Pokémon card collector says $500K worth of cards stolen from his S.C. home

It’s time to track down Team Rocket, because a true Pokémon heist happened two weeks in South Carolina.

Roughly $200,000 worth of Pokémon cards were stolen from a South Carolina home in mid-July, according to the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office. Christopher Polydorou from Inman, S.C. reported the theft on July 13.

The Smoking Gun spoke to Polydorou, who said the stolen goods were “valued in excess of $500,000.” But in an email to Polygon, a sheriff’s office spokesperson disputed that figure, and said their actual value was $200,000.

The original report says the cards were valued at “half a billion” dollars, quite likely an error. The case “remains an active investigation,” according to deputies.

According to Polydorou’s report, the only people who were in the room with the stolen cards since October 2021 were his mother, and some HVAC technicians. According to The Smoking Gun Polydorou, the cards were found among other collectibles such as baseball cards, football cards, and basketball cards within his home of 6,800 square feet.

The Smoking Gun reported that Polydorou bought the cards in 2014 at $431,000. Each pack contained 24 cards. The three-box collection was said to have included unopened cards. According to the police report, one-and-a half of the boxes had been stolen. Polydorou stated that one box contained an extremely rare Japanese version of a card.

Polygon reached out to Polydorou and the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s office for further clarification on the stolen items.

It’s no secret that rare Pokémon cards can fetch a pretty penny these days. It’s a lucrative and expensive hobby to collect the most valuable cards, some of which have sold for as much as $900,000.

Polydorou, an insurance broker, said that the cards were uninsured, so he’ll swallow the loss if the pilfered Pokémon don’t turn up.