A stolen Pokémon card supposedly worth up to £30,000 has been safely returned to its rightful owner/trainer.
As reported by the BBC, police have stated that the theft of a Charizard card took place in Heathfield in East Sussex between 2nd and 5th September 2024. The same card was then found to have been listed for sale on Facebook, leading to a search order being completed on an address in Polegate, roughly 11-12 miles away from the original location.
A 23-year-old man was arrested at the same address. He later admitted to stealing the card and received a caution. The card was then returned to its rightful owner, with investigation handler PC Alan Russell stating ““It was a valuable item which meant a lot to the victim”. Indeed!
Rare Pokémon cards have been known to be worth considerable amounts of money, so unfortunately become prime targets for thieves. Original base set Charizard cards can be worth tens of thousands of pounds, with rare ‘shadowless’ first edition cards bringing in absurd amounts of money.
Charizard isn’t the most valuable Pokémon card, however. That particular accolade belongs to the illusive Illustrator Pikachu, which was purchased in 2022 for over $5 million by a well-known YouTuber.
The Pokémon Company has recently launched Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket for mobile devices, with the app supposedly raking in over $3 million in revenue every day since its release. It allows users to open multiple digital Pokémon card booster packs each day, with the option to battle with AI and online opponents.
