Thieves have tried to break into Taylor Minatogawa’s business five times in the past two months, stressing him out so much that he has spent at least twelve nights in his shop keeping watch.
A hooded suspect wielding a baseball bat surprised one of his employees at the entrance of a Gardena store during one failed attempt. In one, thieves broke into the roof, making off with thousands of dollars worth of loot.
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For all that effort, one might think that the store deals in diamonds, designer brands or expensive technology. But Minatogawa doesn’t work with any of those – he works on Pikachus, Charizards and Jigglypuffs, to name a few.
A Van Gogh Pikachu Pokemon card sold for $2,000 at RWT Collective in the Sawtelle neighborhood of Los Angeles.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Over the past six months, trading card shop owners and collectors of valuable Pokemon cards throughout Southern California have been targeted in brazen, sophisticated and sometimes violent thefts, with losses reaching six figures in one heist.
Police in several cities are investigating. Others asked neighboring departments if they had faced similar cases. For their part, the victims are not sure if they are all being hit by the same workers or different groups targeting the size of the package, the colorful cartoon loot, or what they and the police can do to stop it.
Business owners say they have been followed. He was caught at gunpoint. Pepper sprayed. Burglars broke into their cars, entered their businesses through walls and roofs and smashed the front.
“Right now more security is needed for Pokemon cards than diamonds,” said Minatogawa, owner of Buddies Collectibles. “It’s crazy.”
In many burglaries, thieves have walked past the cash register and made their way to the display cases, breaking the glass and fleeing with valuable cards before the police arrived.
“If it was a bank, they were robbed of $200,000, it would be big, but here they still steal important things. [worth] $200,000,” Minatogawa said.
Customers browsing RWT Collective’s Pokemon cards.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Created in 1996, Pokemon exploded into children’s popularity with the launch of the Nintendo Game Boy game, which was followed by a cartoon series and a trading card game. In a card game, players compete with a set of drawn cards representing different creatures with different powers and abilities, attacking and defending each other until one side loses.
As the game has aged, so have its fans. While children continue to collect and trade brightly colored cards, sometimes for a favorite character, some adults have turned Pokemon card collecting into a very profitable hobby – even a business.
Collector’s card shows draw hundreds of dealer tables across the country and, dealers and collectors told The Times, each table can easily generate $15,000 a day in trades, sales and purchases.
Companies like Beckett Grading Services and Professional Sports Authenticator, or PSA, which certify and measure the quality of collectible sports cards, are now doing the same for Pokemon cards.
This service is perfect for collectors who want to keep track of the most valuable cards on the market, including their rarity and value.
In 2022, PSA certified nearly 3.4 million Pokemon cards, more than they did that year for football, basketball or baseball cards. Last year, the representative said, the company certified 11 million Pokemon cards — more than they did for the big three games combined.
“Pokemon is really in its own category,” said Elizabeth Gruene, general manager at PSA. “Pokemon is the only category that has supported this kind of global demand, year after year.”
An unopened pack of vintage Pokemon cards sold at Costco in 1999 sold for $10,000.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Some cards can fetch thousands of dollars each, enticing collectors willing to put their money on them, and thieves looking to sell them for a quick buck online, at trade shows or card stores.
Two weeks ago outside RWT Collective in Sawtelle, thieves robbed a gun collector as he was leaving the store, police said.
The victim had left an Orange County card show that day and visited the Olympic Boulevard store looking for a trade, he told The Times. When the business was about to close, he went to his car when he was attacked by two armed men.
The victim believes he may have been followed in the game. Video surveillance shows the suspects entering RWT Collective for a while, then going outside to wait for the victim and his cards.
The robbers made off with more than $300,000 in credit cards, the victim and store owner said.
The victim, who asked not to be named because he is afraid that he will affect the investigation or be targeted again, said that he had taken security measures in the past but he never expected that he would be a victim of armed robbery.
He has been collecting since 2016 and quit his job to focus on it. He said the robbery had a negative impact on his financial situation.
He said: “It’s sad. “There’s no way to describe it.”
A team member assists a customer in purchasing RWT Collective Pokemon cards.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
News of the robbery spread quickly through a network of leading Southern California dealers and card shop owners, a dozen of whom spoke to The Times. They had been on the lookout for burglaries and thefts for the past six months, many said, and the armed robbery was particularly frightening.
“This is a huge escalation of the weapons involved, the violence involved,” said Danny Leserman, co-owner of the RWT Collective. “Obviously this is a growing issue.”
Leserman is one of the store owners who is considering armed guards, which he said is a difficult decision to consider because most of his customers are children who spend hours in the store trading with others. But the growing popularity of Pokemon cards makes them more attractive to criminals.
“This industry, a lot of the same will be done in the arts,” said Leserman. The only difference here is that the art can fit in your pocket.
In December, YouTuber Logan Paul said he paid $5.3 million for a single Pokemon card, a PSA Grade 9 Pikachu Illustrator that he said he plans to sell for a profit. The social media influencer has taken to wearing a card on a chain around his neck in videos.
Part of what has helped Pokemon grow in popularity for nearly three decades has been its broad appeal among boys, girls and adults and the growing universe of game and character diversity. In the past 20 years, Pokemon card values have increased more than 3,000%, more than any other collectible sports card, according to Gruene.
“There is also an element of nostalgia that helps drive the momentum forward,” he said. “What makes Pokemon unique is that it doesn’t age its audience but grows it, becoming a staple of the modern collectible hobby rather than a passing fad.”
The market for Pokemon cards is vast and includes online trading and overseas collectors who don’t ask too many questions and are willing to pay top dollar for a rare card, those in the business say.
Some store owners ask for photo identification when they buy cards from customers, out of concern that thieves might try to get rid of stolen goods, and share lists of lost items with other businesses to protect each other.
On the same day the collector was robbed outside RWT Collective, the robbers attacked Simi Sportscards in Simi Valley, police said. Around 3:30 a.m., robbers broke into the store and stole at least $10,000 worth of merchandise, mostly Pokemon cards, Simi Valley police Sgt. Rick Morton said.
He said: “There is a lot of value in those.
In a video posted by the store on Instagram, five suspects wearing hooded sweatshirts go straight to the card pictures, smash the glass and take the cards. This is the second time the store has been hit in less than a year, Morton said.
Simi Valley investigators are checking with other police departments including Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale about any connection between their cases. Collectors and shopkeepers have no doubts that there is a connection between the other robberies.
“It’s too complicated to be an opportunist,” said Cassius Van Wees, a former financial advisor and Pokemon card collector who is part of the RWT Collective.
He pointed to the pre-Halloween break-in, when he decided to keep rare, high-value cards from his personal collection at the store to show the kids at a meeting the next day.
That night, he said, thieves broke into a neighboring business and made off with about $100,000 in credit cards.
“They went right into my closet,” Van Wees said. “They knew exactly what they were doing.”
Despite the arrests — Burbank police arrested four burglaries in early January — collectors and shopkeepers are out in force. Just two months ago, criminals collectively made off with more than $500,000 in Pokemon cards.
Among the victims was Jerry Hernandez, whose Huntington Beach store, Box Cards & Collectibles, was hit the week before Christmas when thieves broke through the roof.
“It’s hard not to worry as many other stores are hit,” said Hernandez. “I feel like once we got hit and other stores got hit it created a snowball effect.”
Now, when a stranger comes along trying to sell an expensive card, he reaches out to other collectors and stores to check if one of their cards might have been stolen.
“I never thought it would come to this point,” he said. “It’s like we have to deal with it like we’re a jewelry store.”
