Collector Recon · Newsletter No. 007 · covers October 19–20, 2026

Santa Ana police put the PSA FedEx truck theft at $963,000 so far, with about 250 packages of graded cards taken on Oct 13 and no arrests

Santa Ana police estimate the graded cards stolen from a FedEx truck outside PSA's shipping site at $963,000, per CBS Los Angeles (October 19), and say the exact value cannot be set until the remaining boxes are scanned. The theft happened on Tuesday, October 13, in the 1600 block of East St. Andrew Place, beside PSA's shipping and receiving location in Santa Ana. Two pallets of about 100 packages each were taken and about 50 packages were pulled from a third, roughly 250 packages in all, per Heavy (October 19), which cites The Athletic's Benjamin Burrows. The driver was away from the truck for 60 to 90 minutes and the lock was broken in that window, per the same report. No arrests have been made and nothing has been recovered, per CBS and per Dexerto (October 20).

The $963,000 carries two attributions. CBS credits it to the police statement. Heavy's account says The Athletic attributes it to PSA's own valuation of the two stolen pallets, with the third pallet still being reconciled. On October 20 the police confirmed the theft to The Athletic, called the loss close to $1 million with the exact value undetermined, and counted 200 packages across the two pallets, per Dexerto. Every version of the number is preliminary, and every revision so far has moved it up.

How a week-old theft reached the public

PSA's email to affected customers reached the public on October 17, four days after the theft, when the collector SKY-B shared it on X and said a 104-card order worth more than $100,000 was in the load, per Heavy (October 18). PSA's email said the items were not in its possession at the time of the burglary, per Kotaku (October 19). A PSA spokesperson told Heavy on October 19: "We are aware of a theft involving a third-party shipping vehicle carrying PSA-graded items." CBS Los Angeles carried the police statement that evening, and FedEx told CBS "the security of our customers' shipments is a top priority" and that it is working with law enforcement. Collectors, the parent company of PSA, added in a statement carried by Dexerto on October 20 that it understands many customers value the cards as more than a financial asset.

What PSA pays, and where the cap sits

PSA's email promises compensation based on "fair market value up to the Maximum Insured Value" the customer selected for each item, per Kotaku, with details promised for the week of October 19. The Maximum Insured Value is the figure a submitter declares per card before grading. SKY-B paid $8,468 in grading fees and insured his 104-card submission for as much as $156,000, per Heavy citing The Athletic; CBS reports he values the cards above $100,000 and regards some of PSA's offers as far too low. Heavy asked PSA whether cards insured below their post-grading value would be covered and had no reply by publication.

Every submitter faces the same question. A card is declared at a value before anyone knows its grade; a card that comes back a 10 is usually worth more than the number on the form. PSA's wording puts the ceiling at the declared value, so the gap between what a card was declared at and what it graded into is the customer's loss, and the grading fee is spent either way.

The certs are dead, which is the market's protection

PSA has deactivated the certificates for the stolen items and notified marketplace partners to watch for rare and serialized cards, per Dexerto and Kotaku. A slab whose cert fails a lookup will not clear a cert check at an auction house or on a marketplace that runs one, so the cards' route back to market is as raw cards or in another holder, at a discount to the graded price. Otia (October 19) relayed an unofficial list of 383 serialized cards, compiled by the collector Boston Card Hunter, said to be in the load; the list is unverified and PSA has published no inventory. Anyone buying a PSA slab of a sports or Pokémon card in the coming weeks has one check to run: the cert number against PSA's lookup. A cert that fails the lookup is a slab not to buy at a graded price.

What it means for the market

For the owners, the payout is capped by what they declared, whatever the cards graded. For buyers, the deactivation is the protection: the load cannot be sold as graded product through any venue that checks certs. For the grading pipeline, the exposure sits in the last mile. The cards were graded, slabbed and out of PSA's hands when they were taken, and the liability PSA accepts is the insurance the customer chose. A submission's declared value is the only number in the chain that pays out, and it is set before the grade exists.

What to watch next

PSA's compensation details, promised for the week of October 19, and whether cards insured below their post-grading value are covered.
The final count once the third pallet is reconciled; the police have asked anyone with information to contact the department.
Whether any of the serials on the unofficial list surface on a marketplace, which would be the first sign of where the load went.

Figures are as reported by the sources below on the dates shown. This is market data and commentary, not investment advice.

Sources

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