If I had to bet, I would say these thieves already had buyers lined up or potential buyers. IMO, a good portion of the sports card industry is driven by collectors who have a network of buyers and sellers. So IMO, the really rare / high end stuff would likely end up in private collections and stay there for years. The other stuff will be cracked open, and then either sold raw or regraded.
I just called ten pawn shops in several big cities. Most will not take cards, but two said they will. One said they only take graded cards that are numbered, and one said they take raw or graded.
All it takes is for one of these cards to be discovered, and then the whole scheme could unravel.
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