A nearly $1 million haul of stolen sports and Pokémon cards has ballooned into a collector’s nightmare, with thousands of prized collectibles still missing after a brazen theft from a FedEx truck outside a California grading giant.
Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) revealed Friday that 6,451 graded collectibles were stolen from a carrier truck after it picked up customer orders from the company’s Santa Ana facility on Oct. 13.
The company said it is working with the FBI and Santa Ana police to track down the missing cards, publishing a complete list of stolen items and deactivating their certification numbers in a bid to make them harder to sell.
“Recovering every stolen item and returning it to its owner is our top priority,” PSA said in a statement.
Investigators have received surveillance footage, shipping manifests and item-level records from the company, which said it remains in daily contact with law enforcement as the probe continues. No arrests have been announced.
The theft involved nearly 250 packages, according to authorities, who previously estimated the haul was worth $963,000. The FedEx truck was reportedly left unattended for 60 to 90 minutes outside PSA’s headquarters while its driver was away, and its lock was broken.
“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.
The stolen shipment has already sparked anguish among collectors who spent years assembling their prized collections.
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Famous card collector and YouTuber Sky-B Cards said he paid $8,468 in grading fees alone for a 104-card order that was insured for 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 shared the full list of stolen items with marketplaces, auction houses and digital commerce platforms, which are monitoring for the collectibles. The company said the list includes certification numbers and serial numbers for serialized cards.
The company has also begun contacting affected customers and refunded grading fees associated with the stolen orders. Customers whose shipments used PSA’s return labels can begin the compensation process now, with payments already being issued, the company said.
Compensation will be based on each item’s fair market value, up to its declared maximum insured value. PSA said customers who receive compensation will still have the option to reclaim their cards if they are recovered later.
The company apologized to affected collectors, saying its security measures helped it safely process and return-ship more than 99.9% of items entrusted to it over the past year.
