$60,000 Mewtwo Card Lost or Stolen in the Mail, $1,000 Reward Offered By: Water Pokémon Master Posted 12 months ago to TCG 35 comments One of the Pokemon TCG’s rarest and most valuable cards has gone missing. A “No. 3 Trainer” trophy card featuring Mewtwo was recently stolen (or lost) during a mail transaction. The card sold for $60,000 through an eBay auction and went missing in transit to its buyer in New York. Both the seller and buyer are respected members of the Pokemon community, so a third party is suspected in its disappearance. The card was insured, but that doesn’t change the fact a historical piece of Pokemon history is gone due to theft or postal negligence. The Mewtwo card was originally awarded to the 3rd place winner of 1999’s Secret Super Battle tournaments in Japan. Along with the 1st and 2nd place copies, it’s estimated Pokemon only awarded nine to 18 sets of the three cards. Only 12 of the individual cards have ever been submitted to PSA for grading. Due to the value of the card and the fact mail theft may be involved, if someone stole it they would face felony charges. The person would also never be able to sell the card in public because it features a unique holo pattern and would be immediately identified. Furthermore, the intended owner of the card can by law claim the card back even if someone pays for it without knowing it’s stolen. So the only way the card can remain in someone’s possession is if they keep it to themselves. A $1,000 reward is being offered to anyone who can offer information on the card’s disappearance. You can e-mail us at [email protected] and we will forward the information to the correct parties. This news comes courtesy of Smpratte, one of the Pokemon TCG’s most knowledgeable collectors and a frequent PokeBeach helper. You can watch his video on the card’s disappearance here:
"Double-Stuffed Felony" What is the endgame of the thief? Did they have a feud with the seller or buyer?
Stuff like this is why i hate people. Whilst i hope it's merely a clerical error. given human nature it's more likely been stolen. "The person would also never be able to sell the card in public because it features a unique holo pattern and would be immediately identified." is the unique holo pattern on the card or on the psa graded case ? if it's just the case couldn't they just break it out ? (not overly familiar with psa and their grading systems. ) then sell it on. even if the card becomes slightly damaged in the process its still worth a fortune.
Undoubtfully the unique holo pattern is the card itself, not the case. There probably is a way to break it out of the case but I don't know how well that works. Of course there is always the chance whoever took it isn't looking to sell it back but will just keep it forever.
There is also the problem that very few of these cards exist. There are collectors out there (like SMPratte) that basically know where all of these cards are/whose hands they are in. If you were trying to sell this card, now that its public knowledge, you'd have to sell it to some bigtime collector and all of the bigtime collectors rely on the knowledge of someone like SMPratte for items as rare as this. Sure there may be some unscrupulous collector who might buy it for a personal collection... but they would never be able to show it off as knowledgeable people would be able to tell its stolen. And collectors like to show off after all partially
the article states "it’s estimated Pokemon only awarded nine to 18 sets of the three cards.." Meaning no one knows for certain how many there are. one could turn up on yahoo auctions tomorrow (japans biggest online auction platform) that no ones heard of. So if they get it out of the psa casing keep it safe and hidden, then list it on ebay 5-10 years later. No one would bat an eyelid. We're talking about 10s of thousands of $s. Longer they wait the more valuable & waiting years to get away with it is realistically what they'd have to do if they're ever going to pass it on...assuming it's not traced back to them before then.
While theft is certainly likely, the possibility of negligence on the part of the shipping agency is also very high, especially if mailed via the USPS, as a rule, I NEVER make any deal over $1,000 unless I can meet in person. This type of thing happens far too frequently to trust such a precious item to the mail, be it incompetence on the part of a postal worker, or the actions of a pathetic thief, it's just too valuable. I REALLY hope you are able to recover it! And that the only regret is that if it is a thief and he caught, that he be merely locked up rather than something more...fitting.
Why was this card not shipped with the method that keeps it under lock and key all the way until the recipient signs for the package themselves? Not saying it going missing is ok by any means, but to me it just seems negligent to send $60,000 through the mail without it being secured.
Question. What if a card was traded and not sold? What if said stolen card from a trade deal was worth $4k at the moment and was listed up for sale? Would the victim be able to reclaim said item if the item was stolen 3 years? What information would be needed to reclaim said card? Any info helps.
Here's a lesson for all of you: if you've got 60 grand lying around to buy something over the Internet, go pick it up yourself.
The article also states that it has a unique holographic foil pattern that specifically identifies this card.
The point is that it would be stolen property no matter how it changed hands, and so would ultimately still be the property of the rightful owner - and thus anyone who traded for it or bought it would be out of luck once it was discovered.
Some sort of proof of ownership, transaction records, stuff like that. The victim I assume is the seller as I would imagine the 60K was held in escrow to be released on delivery.
