Radiation, Web‑Slings and $2 Million Dreams – Hyping the Marvel’s Spider‑Man Magic: The Gathering Set
- Black Swan Collectibles
- Aug 3
- 3 min read
Magic: The Gathering continues its Universes Beyond initiative with Marvel’s Spider‑Man, a full Standard‑legal set scheduled for September 26 2025. Previews start on September 1, the card image gallery is complete by September 5, prerelease events run September 19‑25 and the global release lands September 26tcgplayer.com. It’s the most anticipated crossover since The Lord of the Rings, and the marketplace reflects that anticipation.
A lineup designed to sell out
TCGplayer’s presale listings give us a clear view of the product lineup and the frenzy around it. Each product is sold “unopened” with shipping included and a presale shipping date of either Sept 26 or Sept 19. The table below summarises the primary boxes and packs.
The collector booster display case (six displays) commands an eye‑watering $6,599.99 tcgplayer.com while a play booster display case costs $1,098.95 tcgplayer.com. These are presale prices and could adjust when the set releases, but they already dwarf the retail price of most previous Magic sets.
Why the hype?
Marvel’s Spider‑Man brings sixty years of web‑slinging history into the Magic multiverse. The official product description notes that each collector booster “gathers all the coolest cards and foil treatments in one place” and contains rares and mythics plus a Borderless rare, basic land and more web‑slinging heroes tcgplayer.com. Play boosters combine set boosters and draft boosters into a new format, offering a chance at multiple rares per pack. Scene boxes include six oversized scene cards that piece together a full story tcgplayer.com, while prerelease packs give players their first taste of the set a week earlytcgplayer.com.
TCGplayer isn’t the only marketplace where demand is visible. eBay presales for collector booster displays are routinely listed between $750 and $970; many listings offer buy‑it‑now prices around $899 or higherebay.comebay.com. Considering the product doesn’t ship until September, this secondary‑market frenzy hints at speculative buying similar to last year’s Lord of the Rings release.
The radioactive rumour
Fueling the frenzy is a sensational rumour: a one‑of‑one “Radioactive Spider” card that supposedly contains real radiation. The satirical site Commander’s Herald joked that Wizards of the Coast is following up the success of The One Ring by introducing a unique card called Radioactive Spider; the article claims the card will have “a single unique version with real radiation” and will be coated in a thin layer of uranium commandersherald.com. It even notes that the unique card would be packaged in lead‑lined “Bourgeois Boosters” costing $159.99 commandersherald.com. Although the piece is clearly labelled as satire commandersherald.com, the idea of a one‑of‑a‑kind radioactive chase card has spread across social media and has contributed to the speculative bubble around the set.
Post Malone’s $2 million precedent
A major reason this rumour is taken seriously is the precedent set by the one‑of‑one The One Ring card from the Universes Beyond The Lord of the Rings set. In 2023, rapper Post Malone purchased the card from collector Brook Trafton for $2 million, confirming its status as the most valuable Magic card ever polygon.com. The card was a unique serialized copy covered in gold foil and authenticated by PSA polygon.com. Post Malone’s purchase proved that there is a real market for single‑card collectibles at multi‑million‑dollar valuations.
If a genuine 1‑of‑1 chase card were inserted into Marvel’s Spider‑Man, speculators could rationally expect it to fetch similar or even higher sums. The mere possibility has already pushed collector booster presales close to $1,000 on eBay and over $921 on TCGplayer tcgplayer.com ebay.com. Even without such a card, the set’s limited supply, cross‑media appeal and Standard legality make it attractive to players and investors alike.
Final thoughts
With previews and prerelease still weeks away, Marvel’s Spider‑Man has already become one of the hottest items in collectible gaming. Presale prices show no sign of cooling off, and rumours of a radioactive one‑of‑one card add fuel to the fire. Whether or not the radioactive card exists, the hype demonstrates how strong the demand is for Universes Beyond products. If you’re a Spider‑Man fan or an MTG player hoping to draft the set, it may be wise to secure product sooner rather than later. And if you’re a collector dreaming of pulling the next multi‑million‑dollar card, remember: with great power comes great responsibility—and sometimes, great radiation.
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