A thief stole a massive haul of Pokemon cards by tunneling through the wall of a game store. Last week, a game thief broke into Punch Out Gaming in Forest Lake, Minnesota and cleared out two storage rooms full of Pokemon card products valued at $250,000. While the store had a security system, the alarm wasn’t triggered as the thief didn’t enter in through a door or window. Much of the merchandise is new product, which is hard to replace due to high demand and a lack of stock from distributors. “I realized how much money, product, and time we put into it, and I just started crying…,” said owner Eric Johnson to Fox 9. “I can’t recover this product because our distributors don’t have any. So, even with the insurance money, that doesn’t do us any good.” The game store’s security camera captured footage of the break-in, which can be viewed below.
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Since the initial break-in, Punch Out Gaming seems to have secured at least some additional stock. The store’s Facebook page noted that they would have stock of the new “Brilliant Stars” expansion and shared pictures of card products they had received since the break-in. According to one Facebook post, Punch Out Gaming managed to secure nearly 1,000 booster boxes and 600 Elite Trainer Boxes for the new Brilliant Stars set, which comes out on Saturday.ย
While interest in Pokemon cards seems to have plateaued somewhat, Pokemon cards are still among the best-selling collectibles on the market. Not only is secondary sales of both vintage and modern Pokemon cards at an all-time high, there is still exceptionally high demand driven in part by continued supply issues. The Pokemon Company has increased production of its various Pokemon card sets, but there still seems to be shortages whenever a new card set comes out, such as this weekend.
