Pat's Games, Austin TX broken into, 75k worth of cards stolen.

[Myelectronicdays]

Just wanted to help pass the word as much as possible. I didn't see it posted on the site yet.. but I could have missed it. This is my LGS, and most people that come to the central texas area have been to or heard of Pat and her store. This has been pretty awful and a major blow to our community here.

There is a news story about it here.. including some footage of the two who broke into the store at about 1am this previous weekend.

http://kxan.com/2016/01/25/75000-wor...AN_Austin_News

The story has been shared quite a bit, so hoping anyone has any info to who these people were. We are assuming that they are magic players themselves and have been in the store before. They took the 3 display cases which included an alpha recall, alpha underground sea, stacks and stacks of duals, expeditions etc... the list is pretty huge. They basically ran right to them.. grabbed them and took off.

Thanks all! I hate seeing the darker side of the hobby we love so much.

Dave

[iamajellydonut]

Man that sucks. I'm honestly surprised at how infrequently incidents like this occur given the relative effort and value involved, but my callous wonder doesn't mean that the store and the community don't still have my deepest sympathies.


In other news, this nutshell-description of Magic: The Gathering...

"The cards themselves, some of which can be very rare and valued from several hundred to several thousand dollars, typically sell in packs for less than $10."

[Dice_Box]

This happened in Brisbane last year. The worst part was that after it happened, the house on of the of people who worked there and was known to collect was broken into as well. This is hopefully not a sign of things to come.

[Stuart]

This is my local store, and it's a major bummer. Fortunately they had insurance and security cameras. Still, it's just sad to see local businesses preyed on. Fingers crossed they get their cards back and don't lose too much faith in humanity.

[nedleeds]

I think the reason it doesn't happen more is that the labor of reselling the merch is fairly high. If you are a piece of shit thief to begin with you are probably lazy. Magic cards can't be driven a block away and sold at a pawn shop.

[Varal]

Man that sucks. I'm honestly surprised at how infrequently incidents like this occur given the relative effort and value involved, but my callous wonder doesn't mean that the store and the community don't still have my deepest sympathies.


In other news, this nutshell-description of Magic: The Gathering...

"The cards themselves, some of which can be very rare and valued from several hundred to several thousand dollars, typically sell in packs for less than $10."

It is a relatively low value product that's pretty tough to sale.

[iamajellydonut]

I'm not sure what the definition of "low" here is, but I do know that duals ain't cheap. And cards are only really difficult to get rid of if you're going for full value. Sure, you might raise a few eyebrows if you try to ditch them all in one go at an SCG event, but spread out amongst a few smaller transactions, you should be able to get rid of them with very minimal trouble. Even assuming you don't sit on anything and only get 60% of the value, 45k (untaxed?) is still one hell of a haul. Well worth flying out to to a few (far away) GPs to unload. I'd imagine that people have held up bank tellers at far greater risk for far less reward.

*disclaimer: I do not live anywhere near Texas nor have I previously heard of Pat's Games.

[MGB]

I guess as a community of Magic-buying people we should be on the look-out for any sudden influx of Beta/Unlimited/etc cards being shopped around.

[shocked439]

I'm not sure what the definition of "low" here is, but I do know that duals ain't cheap. And cards are only really difficult to get rid of if you're going for full value. Sure, you might raise a few eyebrows if you try to ditch them all in one go at an SCG event, but spread out amongst a few smaller transactions, you should be able to get rid of them with very minimal trouble. Even assuming you don't sit on anything and only get 60% of the value, 45k (untaxed?) is still one hell of a haul. Well worth flying out to to a few (far away) GPs to unload. I'd imagine that people have held up bank tellers at far greater risk for far less reward.

*disclaimer: I do not live anywhere near Texas nor have I previously heard of Pat's Games.

I think the previous point was cards have no value outside of the game. We're all a little nutters and pay for the cards. To an outsider it all seems ridiculous and they would have no idea what they were taking or how to monetize it. It says a lot about the integrity of the community that this doesn't happen more often.

A terrible situation for the LGS though.

