Trading cards that collectors sent to PSA for grading were stolen from a FedEx vehicle after leaving a PSA facility, and the company says it will compensate the people affected.
Customers learned of the theft from an email, and images of it spread on social media. "After leaving our PSA facility in South California, a FedEx vehicle transporting PSA orders was burglarized, and items were stolen," the email read. A PSA spokesperson confirmed that thieves targeted "a third-party shipping vehicle carrying PSA-graded items." The company also said its own facility was not affected and that it did not have the items in its possession at the time.
One X user claimed they had sent more than $100,000 worth of cards that were all stolen. That figure is the user's own claim, and PSA has not confirmed it.
PSA said it has deactivated the certificates for the stolen items and told marketplace partners to watch for rare and serialized cards. It is working with FedEx and law enforcement, and its customer service team has contacted affected customers directly. Compensation will be based on "fair market value up to the Maximum Insured Value," the company said.
The case shows where the risk sits in a graded-card business. Grading can greatly raise a card's resale value, so a delivery truck full of graded orders holds a lot of concentrated value. Deactivating certificates is a practical response: buyers of graded cards generally rely on the grader's certificate to verify them, so a deactivated one should make stolen cards harder to sell openly.
Several things remain undisclosed, including how many orders were affected and what the Maximum Insured Value is. Those numbers will decide how whole collectors are made, and PSA itself acknowledged that many of them see their cards as more than a financial asset.