PSA Identifies Additional Parcels Stolen in October 13 FedEx Theft
PSA has identified additional customer parcels affected by the October 13 theft from a FedEx carrier truck in Santa Ana, California, expanding the known scope of an incident that the grading company previously said involved 6,451 stolen collectibles.
In a new update added to its ongoing theft investigation page, PSA said the additional parcels were discovered while the company continued auditing its shipment records and assisting law enforcement. PSA identified the newly affected items by reconciling shipment manifests with outbound logs, according to the company. PSA has not disclosed how many additional parcels or individual collectibles were discovered, meaning the exact number of items affected by the theft is now higher than the previously published 6,451 but remains unknown.
The newly identified items were insured, and PSA says their owners will be compensated using the same terms established for customers previously known to have been affected. Compensation will be based on fair market value up to each collectible’s declared Maximum Insured Value, or MIV. PSA said it is contacting the newly identified owners directly rather than asking customers to determine on their own whether their shipments were among the additional parcels.
The discovery represents the first major expansion of the known inventory since PSA published what it then described as the complete list of 6,451 stolen items in October. As CollectiblesNews.com reported on October 24, that list included PSA certification numbers and descriptions for thousands of sports cards, Pokémon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece and other collectibles, including serialized and one-of-one cards. PSA also confirmed at the time that both the Santa Ana Police Department and FBI were investigating the theft.
PSA says it has deactivated the certification numbers associated with the newly discovered items just as it did with the original group. The company is also working with marketplaces and other industry partners to monitor for the cards if they surface for sale. PSA said additional certification numbers will be released publicly as the investigation allows, but it has not yet published a supplemental list containing the newly identified collectibles.
The October 13 theft first drew widespread attention after collectors began reporting missing PSA submissions and police estimated the stolen property at approximately $963,000. CollectiblesNews.com reported on October 19 that affected submissions included sports, Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering cards, with some individual collectors reporting losses worth tens of thousands of dollars. PSA has not provided an updated dollar estimate following the discovery of the additional parcels, so it is not yet clear how the new findings change the previously reported value of the theft.
Under the compensation process PSA previously outlined, customers whose orders shipped using PSA’s return label and insurance are compensated based on the fair market value of each item, up to its declared MIV. PSA says it evaluates comparable sales, realized auction prices, grades, population reports and other market data when establishing value, while rare cards with few recent sales may require a broader review of historical transactions and market trends. Grading fees connected to affected orders are refunded separately and do not reduce compensation for the stolen collectibles.
PSA has also said that accepting compensation does not end its effort to recover a stolen card. If an item is later located, its original owner will be given the choice of retaining the compensation or receiving the collectible back. That policy will also apply to the additional parcels identified in the latest audit.