| RECON // NEWSLETTER · CATCH-UP EDITION |
OCT 16–26, 2026 |
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Know the market. Collect with conviction.
TCG · VIDEO GAMES · ANIME
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Collector Recon is back! Apologies for the delay... our infrastructure was nuked so we had to rebuild some things in our pipeline. There is a lot going on right now in the world of high-end collecting. We hope you find this content valuable. Reply to any newsletter with your requests or suggestions! We read everything. Have a great week and keep collecting.
— THE EDITOR
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 | | IMAGE: PSA CERTIFICATE LIST |
PSA publishes the full list of 6,451 graded items stolen from the FedEx truck in Santa Ana on Oct 13, deactivates every cert and confirms the FBI is on the case with police; Pokémon is on the list
| STOLEN | 6,451 ITEMS · FEDEX TRUCK, SANTA ANA · OCT 13 |
| LIST | 93-PAGE PDF · EVERY CERT DEACTIVATED · OCT 23 |
| CASE | SANTA ANA PD + FBI · POLICE ESTIMATE $963,000 · NO ARRESTS |
6,451 ITEMS · CERTS VOID
PSA’s Oct 23 update puts the Oct 13 theft from a FedEx truck outside its Santa Ana facility at 6,451 items, publishes the complete list with every cert number as a 93-page PDF, deactivates every cert on it and says the Santa Ana Police Department and the FBI have the video, manifests and item-level records; grading fees are refunded and each item is paid at fair market value up to its declared Maximum Insured Value. Collectibles News read the list: a Grey Felt Hat Pikachu promo, a 2016 Charizard EX promo, an Evolving Skies Rayquaza V and a Fusion Strike Gengar VMAX are on it with Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece and sports one-of-ones, after Chase Society’s Oct 22 read of a 382-card partner list had found no Pokémon. Police had put the loss at $963,000 on Oct 19 before the remaining boxes were scanned; the payouts are capped by what each submitter declared, so the loss PSA pays and the loss the market books will differ, and every PSA slab offered from here on can be checked against a public list.
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A Woking decorator’s 42 Pokémon master sets, bought for his son and left in the attic for 15 years, sold for £1.56 million at Ewbank’s on Oct 21, six times the estimate; the Legendary Collection set made £100,000
Ewbank’s sold a retired Woking decorator’s 42 complete Pokémon master sets, bought from an eBay seller in Malaysia in the late 1990s and kept in binders in his attic for about 15 years, for £1.56 million (about $2.1 million) on Oct 21 against a £250,000 estimate, a house record, per the Farnham Herald and Dexerto. The Legendary Collection Complete Master Set with a near-mint Charizard made £100,000 on a £15,000 to £20,000 estimate, and a set bought for about £300 made £75,000. The estimate priced the sets on old comps and the room paid for condition: two UK houses cleared seven figures on Pokémon in October.
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Konami’s full emergency Yu-Gi-Oh! list is out: 34 cards forbidden, 8 limited and 1 semi-limited from Oct 19, the largest list since September 2013
The five parts revealed at YCS Houston from Friday night to early Monday name 34 newly forbidden cards, Called by the Grave, Crossout Designator, Triple Tactics Talent, Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier and Anti-Spell Fragrance among them, plus eight limited (Droll & Lock Bird, Branded Opening and Toon Table of Contents included) and Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage semi-limited, all effective Monday, Oct 19, per YGOrganization. YGOrganization calls it the largest list since September 2013’s 47 changes, and Perfectron Hydradrive Dragon is the first OCG-only card limited in the TCG since Sixth Sense in October 2013. The generic hand traps and floodgates had buyers in every deck, so they carry the widest exposure; Magnificent Maestros, the set the list clears room for, lands Nov 13 per ICv2.
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Graded game auctions at Heritage and Goldin logged 61 sales for $41,353 in the 30 days to Oct 19, with a $2,125 top sale, after a $1.6 million week in September and a $2.8 million week in August, per What The Slab
What The Slab’s report (refreshed Oct 23) counts 61 graded game sales at the two houses for $41,353 in its last 30 days, a $525 median and a PSA 9.2 Donkey Kong Country at $2,125 on top; the week of Sep 7 did 304 sales for $1,623,540 and the week of Aug 24 did 191 for $2,763,772, led by the $450,000 Mario Bros. eBay carried the weeks between: The Graded Games Report tracked 698 graded game sales for Oct 6 to 13 at a $355 median, topped by a sealed PSA 9.8 Pokémon Sapphire at $35,100. The next dated burst is Heritage’s Video Games Signature Auction, Nov 20 to 21, with $689,483 in proxy bids on its sale page.
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FIELD NOTE
The slab is only part of the asset. The paper, the rules and the calendar count too.
In October PSA voided 6,451 certs with one published list, Konami took 34 cards out of play over a weekend, and graded games at Heritage and Goldin sold $41,353 in a month after a $2.8 million week in August. None of those items changed; their value moved with the cert, the rulebook and the auction calendar around them. The Woking attic sets made £1.56 million, six times the estimate, on the same principle: 15 untouched years and a history a buyer could check were part of what sold.
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Disclosure: Collector Recon doesn’t own the items featured and isn’t paid by auction houses or brands for coverage. Figures are from the sources named, checked the day they were reported; not investment advice. You’re receiving this because you subscribed at collectorrecon.xyz.
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