‘Targets on their back’: Trading card shops, collectors face rising thefts
CBC
Daniel Cruz was browsing displays of trading cards in Calgary’s ShoeBox Games & Cafe last October when he saw two people walk in, both dressed in black and sporting skull face paint — not an unusual sight on Halloween.
About 15 minutes after they arrived, Cruz saw one of the pair go behind the counter and grab three boxes of trading cards before trying to make a run for the exit.
The value of just one box? Cruz, an avid card collector, estimates it at about $600 to $1,000.
He and other bystanders tried to intervene in the theft, but in the chaos of the scene one of the thieves punched him in the back of his head, leaving him with a concussion.
The experience, Cruz said, is just one example of a growing threat for shops like ShoeBox Games & Cafe, as Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering cards, as well as ones from the increasingly popular One Piece, have skyrocketed in value in recent years.
“The whole collectors’ market is so crazy right now,” he said. “And just the fact that our game is being targeted for things like this, it makes it really hard for other people to get into the market as well or even into the hobby because then all of a sudden they're putting targets on their back if they have a big collection in their home.”
Local trading card shop First Player is all too familiar with being the target. The store has been hit twice in the last year — the most recent incident taking place last week.
“This was after a string of break-ins that had happened across the city,” said Nathanael Wilsher, the store’s community lead. He said First Player was just another stop for the thieves.
“They came in, broke down our door and took a lot of our sealed product; some of our loose product as well — just single cards, things like that.”
He estimated the value of the stolen product at around $5,000.
Wilsher is connected with the community of trading shops in Calgary and said he’s heard the majority of them have experienced break-ins or attempts in recent years.
The Calgary Police Service said it wouldn’t give more details on thefts of this nature due to ongoing investigations.
“They are targeted specifically because of the rising value of these cards,” said Wilsher, explaining that factors like the artwork on the card and rarity boost sale value. “We often joke that we specialize in expensive cardboard, because that's ultimately what these cards are."
Wilsher said the theft attempts have become exhausting for trading shops, and ruin the fun for community members who just want to play.
Five months ago, Dr. Anne Herdman Royal began a new job in Canada. Driven out of the United States by a shifting political landscape and a mass shooting at the hospital where she worked in Tulsa, Okla., it had become a country she no longer wanted to call home.
Alberta's government — along with the Rural Municipalities of Alberta, and the province’s energy regulator — say they want to crack down on oil and gas companies that don’t pay their property taxes.
Ottawa will now allow rural businesses to employ more temporary foreign workers to help supplement the local workforce, a move Restaurants Canada says will help some restaurants on P.E.I. keep their doors open.
The City of Calgary is reminding people to save water after a recent spike in usage.
The number of visitors to food banks in Mississauga has nearly doubled since the height of the pandemic, says the city's largest food security organization.
After three weeks on the road in Yellowknife doing Inuvialuktun translation for the Northwest Territories legislative assembly, Lillian Elias says she's tired and ready to go home to Inuvik.
Metrolinx is reporting "significant" delays to several GO train lines late Monday afternoon due to a police investigation.
The federal government is spending $14.3 million to support over two dozen Yukon organizations and First Nations governments with arts, culture and language programming.
The war in the Middle East, the fear that it could escalate and the economic consequences were top of mind as Prime Minister Mark Carney met his British counterpart Monday in the United Kingdom at the tail of a whirlwind trip to Europe.
Alberta and Czechia will host the fourth edition of the World Cup of Hockey, a country-versus-country hockey tournament set to hit the ice in February 2028, the NHL announced Monday.
The Ontario government has confirmed it is cutting provincial funding for seven supervised drug consumption sites, days after harm reduction advocates said they were notified of the decision.
In the sprawling labyrinth of shops and showrooms in the Chinese city of Yiwu, parts of what’s widely known as the "world’s supermarket" are beginning to look more like a world-class warehouse.
The lawyer representing Umar Zameer, a man cleared in the death of a Toronto police officer two years ago, says he has "serious misgivings" about an upcoming report into the conduct of several officers involved in the case.