By Ethan Lee
A once simple child-friendly hobby made for collecting, trading and battling has slowly descended into real fights, robberies and crime.
Of course, I’m talking about the infamous and ever-so-elusive (thanks to some) Pokémon cards.
-Picture of Pokémon card singles on sale in a binder
Yes, if you have been keeping up to date with the hobby, I’m sure the shock of crime within the hobby isn’t new. Unfortunately, robberies are becoming more and more common, with robbers purposefully targeting Pokémon card shops and vendors around the UK.
But why are these child-oriented collectable cards being targeted for robberies, and how far must shops and vendors go to be safe from them?
Why is Pokémon card crime so common?
While no official census has been conducted, it’s estimated that roughly one million pounds worth of Pokémon card products are stolen each year across the UK. These estimates are based on recent break-ins in areas such as Peterborough, Gloucester, Bournemouth, Nottinghamshire and many more.
For a better understanding of why crime is so common within the Pokémon card community, I spoke to Manny from Manny’s PokeVault in Manchester.
“There is no risk, and they [Pokémon cards] are untraceable. Unless they are graded, you have no identification to know if it’s someone else’s,” Manny told me.
The process of getting a card graded has your card placed into a protective clear slab with a condition grade and an identification number, which could deter robbers from stealing them.
However, don’t rely completely on the security of grading, as Manny added, “even if they are graded, they can crack it open and suddenly… no ID.”
Next, I spoke with Lewis and Klara from Mudl Collectables to get a second opinion on the matter.
Interestingly, Klara brought up a similar point to Manny’s: “There is no distinct way, no barcodes, no QR codes that mean you can track them.” It’s clear that one of the biggest advantages that thieves have is the fact that there is no distinguishable way of identifying stolen cards, and getting them graded isn’t reliable.
How is the crime affecting sellers and buyers?
Now I wanted to know exactly how this is affecting the relationship between sellers and buyers, and if trust has become a big issue.
A question which Lewis twists. He believes crime isn’t damaging the trust between sellers and buyers, but instead the trust between sellers and other sellers.
“For me, I try not to do too many deals with other vendors because I know half of them are trying to stab me in the back. So that’s what’s broken the trust I think, whereas before it was very much ‘everybody’s in it together’,” Lewis told me.
Business partner Klara adds that at a recent card show, where they were vendors, “there was someone going around stealing and so we have a group chat that we [card vendors] all talk on and we were able to stop it from happening. With the smaller shows, it’s really helpful to build trust with other vendors but for massive shows, it can be a big problem because it’s so much to try and take in.”
-Video of Cards and Collectables trading card event in Manchester
From my talk with Lewis and Klara its seems that while some vendors and shops are community-driven, there are a rare few underlying ones which are strictly profit-driven, who lack the willingness to follow the rules.
I spoke again with Manny, who said that this damage to trust is new within the card community: “A lot of shops are asking us to leave on closing time now because now they need to take stock away and put it elsewhere. You used to be able to hang around an extra half an hour – fifteen minutes, but not recently,” he says.
It’s clear after speaking to various vendors that with the popularity of Pokémon cards constantly on the rise (with roughly 53.5 billion more cards being printed now compared to a decade ago), the once tight-knit community has also been expanding, bringing in more collectors, vendors and unfortunately untrustworthy people to the hobby.
Ultimately, this makes robberies and thieves harder to track, with each new person who gets involved with buying cards.
What do buyers and collectors think?
With a solid understanding of how sellers feel about the increase in crime, I wanted to get a feel for how buyers also feel towards the issue.
As a Pokémon card collector myself, I do understand the ripple effect on us customers; however, I’m intrigued to see if others are on the same page.
Paige Barber, a Pokémon card collector, had this to say: “I have my local card shops that I am a regular at and we all know each other within the community, and to see the changes and precautions they have had to take to stop their cards being stolen is really upsetting. They have to like take the high-value cards and either take them home or keep them somewhere in the back locked up.”
It’s evident that these crimes affect not only the usually independent card businesses but also the community, which relies upon the safety and circulation of cards being bought and sold from local shops and vendors.
What is in store for the future of the hobby?
Overall, with the population of card collectors massively increasing each day, the risk of crime has also increased, forcing many sellers to take extra precautions to keep their stock secure. This, added to the difficulty and faults in tracking stolen products, currently makes Pokémon cards a gold mine for thieves.
However, with trusted shops, vendors and collectors building closer connections and walls with each other, hopefully the combat against crime will soon start to decrease. With it, the trust and safety within the community can start to build closer again while also embracing all the new fans to the hobby without the risk.
Yet with no sign of the growth slowing down and card values staying high, who knows how long it will take to get to this hopeful future?
-Journalist Ethan Lee talking about the crime in the Pokémon card community and ways to protect cards
