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A rash of Pokemon Trading Card Collectible thefts have hit Melbourne retailers, with collectables store Cherry in West Melbourne confirming it was the latest shop to be ransacked overnight.
“Our Melbourne store will be closed today as we had some friends who wanted our stock more than we did overnight,” Cherry wrote in a post on Facebook this morning.
Blacklist Cards and Collectables in Thomastown owner Umit Berkant told the ABC that “probably over $20[,000 or] $25,000” worth of stock has been stolen in in two instances of theft over the past two months.
“The first time [the thieves] thought it would be an easy payday,” Berkant said. “The second time they kind of seemed a lot more planned, a lot more professional, a lot more targeted this time.“
General Games owner Ryan Streets — who has stores in Malvern, Frankston, Keysborough, and Chirnside Park — told the ABC that he’s heard that 16 different stores have been broken into over the last six months.
“These cards are worth quite a bit of money,” Streets said. “These thieves know what they’re targeting.
“We’ve been lucky as an industry in the past where probably there hasn’t been a good understanding of how much some of these things are worth,” he continued. “But because it’s becoming more mainstream, it’s a bit of a double-edged sword.
“These break-ins aren’t just stealing — they’re destroying the stores in the process, they’re smashing cabinets, and they’re just trashing the stores,” Streets added.
As per AstroKerrie on Bluesky, the following additional Local Game Stores (LGSes) have been targeted by thieves in the past two months:
- Grand J Games (Moonee Ponds; theft pictured above)
- Blacklist Cards (Thomastown)
- Pro Gamers (Ravenhall)
- Good Games (Greensborough)
- Sunshine Collectables (Sunshine)
- CardTastic (Clayton)
- The Ozzie Showroom (Eumemmerring)
That stolen stock will surely resurface in one way or another, either at another LGS or through other, less official channels.
“We’re seeing stores getting hit overnight now daily with Pokemon card stock being cleared out in bins,” wrote Powerhouse Museum Sydney games curator Chloe Appleby on Bluesky.
“Trust your gut when purchasing cards from vendors and support your LGS,” Appleby added, and rightly so.
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