Collectibles Police Blotter
Stay safe out there, Collectors. It seems like our hobby is constantly in the news for less-than-savory reasons, like massive thefts and hoards of bootleg product. But we’ll get into that in a second.
Every day there are also plenty of positive hobby stories, and even some that are downright hilarious. Case in point: Wingstop celebrated 4/20 by bringing back their ‘Hot Box’, packed with Fiery Nacho wings… but this year they upped the collectibles ante by releasing 420 “flavor trays” (wink wink), which are already selling for more than $300 on the resale market . Makes me wonder… can PSA slab up a flavor tray?
GMA: Pokémon Heists Point to High Demand for Collectible Cards Where there are Pokemon cards, there are probably thieves lurking in the shadows, and there has been a spate of thefts over the past few weeks, including a $100K smash-and-grab at a Chicago shop and multiple incidents in Vancouver, Anaheim, and New York. Authorities report stolen goods ranging from tens of thousands to the low 6-figures. Rising card values, up as much as 200 to 300 percent over the past year, and the difficulty of uniquely identifying individual cards have made them attractive targets for resale on secondary markets.
Stay vigilant out there, friends. Credit: New York Times New York Times: Man Charged in Lego Theft Scheme of Replacing Pieces With Pasta, Police Say While we don’t support scammers and thieves here at Mantel, we do have an appreciation for creativity (and a love of a pappardelle ragu). A California man was charged with grand theft after allegedly stealing about $34K by buying Lego sets, replacing the contents with bags of uncooked pasta, and returning them for refunds.
Police linked him to at least 70 incidents reported by Target. Similar to Pokemon, the high resale value and lack of traceability makes Lego an easy target for theft, especially if you have surplus boxes of Barilla. Credit: The Athletic The Athletic: More than 4,000 Fake Football Shirts Seized by Police in Pre-World Cup Crackdown UK police seized more than 4,400 counterfeit football shirts in a major raid at a Midlands market as part of a pre-World Cup crackdown.