PSA Names All 6,451 Stolen Slabs: How to Make Sure You Don't Buy One
A 1st Edition Charizard, a 1933 Goudey Ruth and Gold Stars are on the list. Here's the two-minute check before you pay.
If you're shopping for a graded slab this week, there's a new homework assignment, and it takes about two minutes. PSA has published the full list of 6,451 items stolen from a FedEx truck outside its Santa Ana, California, facility, and every one of those cert numbers is now a red flag.
What happened
On October 13, customer orders were taken from a FedEx carrier truck after it picked them up at PSA's Santa Ana facility, according to PSA. Both the Santa Ana Police Department and the FBI are investigating. Santa Ana police initially put the loss at about $963,000, a figure Cardboard Police describes as PSA's estimate for two of the three pallets, CardWire reported.
The first public list going around was much smaller. Chase Society counted 382 cards on it, all serial-numbered, and not one of them was Pokémon. PSA's October 23 update replaces that with all 6,451 items, listed by cert number. PSA says it has deactivated every stolen cert and shared the list with marketplaces, auction houses and digital platforms.
The list is mostly modern cards. Cardboard Police's tally counts 2,978 Pokémon entries and 898 One Piece cards, and finds that 4,669 of the entries with a year are dated 2020 or later. CardWire counts 19 sports one-of-ones.
The headline cards (and their certs)
PSA's list doesn't include grades or values, so we can't tell you what any single slab is worth. These are the names that stand out, as listed in PSA's PDF:
1999 Pokémon Base Set Charizard Holo, 1st Edition: cert 177980867. It's listed right between a 1st Edition Blastoise (177980866) and a 1st Edition Venusaur (177980868).
1999 Pokémon Base Set Charizard Holo, Shadowless: cert 169817670.
1933 Goudey #144 Babe Ruth: cert 179268851.
1935 National Chicle #34 Bronko Nagurski: cert 179270945.
2005 EX Deoxys Rayquaza Gold Star: two copies, certs 178608994 and 178556280.
2006 EX Holon Phantoms Pikachu Gold Star: cert 177981926.
2026 Magic: The Gathering Hobbit Smaug the Magnificent, Gleaming Gold: cert 179183951.
2024 Topps Diamond Icons Mookie Betts Gold relic 1/1: cert 151744709.
A 1933 Goudey #144 Babe Ruth, the same card as cert 179268851 but not the stolen copy. Image: Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
A 1935 National Chicle Bronko Nagurski, the same card as cert 179270945 but not the stolen copy. Image: Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
How to check a slab before you pay
Get the cert number first. Ask for clear photos of the front and back of the slab label, and never accept "trust me."
Run it through PSA's cert verification. A real, active cert should show the same card, year and grade as the label. If the cert comes back deactivated or doesn't match, walk away.
Search the stolen list. Open PSA's PDF, press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) and paste in the cert number. For serial-numbered cards, search the card name too, since PSA included serial numbers.
Be extra careful with a "fresh" slab. Modern Pokémon and One Piece make up most of the list, so slabs from those games deserve the closest look.
If it's on the list, don't buy it, and report it. CardWire lists the FBI's Los Angeles office at 310-477-6565 and Santa Ana police at 714-245-8345. PSA says to call the FBI number, press 1 during business hours (8 a.m.-5 p.m.) and ask for the duty agent on the PSA theft.
What it means for collectors and flippers
If you lost cards, PSA says it has refunded grading fees on affected orders. It's also paying owners who shipped on its return label fair market value, up to each item's declared Maximum Insured Value, and payments are already going out. If a card turns up later, the owner can keep the money or take the card back.
That last part matters if you flip cards. Our read: a card the owner can reclaim is a bad buy at any price. Your "deal" could be seized, and you'd be left trying to get your money back from whoever sold it to you. A deactivated cert also makes a slab hard to resell anywhere legitimate. If a big-name card shows up below market with a thin story behind it, assume you're being targeted, not lucky.
What to watch next
Cardboard Police reports that no arrests have been announced, and PSA says the investigation is ongoing. Watch for news of any recovered slabs or arrests. Speculation: thieves may try to crack cards out of their slabs and resubmit them raw, which a cert check can't catch. Serial-numbered cards are the exception, because the number on the card itself is listed. So for the big names above, ask where the card came from and look for older photos of that exact copy.
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