SANTA ANA, Calif. – Nearly $1 million in rare trading cards, including highly valued Pokémon cards, were stolen from a FedEx truck parked near a California business that authenticates and grades the collectible items, according to police.
The theft is the latest in a string of heists involving Pokémon cards, which have exponentially increased in value in recent years.
The Santa Ana Police Department said in a statement on Tuesday that the heist occurred on Oct. 13 outside the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) office in Santa Ana.
The hundreds of stolen cards are estimated to be worth a total of $963,000, according to police.
“However, the exact value of the stolen items has not yet been determined,” according to the Santa Ana police statement.
Nearly $1 million in rare trading cards
lol Market Value Theory in action folks. Should call it Tinkerbell value theory because it doesn’t exist unless you believe!
Oh I bet you’ve got something to say about my beanie baby collection too, huh. I’ll be the one laughing soon enough
My guy, people actually pay big prices for luxury cardboard. Hot new and rare Magic the Gathering cards can easily break over $100 per individual card, and now think how many you could fit on a mail truck. In collectible card terms, adding in sports cards and stuff, $100 really isn’t all that expensive. I mean, the average person sure isn’t buying many, if any, of them, but that doesn’t mean they won’t move off the shelves and into new homes.
They are aware. They explicitly mentioned subjective (aka market) value theory.
Like, it wasn’t a long comment my guy, why would you try to condescendingly explain that people do buy them? We know, it’s still stupid.
Ah, I misunderstood it, then, as more saying that the cards are really worthless and the value is bullshit, like they didn’t think it feasible for that much actually sellable value to be in the truck. I guess that’s my bad, then.
EBay shows that exists…
“Yeah but that’s like, only if people are actually paying those prices” Sees one bid “Holy shit”
They go at auction or private deals, to collectors who particularly have a lot of money.
The value is often in how rare the card is, what condition it’s in, and frankly what Pokémon it is. Everyone likes Pikachu.
The ratings are pretty rigorous. PSA 10 is extraordinary condition, even from printing defects.
- Pikachu Illustrator (PSA 10), 2026 — $16,492,000; Guinness World Records
- Raincoat Pikachu – Art Academy (PSA 10), 2026 — $8,400,000; Dexerto
- Pikachu Illustrator (PSA 10, private sale), 2021 — $5,275,000; Guinness World Records
- Pikachu Illustrator (PSA 9), 2026 — $5,000,000; Heritage Auctions
- Art Academy Mudkip (PSA 10), 2026 — $3,720,000; OTIA
- Ivy Pikachu – Marketing Variation (CGC 8.5), 2026 — $3,300,000; CGC Grading
- Pikachu Illustrator (CGC 9), 2026 — $2,806,271; CGC Grading
- Torchic Gold Star – EX Team Rocket Returns (PSA 10), 2026 — $2,700,000; Alt Auctions
- Pikachu Illustrator (CGC Gem Mint 10), 2026 — ~$2,090,000; CGC Grading
- Bronze Trophy Pikachu – No. 3 Trainer (PSA 10), 2026 — $1,769,000; Goldin Auctions
- Pikachu Illustrator (CGC 9.5, private sale), 2026 — $1,703,100; CGC Grading
- Japanese Base Set Charizard – No Rarity Symbol (PSA 10), 2026 — $1,700,000; Sports Illustrated
- Typhlosion – 1st Edition Neo Genesis (PSA 10), 2026 — $1,549,690; Alt Auctions
- Pikachu Illustrator (PSA 9), 2026 — $1,406,250; Heritage Auctions
- Charizard – 1st Edition Base Set (PSA 10), 2026 — $1,385,274; Alt Auctions
The ratings aren’t rigorous and it’s apparently quite common to resend high value cards hoping for a better result.
The whole industry is a scam meant to both inflate the market and sell the rating service as a product.
Risky move to cheap out on delivery
The hundreds of stolen cards are estimated to be worth a total of $963,000, according to police.
If things are really worth that much, why are you sending them via FedEx?
Odds are those were deliveries from a hundred different customers, but FedEx wouldn’t have sent them on a hundred different trucks.
They were shipped that way by a 3rd party. I’m sure the owners of the cards are asking the same question.
I’ll never understand how shiny cardboard is so valuable. My generation is pathetic. We were supposed to save the world, but we’re no better than the greedy boomers that came before us.
Same reason shiny metals, shiny rocks, and shiny scraps of paper are valuable.
People like them, or are conditioned to like them, or it would take too many beaver pelts to buy a car.
Oh no, not the tulips!
The theft is the latest in a string of heists involving Pokémon cards, which have exponentially increased in value in recent years.
I am wondering whether Pokémon cards have anti-counterfeiting measures, as counterfeiting seems like a much less risky route.
Given the recent string of complex designs and the grading industry for sealing high value cards, I would imagine counterfiting them would be much harder. I view this more inline with the Italian chocolate thefts than a more complex enterprise. The product could be viewed as comodities, although they arnt consumed like food, but due to the random nature of the packs, the distributed contents wont be IDd or tagged (only the larger boxes/packs, which are meant to be broken). The reason food is the more likely target is that people will eat the evidence if you can fence a box of candy to a bunch of vendors who wont ask questions. This rings the same to me.
If you’re transporting a million dollars worth of anything I’m a truck, it should ABSOLUTELY be an armored truck.
It was an inside job LMBO
