A daring theft from a FedEx truck outside a California card-grading company has turned into a nightmare for collectors, with nearly $1 million worth of sports and Pokémon cards still unaccounted for.
Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) said Friday that 6,451 graded collectibles disappeared after a carrier collected customer orders from its Santa Ana facility on Oct. 13.
PSA is working alongside the FBI and Santa Ana police to recover the missing cards. The company has released a detailed inventory of the stolen items and deactivated their certification numbers to discourage resale.
“Recovering every stolen item and returning it to its owner is our top priority,” PSA said in a statement.
Authorities have obtained surveillance video, shipping manifests and itemized records from PSA as the investigation continues. The company said it remains in daily communication with law enforcement. No arrests have been reported.
The stolen cargo was spread across nearly 250 packages and was initially valued by authorities at about $963,000. Investigators said the FedEx truck sat unattended for roughly 60 to 90 minutes outside PSA headquarters while the driver was away, and that the vehicle’s lock had been forced open.
“The pallets contained various trading cards, including, but not limited to, sports cards and Pokémon cards,” the Santa Ana Police Department previously told The California Post.
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The loss has devastated collectors, many of whom spent years searching for and building collections around rare and valuable cards.
Well-known card collector and YouTuber Sky-B Cards said he paid $8,468 in grading fees for a 104-card submission that carried insurance coverage of up to $156,000.
“These were 104 cards that I’ve accumulated over two years. There are many irreplaceable cards in here that I will never see again,” Sky-B said in a video update.
PSA has provided marketplaces, auction companies and online commerce platforms with the complete list of stolen collectibles so they can watch for attempts to sell them. The information includes certification numbers and, where applicable, serial numbers tied to individual cards.
The grading company has started notifying affected customers and has refunded the grading fees linked to the stolen submissions. Customers whose orders were shipped using PSA return labels can now begin the compensation process, with payments already being distributed, according to the company.
Reimbursement will be calculated using each card’s fair market value, up to the maximum amount declared for insurance. PSA said collectors who accept compensation may still reclaim their cards if the stolen items are eventually recovered.
PSA apologized to the collectors affected by the theft, noting that its security procedures enabled the company to safely handle and return more than 99.9% of the items entrusted to it during the past year.
