Robbing armored cars for their piles and piles of cash is so early 20s. The new hip thing is, evidently, jacking trading cards from FedEx trucks. On October 17th, SKY-B Cards, a relatively popular TCG YouTuber, was informed that his 104-card, $100,000 collection of sports trading cards had been stolen right out of a FedEx truck parked at PSA’s (Professional Sports Authenticator) Santa Ana grading center. The burglary has spelled financial disaster for SKY-B, to say nothing of the emotional distress of losing prized possessions, many of which were singular in their uniqueness and are unlikely to ever be found out in the wild again.
SKY-B wasn’t the only unsuspecting victim of the burglary. Other folks who had their collections in the same truck have come forward on Reddit, X, and other platforms describing their own specific losses. Among the most expensive of the cards is a PSA9 Smaug the Magnificent card, which, assuming it’s the Borderless Gleaming Gold Foil, can go for between $20,000 and $25,000.
Another substantial loss came in the form of a One Piece Simplified Chinese Anniversary Set Nami. Boston Card Hunter, another trading card collector, has been vocal about the theft as well. Unsurprising, given the 383 cards he had in the truck in question. He’s mentioned losing his 1995 Upper Deck 23K Gold Michael Jordan 50,000 Print Run, among many other rare trading cards.
PSA is doing everything within their power to pursue a criminal investigation, working alongside Santa Ana PD and FedEx to try to find where the hot cards might be. Presumably the thieves are actively trying to fence them, or already have—time will tell. The New York Times recently picked up the story, and according to their sources, the total estimated financial loss of the single robbery is over one million dollars, divided among roughly 250 packages.
Nerdist’s Take: Criminals Are Catching On To The Value of Trading Cards, So Delivery Companies Might Wanna Beef Up Their Security
It’s a different era now, and trading cards from many different corners of the TCG world can go for hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of dollars. It might be time for FedEx and PSA both to tighten up their security, especially when it comes to such precious cargo.