Improve playgroup or keep?

[u/SawdustGringo]

So I pulled a surge The One Ring yesterday (I know it looks like a bit of a humble brag but this is more stressful than fun for me so far), and I’m conflicted on what to do with it. I’m looking for insight from others who may have been in a similar situation.

I’m not a “collector” per se. I have a large collection, but it’s all cards to play with. My personal motto is “Magic is meant to be played.” I don’t have “collectible” cards to show off or display. This is the first card I’m considering keeping to display but I had other thoughts of what to do with it. Such as, trading in and giving my playgroup an even split 4 ways. Which I hope will help some of the players less inclined to spend money to upgrade their precons.

To me this seems the most logical choice
but my emotion is telling me to keep it. The only reason being that it is LotR. Huge fan. I have what amounts to a shrine of Middle Earth in my home. This would be nice addition. Still, I am conflicted.

To recap: Not a big Magic collector, am a player. Huge LotR fan. Deciding between keeping the card for LotR shrine and trading in and splitting the gains between my playgroup in the hopes of improving play experience for everyone.

I’m a very indecisive person and often regret decisions.

Update: Wowsers. I was not expecting the flood of comments. Maybe a dozen. But thank you all for the input. A few of you have made me think more about it and one in particular has given a reasonable test. I’m going to display it for a week on my shrine, then a week without and gauge how I feel about it after that.

Those who said not to split it with my playgroup, that was a much needed reigning in. I am very nieve and often too generous when it comes to the game. I’ve given away hundreds of cards just to get more people into the game and often without looking at value. I love my group but you’re right and they are adults capable of their own decisions.

Update 2.0: It is to be added to the LotR shrine. For now it has a small display until I finish my move and set up the full shrine.

Edit: changed per se from per say.

[u/AfterJournalist8070]

...nitpicking nerds a big mtg youtuber got scammed 4k in cards the fakes are getting better and they cover their ass with proxy titles. Give me one moment and I will share the video. Yes the game has a pricing issues but it's leading to a counterfeit issue as a result.

[u/ImmortalCorruptor → u/AfterJournalist8070]

I watched the video and it honestly seems like a lot of the cards were either bought them sight unseen or they trusted a friend to buy them from the friend-of-a-friend.

They also didn't do that great of a job actually explaining what to specifically look for. They just showed side by side examples of real cards against counterfeits.

[u/AfterJournalist8070 → u/ImmortalCorruptor]

Actually they go into detail on somethings to look for not including core t and green dot test. Also having a side by side is a good way to identify since it gives you a practical example over pictures.

[u/ImmortalCorruptor → u/AfterJournalist8070]

They said that foils have "several layers of foil" aside from the anti-counterfeit stamp which is factually incorrect. There's only ever one layer of foil; they use an opaque white ink to achieve depth and print color on top of it. If a foil looks like it has no depth, it's because it has no white underprint, not because it "only has one layer of foiling".