Quote:
Originally Posted by gregndodgers
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.
All it takes is for one of these cards to be discovered, and then the whole scheme could unravel.
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Your theory is certainly possible.
It just seems like you're introducing a whole lot of co-conspirators into the process, which dramatically increases the likelihood of detection.
In theory, a single buyer might make more sense, just to keep the number of involved parties to a minimum. But when you look at the inventory here, just as one example, it's hard for me to imagine a single buyer who feels like they need a fist full of mostly low-grade 52 Mantles, and they're willing to risk prison to get them. Maybe a single 52 Mantle in PSA 8/9/10 or a high grade complete 52T set. Or pick your favorite high value and desireable grouping of cards that would slot into a nice collection to hold in perpetuity. While the stolen case of cards is certainly a very valuable grouping of cards, it doesn't scream out to me that some aspiring collector with a bunch of cash and shady morals would decide that they'd rather pick up this assortment of cards on the cheap for their own collection, because they're dying to have all of these specific cards.