In brief: Thieves took about $963,000 in graded trading cards from a FedEx truck in Santa Ana, California, and the shipper, card grader PSA, is paying its customers itself.
Implications:
Who pays: On a stolen high-value parcel, your own terms and insurance decide what your customers get back.
Hot spot: Southern California had more than a third of recorded US cargo thefts in the second quarter.
The News
Thieves took about $963,000 in graded trading cards from a FedEx truck in Santa Ana, Calif, police said, adding that the final figure could be higher. The cards were customers’ orders from Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), which grades and authenticates collectible cards. PSA told those customers in an email that a FedEx vehicle “transporting PSA orders was burglarized” after leaving its facility.
The driver found the lock on the rear cargo door missing in a PSA parking lot that is open to the public, and two pallets of cards, each holding about 100 packages, were gone along with part of a third. Single orders in the load were large: one collector said his 104-card order, worth more than $100,000, was among them. FedEx said the security of its customers’ shipments “is a top priority” and that it is working with police. No one has been arrested.
Why It Matters
High-value goods ride in ordinary parcel trucks. When a load goes missing, the shipper’s own terms decide what its customers get back.
Same truck, same lock: The cards rode on a FedEx truck secured by a lock on the rear cargo door, the same way everyday parcels travel.
The shipper’s caps set the payout: PSA is paying under insured-value limits its customers chose when they sent in the cards.
Who Pays
PSA is paying customers “based on fair market value up to the Maximum Insured Value (‘MIV’) you selected for each item,” according to its email. So each customer’s limit was set when the cards were submitted. That limit rises with the grading tier, from $1,000 a card at the standard tier to more at the faster, pricier tiers. This leaves customers who paid for the cheaper service with less coverage on a valuable card.
PSA has also deactivated the certificate numbers on the stolen cards and told marketplace partners to watch for rare and serialized items, which makes the cards harder to resell as graded.
Who’s Exposed
Collectibles and resale sellers: Graders, card shops and sneaker or watch resellers ship boxes worth more than many shippers declare.
Electronics sellers: Electronics were the most stolen category in the second quarter, at 23% of reported cargo thefts, according to Overhaul.
Southern California shippers: The area within 200 miles of Torrance, which includes Santa Ana, had 37% of recorded US cargo thefts in the same quarter, Overhaul said.
Marketplace sellers: Walmart approved eight more parcel carriers for seller-shipped orders, so more high-value marketplace orders move on carriers the sellers choose.
Holiday parcel shippers: FedEx and UPS ground parcel prices are heading for a record this quarter, as holiday volume peaks.
Open Questions
Where: Police haven’t said whether the theft happened in PSA’s lot or earlier on the route.
Targeted or not: Police haven’t determined whether the thieves knew the cards were inside.
Final value: The $963,000 is an initial estimate, and police said it could rise.
What’s Next
Investigation: Santa Ana detectives are reviewing possible surveillance footage from the PSA facility.
PSA customers: PSA told affected customers that compensation details would follow its first email by about a week.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of FedEx
