Thousands of pounds of Pokémon Trading Cards have been stolen from Ace Grading, a Banbury-based Card Grading company run by TCG YouTuber Randolph.
As reported by the BBC, the break in took place on Friday 13th December in what Randolph and his company has called a "targeted attack". Thames Valley Police believes that an estimated GBP £250,000 worth of cards have been stolen from the company's headquarters.
In a video posted to his Pokémon-focused YouTube Channel, Randolph — real name Andrew Shane — has outlined the situation, explaining that it seems like a "professional break in" and that no other items have been stolen or tampered with.
"This is obviously the worst thing that can possibly happen for the community" Randolph continues, admitting that the team "doesn't know" if it will be able to move forward from the attack.
In a separate statement, Ace Trading has advised that customers who have been affected have been contacted by email or phone and informed of what cards have been taken and on how to claim compensation. Those whose cards haven't been stolen will also be contacted to confirm that the cards are safe.
The police investigation is still ongoing, so Randolph can't share much more, but he has advised that the company has increased security measures since the theft.
Customers who use grading companies send their cards to the graders in order to get a rating on them. Cards such as Pokémon, Panini, Magic the Gathering and more are evaluated and given a "grade" which is seen as a way of appraising and preserving a card's condition, as well as potentially increasing its value.
Oftentimes, the value of these cards can be in the hundreds, if not thousands. And, in recent years, we've seen card collecting — particularly Pokémon cards — explode in popularity.
We'll update you when we hear more about the situation.
Comments 26
Gotta nab 'em all.
NGL, my American wired brain interpreted "thousands of pounds" as weight for a second, not currency.
@Tyranexx so it's not just me haha
Team Rocket strikes again
Yeah I'd probably never send away any of my valuable collectibles for grading for this reason + the shady mail service, but I'd especially never send it away to someone who advertises publicly what they regularly have on hand.
This is a case where intellectually I sympathize with the people hit by this but emotionally I just cannot bring myself to care about the plight of people putting thousands of dollars into three inch slabs of cardboard.
I still find it bizarre that people put so much value in those useless piles of cardboard.
A pity the person got robbed though.
@Tyranexx oh my word your comment is the only reason I noticed that. And here I thought these thieves just had insane strength lol!
They coming for your cheese, they coming for your Pokémon cards.. the gold heist of the tic toc age..
@VHSGREMLIN To be fair, the same could be said of pretty much the entire financial system — especially in the pre-digital age.
Pokémon cards are basically banknotes at this point, but with the beardy blokes replaced with cartoon critters.
Yes, they’re just bits of paper, but much of human society still revolves around exchanging bits of paper for goods and services. One of the advancements of the last few decades has been making the paper increasingly invisible, but the basic idea is the same.
It’s a fairly bizarre system, but… well, in Golduck we trust, I suppose.
Suspects left behind a note that read,
"Prepare for trouble!
And make it double!"
@CaleBoi25 Maybe they employed some Machamp?
@solarwolf07 Imperial has ruined some units of measure for us compared to most of the planet at this point.
Thievul and Purrloin were behind this.
A trading card game YouTube gets robbed!!
…oh well.
A quick question. If you say they stole two thousand pounds of product would it be a ton of pounds or would you just say a ton. Asking for a friend (not really).
Dang, Team Rocket strikes again. Such fiendish villains!
Now, being serious, a shame this happened. Even if it's trading cards, it's still of value to those spent a lot of money and time on them.
While stealing is obviously wrong, I have hard time feeling sympathy for these people whose job is to artificially raise the price of cards so that greedy people can earn more money. Let's face it, if someone is grading their card, they are not going to play with them. That's why I dislike collectors and grading companies, because more often than not, they only care about the monetary value.
It just only pile of cards and there was a people sacrificed their morality and stole the hyper inflated price for their greed.
The humanity nowadays...
@KoopaTheGamer Why dislike collectors? It's not like the majority of collectors are scalpers.
@IceEarthGuard To be specific, I dislike collectors who buy stuff (video games, cards etc) without any intention of ever using them. Not only does that drive the prices up, but it's also less available games/cards for those who would be actually interested in using them.
@Maxz yeah, no- that’s just nonsense. All of that is complete nonsense.
@VHSGREMLIN You’re right! Many modern banknotes are now made of polymer rather than paper, which makes them more durable but also more likely to shrink if you put them in the microwave.
Many of us are now trading plastic (or more often digital money) for goods and services instead of paper.
If any of the above is objectionable, feel free to give your own take on the financial system instead. I’d be interested to hear how it functions without the use of some form of currency, be that paper, plastic, crypto, or something else entirely.
Removed - flaming/arguing
@KoopaTheGamer While I sympathise partly with your sentiment towards collectors, I think there is a distinct difference inside this group between people who collect for fun and because they like to display their collection and scalpers. I like to collect stuff too and sometimes I will sell part of my collection with a profit, in order to buy other stuff I want in my collection.
But I agree that those who collect solely for the purpose of running profits are bad and scalpers are definitely "the scum of the Earth" who would probably sell their own mother for profit.
Removed - flaming/arguing
Removed - flaming/arguing
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