As the worth of Pokémon TCG playing cards hits its highest level within the recreation’s 30-year historical past, new playing cards are more and more troublesome to pay money for, and a few basic playing cards have change into value vastly extra by weight than gold. This inevitably attracts felony acts, however few as violent and scary as that skilled by a person making an attempt to commerce a $5,000 card in a parking zone.
The 38-year-old Australian resident of Wollongong, New South Wales had organized to promote a PSA 9 Base Set (limitless) holo Charizard to a stranger in a parking zone in Warilla, 20 minutes south of the place he lived, in accordance with reporting from ABC. Nonetheless, as an alternative he was bodily assaulted by the individual he’d organized to satisfy, who then stole the cardboard and drove away.
Based on a police report issued by the New South Wales police division, the incident happened on March 28, however the police are solely now interesting for assist with figuring out a automotive that was photographed leaving the scene, a purple Ford Mustang. The extremely blurry picture was posted to the power’s X web page, with what looks as if a wildly inappropriate remark given the violence concerned.
“Seems Crew Rocket’s not the one one inflicting bother…” the publish begins. After detailing the crime, it continues, “[we] consider the driving force could have data that might assist us catch ‘em all (or at the very least the one accountable).” The publish then provides, “don’t simply sit there like a Snorlax – contact Crime Stoppers.” Er, nice everybody. Good things.
It’s unclear the place the 8,000 AUD valuation comes from. ABC studies that the cops mentioned the cardboard was a Base Set Limitless holo Charizard, graded 9, however non-1st version Base Set Charizards are likely to solely promote for round 1,500 USD (2,300 AUD). You want a PSA 10 to see the large values, the place it shoots as much as virtually $9k.
My guess could be that this was a much more uncommon “shadowless” model of the cardboard, a printing of the set that noticed the shadow impact to the fitting of the window artwork forgotten. At a grade 9, these are at the moment valued at just below 5,000 USD, or 8,000 AUD. (A 1st Version PSA 9 Charizard, in the meantime, goes for an eye-watering $23,000, whereas PSA 10 fetches over 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 {dollars}.)
Pokémon TCG card robberies have gotten concerningly commonplace at this level, and ABC in Australia studies that Melbourne has seen a “string of Pokémon card burglaries,” with 1,000,000 {dollars}’ value of playing cards stolen throughout six months.
Earlier this month, an identical parking zone theft happened in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with the satirically named Justice Earl Geho arrested for taking the $3,300 card with out paying. In the meantime, only a few days earlier in Calgary, Canada, a card store was burgled, with greater than $5,000 of Pokémon playing cards taken.
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