A series of smash-and-grab robberies have hit Pokémon card shops across the UK as the increasingly popular collectible cards soar in value. Celestial Collectables in Warrington, Cheshire is one of the latest stores to be targeted after robberies in Rugby, Bristol, Bournemouth, Peterborough and Nottingham among others in recent weeks. Shops have seen stock worth tens of thousands of pounds stolen.
Cheshire Constabulary told the BBC it was in contact with police in the north west and around the UK about the issue. Pokémon cards have been collected and traded for 30 years but since Covid, they have attracted more attention online, with some of the rarest selling for huge sums. A recent auction by specialist auction house Stanley Gibbons Baldwins saw over £1.5m in "Pokémon assets" change hands.
While most cards are not worth thousands of pounds, high-profile sales of the rarest items have driven both collector and investor interest. Earlier this year, the YouTuber, wrestler and boxer Logan Paul auctioned an ultra-rare, high-quality Pikachu card for a record-shattering $16.5m (£12m). However, as the value grows so does the cards' appeal to criminals.
"Some of these thieves, they don't know what they're taking," said Roy Raftery, trading card expert at Stanley Gibbons Baldwins. He has personally brokered Pokémon sales worth over £2m, including an £84,000 Pokémon Trainer, a £442,800 Charizard and an £832,000 Pikachu Illustrator. He said: "Thieves know Pokémon is lucrative, they just know Pokémon is worth taking now.
And they think it's an easier target than robbing a bank or robbing a jewellery shop." Just this week, Wiltshire Police said a shop in Trowbridge had been burgled "during which a substantial amount of Pokémon cards and other items were stolen". Unfortunately, Chris Grundy has had first-hand experience of this. The owner of Celestial Collectables in Warrington said: "They pulled up outside the shop in a transit van, they moved the cameras up with brushes and knocked the glass panel through.
"Then in pretty much four minutes they ransacked the whole shop." He discovered that his business was the latest Pokémon card shop to be hit when a customer called him late at night to say the window had been smashed in. "Luckily enough all the cash and higher value stock goes into the safe," he said. "Most of what they stole were graded cards, a load of single cards and a load of sealed, foiled packs.
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