Rumor has it the culprits are known. And rumor has it they probably aren't in the US anymore.
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Both the culprits and the cards, I presume.

I didn't hear about the cards. I don't know.
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Bump to front page.

What rumor? From who?

Sources.
People familiar with the matter.

Exactly. It was Moe behind the liquor store, who told me.

I don't really want to say except it's someone pretty close to the investigation. And it's not the victim. I haven't spoken with him in 6 months or more.....
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I hear the thieves are here:

Hmm... Seems like I recall someone earlier making this prediction?

Yes, me in post 170.

Wow the FBI should hire you guys.

Doh! you beat me to it then. Mine was post 378

https://net54baseball.com/showpost.p...&postcount=378

Well, I thought it around post 50.

I’m pretty sure I willed this entire thread into existence.

Interesting thread.

If the insurance company paid Ash some or all of his claim, then the investigation has hit a brick wall and the cards could very well be in a country like Brazil that has no extradition treaty with the US. Would love to know what % of the cards were Ash's and what % consignors. Ash would have plenty of liability for the cards stolen on consignment, turning a 2 party claim into a 3 party as well. Hope he has a bailee's liability policy, which would cover him for loss of cards from a consignor while they are in his possession.

Brazil has an extradition treaty with the U.S. :) I’ve been there for an extradition case.

I think it’s a little more nuanced. Something about having kids in Brazil, and therefore they won’t extradite.

The imaginary perp who ended up in Brazil has imaginary kids in Brazil, therefore negating a valid extradition treaty with the US?

The imaginary kids would not prevent the extradition of the imaginary perp if he was captured in Brazil for an extraditable crime in the US.

First, I mention Bulgaria, and we all know where that went. Now, I mention Brazil, as an example country without knowing a thing about their extradition policy, so I offer my final country for consideration as the possible site for Ash's stolen cards: Vatican City, the smallest country in the world.
I have been a bit worried about Elm. We have had no report from him in Bulgaria where he went to court a local monobrowed maiden. Elm, speak to us, are you O.K?

We don't know what's in those catacombs. Nazi loot and 1990 ProSet Football cases for as far as the eye could see.

Dave, thanks. I knew I was at last on the right path.

I have it on good word (sorry I cannot reveal source) that they drove not to Mexico but to Galveston, where they boarded a cruise ship and are believed to have been headed to the PRC where the obsession with basketball cards is slowly morphing into vintage baseball. I am not sure about extradition though but perhaps Nicolo knows.

While I was sitting on a bench in the Sistine Chapel I dropped my pen and it knocked into the leg of the bench I was sitting on. A small compartment opened up and I found an Art Whitney with Dog in the leg along with instructions in Latin on the back.

According to my sources, the US does not have an extradition treaty with the People’s Republic of China. Not entirely surprising.

I guess we can debate whether having a professional baseball league in Taiwan makes the mainland Chinese more or less likely to get into baseball.

I vote for Monaco. The cards will be handed across from yacht to yacht during the Grand Prix of Monte Carlo, like a jar of Grey Poupon.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/851c0b53...22b0970326.gif

Unfortunately, I really don't have much more to offer, but will remind people that an extensive research mapping project (conducted by University of Cologne) found that large portions of Michelangelo's work on the Sistine Chapel were created through the strategic use of innumerable cut up pieces of junk-era commons, which seamlessly created a flawless image when viewed from a distance.

An ancient text (loosely translated) explains the master's reasoning:
"My capabilities of creating lifelike skin hues paled in comparison to what was readily available to me on the counters of most of the stationery stores in Rome...plus, if I picked the right brand of cards, I got gum!!! YUMMY!!!!"

The history books need to be changed to: Michelangelo - "Sculptor, painter, collector."


Attachment 630330

I say we get a boat and go to Bulgaria

Elm, we have all been waiting for a full report about your love tryst with the beautiful Bulgarian lovely (OK, she is not for everybody). Hope you got out of Bulgaria safely without her father and brothers wanting a piece of your rear end. Lots of juicy details, please.

Why is it that you just looo-ooove basking in the glow every time my hopes comes crashing down into FLAMES?????

You'll be happy to know that although I thought my darling (call back alert) 'E-Katz' was a stone cold PSA 10 Gregg Jefferies Rookie card, she turned out to be nothing but a PSA 1 1991 Fleer Mark Gubicza in a cracked holder!!! So have yourself an exuberant belly laugh over my misfortune, you son of a so-and-so!!!!!!!!! :mad::eek::mad:

Better to love and lost ...
or maybe not

As long as it's not a Bulgarian boat. Worked on a couple Bulgarian hydraulic pumps form a Bulgarian ship.
Not good. Although they did work despite being very poorly made.

Hoping for some news on this case. I know Ash is a good dude and how frustrating it must be for him. My last loss by theft was a 64 Mantle PSA5 at the 21 National. Pretty sure I know who snatched that one when I turned my back for a second. Left one case out of 10 unlocked and knew what had happened immediately. The guy may have been trying to help me because it was the only baseball card in a case of graded football.

I am not really surprised, no news. I don't think these guys were amateurs..

who cares if a good dude or not, nobody should have stuff they legit own stolen...

Im sure the insurance company will just pay....yeah right..

No updates on this. Is the consensus belief the cards went to Mexico?

That was my early thought, but who knows at this point.

I would bet that they are still in the DFW area. No way to know unless there is a break in this case.

Pretty sobering, it looked like they had pretty high quality images.

I am truly worried these cards are long gone. Very sad.

They won't be gone from the Hobby, but certainly cracked and reholdered, a little bit at a time If I had to guess. A shame that these criminals essentially got away with the card heist of the century.

My guess is PSA, SGC, Beckett, and CGC have the card scans and at least some AI to filter out the reholder trickle. At least, I hope so. They all charge enough where you'd hope they could manage something like this on a one-off basis given the gravity and media attention.

None of the grading companies have any incentive to filter the cards. The fees are the incentive. I would think they'd be happy to grade the same card a million times regardless of who is submitting it.

PSA bought Genamint back in 2021 to make hi res scans of cards to serve as "fingerprints".

https://www.actionnetwork.com/news/p...ading-april-21

Does anyone know to what extent they're actually delivering on that marketing copy?

My experience with these sorts of initiatives springing from acquisitions is that there's often a long lag, and sometimes it never actually happens. Not to mention that even if it is happening, the effectiveness might be a lot lower than advertised.

So they send the PSA cards to a different grader.

See there is no way trimmed or resubmitted cards are going undetected!!

""Based on learnings made from every card, the machine will be able to pick up if a card is trimmed or if a person has cracked out a card that was previously graded in hopes of getting a better grade.""

Righty-o.

I’ve been wondering if they may be using Genamint and AI technology to keep a running database of card images to determine if a card that may have been previously graded has been resubmitted. If they find a match and see that the resubmitted card looks better than the old image on record, then they would suspect the card is doctored.

They might be analyzing unique card characteristics such as paper fibers and printing variations, among other characteristics.

PCGS has been doing that for coins for more than a decade (Secure Plus), so one would hope that similar technology made it "across the hall."