concern is I know some of you figured out the location; don’t call them”, they add. “Don’t come to get them. The same field supervisors will tell you the same thing if you come out there. ‘You’re not allowed to take anything from here’.”
See Latin0’s discovery in full in their Imgur posts from February 26 and February 27, as well as their update Reddit post.
For new MTG cards, unsullied by landfill rubbish, our MTG 2023 release schedule can tell you when to expect the latest releases. Or for cards that will never end up in a landfill, take a look at the digital goodies in our MTG Arena decks and MTG Arena codes guides.