The Lorcana Robbery Proves Once Again That Shiny Cardboard Brings Out The Worst In People

Once again, thousands of dollars in trading cards have been stolen from a local game store.

If you were a Pokemon fan during the pandemic, you and I likely share a very specific kind of trauma. I had just reentered the hobby about a year before Sword & Shield started and I was excited to get into a new generation right at the start. I collected a master set of Sword & Shield base set, pretended to be excited about Rebel Clash, then hit the Charizard slot machine hard when Darkness Ablaze launched, just like everyone else. When the highly-coveted Champion’s Path launched in September 2020, the hobby took a dark turn. Demand for the Pokemon TCG product was higher than it's ever been, card prices skyrocketed, and some people started doing some very, very bad things.

I’ve gotten into the specifics of the hows and whys before so I’ll save us all some time and just say that the heightened demand and general scarcity of Pokemon created a number of unfortunate circumstances (if you want to know more, Frosted Caribou did an exceptional video about the problem). In short, people saw a potential to make a lot of money quickly, and for some, the temptation to take advantage of a volatile situation was just too great to pass up.

Related: Obessessing Over Market Value Has Ruined The Spirit Of Trading Cards

You might remember the videos of scalpers stampeding into Walmart and turning over shelves to get Pokemon cards, or when Target stopped selling Pokemon cards because the way customers were behaving was putting their employees in danger. The craze went on for over a year, even after The Pokemon Company promised to double its print run to make up for the shortage caused by demand. In September 2021, I wrote this piece appropriately titled We Are Still In Pokemon Card Hell. Looking back, I still consider this to be the peak of the TCG shitshow.

The article tells the story of Gary’s Pokemart, a TCG store in California that was vandalized and robbed of thousands of dollars in vintage and modern Pokemon cards. This is a horrible situation for a TCG store to go through. Game stores are typically locally-owned businesses that operate on slim margins, they’re not equipped to weather a serious financial detriment like this. This was already a tragic story, but it got even more depressing once it was revealed what kind of shady business the LGS in question had been up to.

It turns out that Gary’s Pokemart had somehow managed to get ahold of the highly-anticipated Celebrations expansion weeks before anyone else, and had been opening packs and showing off cards online for some time. Not only that, but the store was selling packs for $60 and ETBs for $300 - a roughly 500 percent markup on MSRP. It’s unclear how the store got early access to product, more than two weeks before release date, but it was almost certainly through dubious means. And while none of that means the store deserved to be robbed, it certainly explains why it was targeted in the first place.

I’ve been thinking about that story a lot over the last week, as fans of Disney Lorcana scrambled to get ahold of product that has had far more demand than supply. We’ve seen the way store owners have taken advantage of the short availability, not unlike Gary’s Pokemart, by jacking up the prices and preying on their customers’ FOMO.

Friday, a game store in Polk County, Florida was robbed overnight. The thieves stole $5,500 worth of merchandise, including Pokemon cards and, of course, Disney Lorcana booster boxes. The store owner told the local news that he believed the thieves were specifically targeting Lorcana, just like the thieves that targeted Gary’s Pokemart.

I’m not ready to deem this period of time Lorcana Hell, but having been through it before, I can’t help but notice the cyclical nature of these things. When demand for TCGs is high and supply is low, people behave in the most despicable ways imaginable. Price gouging, online scalping, and even grand theft trading card. I don’t think this will be the last time we see society start to chip away around edges over shiny cardboard, but I certainly wish it would be.

Next: Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter Review

Eric Switzer is Features Editor that specializes in Pokemon, VR, and tech coverage. He is also the host of TheGamer Podcast, now entering its second year. Eric loves board games, fan conventions, new technology, and his sweet sweet kitties Bruce and Babs. Favorite games include Destiny 2, Kingdom Hearts, Super Metroid, and Prey...but mostly Prey. His favorite Pokémon is Umbreon.