A stolen Pokémon card supposedly worth up to £30,000 has been safely returned to its rightful owner/trainer.
As reported by the BBC, police have stated that the theft of a Charizard card took place in Heathfield in East Sussex between 2nd and 5th September 2024. The same card was then found to have been listed for sale on Facebook, leading to a search order being completed on an address in Polegate, roughly 11-12 miles away from the original location.
A 23-year-old man was arrested at the same address. He later admitted to stealing the card and received a caution. The card was then returned to its rightful owner, with investigation handler PC Alan Russell stating "“It was a valuable item which meant a lot to the victim". Indeed!
Rare Pokémon cards have been known to be worth considerable amounts of money, so unfortunately become prime targets for thieves. Original base set Charizard cards can be worth tens of thousands of pounds, with rare 'shadowless' first edition cards bringing in absurd amounts of money.
Charizard isn't the most valuable Pokémon card, however. That particular accolade belongs to the illusive Illustrator Pikachu, which was purchased in 2022 for over $5 million by a well-known YouTuber.
The Pokémon Company has recently launched Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket for mobile devices, with the app supposedly raking in over $3 million in revenue every day since its release. It allows users to open multiple digital Pokémon card booster packs each day, with the option to battle with AI and online opponents.
Do you own a rare, valuable Pokémon card? Do you have it locked away in an impenetrable fortress? Let us know with a comment down below.
[source bbc.co.uk]
Comments 17
Returned to it’s “trainer” hahaha
What makes this card so expensive? Is it unique? Rare? Powerful?
I don't have any Pokemon card, but I have quite a lot of Pokemon Tazos or something like that.
"Received a caution"
Does that mean he was told "don't do it again"?
@TheBoilerman Pretty much.
Glad to hear a stolen good like this one has been returned to its rightful owner regardless of its monetary value!
Glad. I've been investing in vintage Pokemon product lately. Cards, toys, you name it.
@dequesi It's rare and powerful, but it's not actually that rare. The BBC's £30,000 estimate is way over the top. Looks like these sell for a few hundred dollars.
An article that makes me wish I didn't traded my holographic original Charizard as a kid... Just because I didn't want any "duplicates." I still got the reverse holo Charizard card. (3/110) And back then I like that one more than the regular holo version.
Also I am glad they got their card back.
@dequesi It's probably graded high. And for some reason graded cards "makes the card more expensive."
@Vivianeat The idea that any Pokemon products can be considered "vintage" makes me feel so, so old.
@dequesi I suspect the hype just never went away. The shiny Charizard was always the most sought after card in the playgrounds back when this came out originally.
I have no idea how rare they actually were compared to other shinys and I only remember seeing a couple back when I was at school but the hype about its rarity was definitely there so maybe people got old and remember that which pushes up the value further?
Nice to hear some good news every now and then. I never owned the Charizard card, but I did have Blastoise and Venusaur. Still, my rarest card from back then was a 1st print Chansey.
I'm glad he got it back. Losing something that valuable can be stressful. I wonder if it was returned in the same condition?
Used to know a guy that had a pair of these. One for play, one kept sealed for a rainy day. Would lose his mind when I easily removed it from a table with a Dark Vaporeon.
@chardir Depends on condition and print edition. The first edition commonly sells in the thousands. $30,000 is way too high though unless it has some other value bumping features, such as previous celebrity owners or hard to get signatures.
@Milk_ It's not a first edition (there is a picture of the card in the BBC article)
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