Massive theft at Dallas card show, Nearly 2 Million Dollars worth of cards stolen

[gregndodgers]

Pics of the thief who grabbed the cards. Many of the thieves had tattoos.

[samosa4u]

A lot of people are also assuming that these guys are "Americans" and that people will "recognize" them. They could be illegal aliens. And maybe they are not even in America now!

As for finding those cards, man, that's gonna' be tough. Sure, a few are rare, like that WWG DiMaggio, Caramel Ruth, Sporting News Jacksons, etc. However, all the others are not. For example, up here in Canada, there are hundreds of people who own that 52T Mantle. I know that for a fact. They're always turning up here and there. Now, imagine how many there are in the US? And as for the other cards, there are probably thousands of them in the US. These guys could sit on them for about a year and then just slowly put them back into the marketplace. I know they're graded, but they can get cracked out and the raw cards can get worked on a little bit in order to prevent anyone from matching them with older scans. And even if they don't work on them, I doubt that a year from now anyone is gonna' be doing checks on their newly-purchased cards. People are just gonna' be so absorbed in their own problems and will totally forget about all this.

[CJinPA]

Keep distributing the photos of the actual thieves!! Horrible humans - having no respect for how hard it was for this dealer to accumulate those items over many years....

Here's a photo of some our board posters (at least the one that keeps flashing in my head when some interact with each other)

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by gregndodgers

Pics of the thief who grabbed the cards. Many of the thieves had tattoos.

Seems to me that 75% of men under age 50 have prominent tattoos. But maybe I'm just hanging out on the Jersey Shore too much.

But it is interesting. . . .if you were a professional operator like everyone is suggesting this team was, why would you expose something distinctive like a large tattoo on your arm.

Of course. . . it could be a fake tattoo. And that could be fake facial hair.

[gregndodgers]

The International angle is interesting. These cards may very well be out of the country at this moment.

"Turner, who was a part of a group that purchased Collectors, the parent company of PSA, in early 2021, believes collectors overseas are holding massive cards and aren’t saying anything. 'I guarantee it,' Turner said. 'We have PSA China quietly open in Shanghai. We’re accepting submissions. We have a 100-person Shanghai office now, mainly for coin grading...I bet you that — and this is just gut feel — that half of the ungraded cards in our market are overseas,' Craig said. 'And a lot of it’s high end.'"

https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/n...al-card-market

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by gregndodgers

The International angle is interesting. These cards may very well be out of the country at this moment.

"Turner, who was a part of a group that purchased Collectors, the parent company of PSA, in early 2021, believes collectors overseas are holding massive cards and aren’t saying anything. 'I guarantee it,' Turner said. 'We have PSA China quietly open in Shanghai. We’re accepting submissions. We have a 100-person Shanghai office now, mainly for coin grading.'”

https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/n...al-card-market

As I said before, they could have fled to (back to?) Mexico. I mean hopefully they're just hacks and they'll be nabbed soon, but who knows.

[refz]

I’m not sure if this was asked yet or does anyone who knows this dealer, what is next for him & his sake ? Will he carry on, pack it in hoping to get the cards back eventually?

[packs]

I feel like views on the theft are heavily influenced by movies. For example, if I stole these cards it would be easy for me to regrade them one at a time and sell them one at a time over a pretty long period of time. The last thing I would do is attempt to sell anything now and it would be an even worse idea to try to sell everything at the same time.

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by packs

I feel like views on the theft are heavily influenced by movies. For example, if I stole these cards it would be easy for me to regrade them one at a time and sell them one at a time over a pretty long period of time. The last thing I would do is attempt to sell anything now and it would be an even worse idea to try to sell everything at the same time.

You remember what happened in Goodfellas. Some of these guys will start buying their girlfriends caddys and fur coats.

[packs]

Well, that is usually a downfall but in this case stealing baseball cards is a pretty inconspicuous crime. It's not like stealing a car, for example. And unlike cash, if a casual observer at your house catches sight of them, it's more likely than not that it wouldn't even register with the person.

People suggested they might leave the country with them. But I really don't see why you would. I wouldn't. Nobody even knows I have cards unless I tell them. And if you came to my house, you'd never see them.

[Jewish-collector]

Unfortunately, it would be trivial for them to break them out of the slabs and resubmit a few at a time to any grading company and no one would even suspect anything unusual.

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by packs

I feel like views on the theft are heavily influenced by movies.

This. Fake tattoos and beards? Why not the face mask generator from Mission Impossible?

[packs]

And the Plan B stuff.

The only real way to recover the cards is for someone to know who took them and for that person to still have them. Otherwise it will be years of auction watching and trying to cover every conceivable avenue of sale which I think will both get exhausting and turn up little in the end.

I do hope the cards are recovered and the person who lost them is made whole. I just don't think there will be any theatrics involved.

[gregndodgers]

Are these cards going to the "black market" or somewhere less sophisticated?

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...show-security/

“If the group involved in the theft is well organized, they will offer the items for sale on the black market,” Hayes noted. “If they are amateurs who believed they saw an opportunity to make a quick score off the theft, the items stand a good chance of being recovered in the future as these thieves almost always offer items for sale to pawn shops or other venues that will report the activity to law enforcement.”

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by gregndodgers

Are these cards going to the "black market" or somewhere less sophisticated?

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...show-security/

“If the group involved in the theft is well organized, they will offer the items for sale on the black market,” Hayes noted. “If they are amateurs who believed they saw an opportunity to make a quick score off the theft, the items stand a good chance of being recovered in the future as these thieves almost always offer items for sale to pawn shops or other venues that will report the activity to law enforcement.”

Exponentially more? Why? Not buying this. "Navigating auction protocols." Yeah that's so hard.

“So long as they can be assured the items are of legitimate provenance, they are unconcerned about the legality of the acquisition,” Hayes stated. “In fact, these collectors are often willing to pay exponentially more to acquire these items rather than navigating legal sales and auction protocols.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Exponentially more? Why? Not buying this. "Navigating auction protocols." Yeah that's so hard.

“So long as they can be assured the items are of legitimate provenance, they are unconcerned about the legality of the acquisition,” Hayes stated. “In fact, these collectors are often willing to pay exponentially more to acquire these items rather than navigating legal sales and auction protocols.

What does legitimate provenance mean? I would think it means not stolen but I guess not since the next part says unconcerned about the legality. I also find it hard to believe that people would be willing to pay more for stolen cards if they could get something equivalent for less in an auction. Makes no sense.