A 62-year-old Pokémon TCG collector named Christopher Polydorou of Inman, S.C. native, reported the theft on July 13. As Polygon reported, the initial police report valued one-and-a-half boxes of cards a whopping half-a-billion dollars, but Polydorou told The Smoking Gun that the value of the stolen cards is $500,000. However, the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office is even more conservative in their estimate, saying they believe the collection to be worth around $200,000. According to the report, Polydorou said the only people who ahd been in the same room as the stolen collection, since October 2021, were his mother and some HVAC repairmen. Speaking to the Smoking Gun, the collector said that the cards were amongst other collectibles like basketball, baseball, and football cards in his 6,800 square-foot home. Polydorou also said that he bought the cards in 2014 for $431,000. He claims that hte collection contained three unopened booster boxes, each with 24 packs of cards each (According to the police report, only one and half boxes were stolen). Polydorou said that one box contained a rare Japanese edition of a Pokémon card. The cards are not insured, meaning Polydorou will have to take the losses if the collection is not traced. Pokémon trading cards have recently been selling like pandcakes, expanding beyond their original purpose as a tabletop game into a cash cow that can make collectors wealthy. Many first edition cards printed throughout the 1990s are now worth more than a hundred-thousand dollars, and the most expensive card available now is the ultra-rare Illustrator Pikachu. There are only 39 copies of the card, with mint quality edition being worth over $5 million. During a WWE show in April 2022, YouTube star Logan Paul wore his own Illustrator Pikachu card on a chain around his neck. Paul also found out that he spent $3.5 million on fake Pokémon cards.
