News culture They stole $300,000 worth of Magic cards. They risk up to 6 years in prison and a fine fine.
Published on 06/09/2023 at 4:50 p.m.
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We know that collectible cards can reach high values, whether they are Pokémon, Magic or even more recently Lorcana. It was surely this greed that pushed these two people to steal $300,000 worth of Magic cards!
Gen Con is a board and card game convention that has been taking place in Indiana for over 50 years. In recent years, it has attracted more and more visitors, but unfortunately not always the most honest ones. Indeed, it was during this event that two men, Thomas Dunbar and Andrew Giaume allegedly stole $300,000 worth of Magic: The Gathering cards. If convicted, they face up to $10,000 in fines and up to 6 years in prison. The two colleagues were showcasing their board game Castle Assault during the convention and took the opportunity to sneak into a card dealer’s warehouse space to carry out their stunt. Unfortunately, for them, surveillance cameras caught them in the act! The images were communicated to the police. The two people are seen carrying a full pallet of merchandise to their car.
Credits: Polygon
The merchandise has since been located in New York although it was intended to be resold to a third party. A statement of charges was drawn up bringing together all the evidence against the two men. In addition to the surveillance videos, there is testimony from a lawyer explaining that his client would have been forced to buy the pallet for $4,000. The customer’s defense consists of saying that he would not have been aware of the real value of the goods and that therefore for him there was nothing illegal about the transaction. Given the circumstances, according to the media Polygon and the prosecutor of Marion County in Indiana, the evidence guarantees criminal consequences for the two thieves.
Magic cards that reach colossal values
We can legitimately think that this theft was financially motivated. It must be said that some Magic cards have recently reached dizzying sums. We can notably cite the One Ring card: a card representing the ring from the famous Lord of the Rings saga. This has a version that only exists in one copy. She was purchased by the artist Post Malone for the sum of two million dollars! In other games, we can also talk about the Charizard from the first edition base set which sell for several thousand dollars. Recently, Lorcana, the Disney card game, arrived and the Elsa card from the Snow Queen sold for a minimum of €600 in its French version, a good start for such a recent card game!
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