[Richard Cheese]

I guess as a community of Magic-buying people we should be on the look-out for any sudden influx of Beta/Unlimited/etc cards being shopped around.

Is there a list of what was stolen so people can be on the lookout? Anything graded, altered, or otherwise unique?

FYI that facebook link doesn't work for me.

[cdr]

On the bright side of things, the kind of people who do this are almost never very bright. They usually get caught pretty quickly.

[Myelectronicdays]

Is there a list of what was stolen so people can be on the lookout? Anything graded, altered, or otherwise unique?

FYI that facebook link doesn't work for me.

They are compiling a list of the cards right now.. will post when I get them. yeah i realized that FB link probably didnt work.. will find a new one.

[Stuart]

Fortunately, Pat's getting an absurd amount of media coverage over this. They're being interviewed on multiple shows, the story is on Time's website, etc. It was even trending on my wife's Facebook . This could help either identify the thieves or at least get their cards back.

On the downside, all the media coverage is drawing shitheads out in comment sections. There have been way too many people blaming the victim (by lecturing Pat for not protecting her inventory better), speculating that it's an insurance scam, or not knowing what Magic is and making fun of nerds . The internet is a wonderful place sometimes.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

There have been way too many people blaming the victim (by lecturing Pat for not protecting her inventory better), speculating that it's an insurance scam, or not knowing what Magic is and making fun of nerds . The internet is a wonderful place sometimes.

These are the type of people to awkwardly stutter and trip over their own words and make half-hearted arguments as to why it's ultimately the owners fault where you to corner them and ask them in person.

I wouldn't mind them at all.

[apple713]

Because they were insured this is great. Some One basically just bought 75k worth of inventory that pat would have had one hell of a hard time liquidating otherwise. Of course there was some vandalism but aside from that pat just had their best customer.

[MGB]

Because they were insured this is great. Some One basically just bought 75k worth of inventory that pat would have had one hell of a hard time liquidating otherwise. Of course there was some vandalism but aside from that pat just had their best customer.

That is a good point. Any time insurance coverage is involved, you can't be blind to the potential of something non-kosher like this.

I've seen too many mysterious fires at retail stores and subsequent insurance payouts around where I live to believe that it doesn't happen.

[Stuart]

That is a good point. Any time insurance coverage is involved, you can't be blind to the potential of something non-kosher like this.

I've seen too many mysterious fires at retail stores and subsequent insurance payouts around where I live to believe that it doesn't happen.

While it'd be naive to dismiss that possibility, the much-simpler and more likely explanation is that they just got robbed. They wouldn't want all this media coverage if they're trying to scam their insurance. Likewise, Pat's seems to be doing pretty well for itself financially; I don't think they'd really want to go through all this hastle for some extra cash. I'm sure it's relatively tough for them to move some of these high-end singles, but having things like Power in their display cases is a nice marketing tool that's probably more important to them than insurance money.

Then again, this is all speculation. Either way, hope they get their cards back soon.

[Richard Cheese]

Because they were insured this is great. Some One basically just bought 75k worth of inventory that pat would have had one hell of a hard time liquidating otherwise. Of course there was some vandalism but aside from that pat just had their best customer.

Eh, unless it was super obscure stuff, I doubt it would be that hard for them to move if they really wanted to. Ebay and TCGPlayer have made it fairly trivial to turn cardboard into cash on short notice, or they could always pay to have a booth at a big local event.

They might get a quick insurance payday now, but unless they were in real financial trouble, they're almost certainly losing out in the long term. I'm not sure exactly what got taken, but if it was high dollar stuff, you might be looking at 100K in a couple years. Having a really good singles selection is also a good way to draw/keep players.

[Ace/Homebrew]

Plus it will be a hassle to get the insurance company to appropriately value the stolen items. How do you prove condition?
And their insurance premium is guaranteed to go up until the insurance company feels they've recovered enough back.

It is certainly is not something a reputable store would be happy to have occur... payday or not.

[GrimoirePath]

If they have half a brain, they will unload this slowly over time. Go to events and sell a few cards here, a few cards there. Trade, so they arent holding the exact stolen inventory. Try to unload it over five years.