Incredibly sad for the UK grading scene, Randolph is a nice guy too, always turns up to card shows, even the small ones in village halls etc.
Hopefully they find the thief and can recover the cards. UK police have a habit of not taking Pokemon seriously. Just a few months ago I had someone try and sell a stolen BGS slab to my store and I reported it. The card was recovered thankfully but the theif was let off with just a caution (the card was worth thousands).
Terrible for anyone involved. I hope customers do get the actual full market value back. Sadly lost potential returns and sentimental value of childhood cards will be what hurts customers most.
Unfortunately UK prisons and the courts are overcrowded so prison time is unlikely even for a theft worth thousands. I imagine the thief pled guilty hence just a caution.
Iāve just been reading a Reddit thread on ACE and the rumor is that ACE does NOT have insurance, hence why the company may be in a bit of trouble with these refunds.
Looks like ACE is trying to lowball 20% market value for many cards. A number of users on Reddit have already rejected ACEās offer and are threatening small claims court for settlements.
The fact they were stolen before being processed means there is basically no chance of finding them once the thieves try and off-load them. Unless there are some incredibly rare, like under Art Academy level rare, cards in what was stolen.
Terrible situation - he seems like a sound guy and a big net positive in the community, to hear this happen is bad.
I am troubled by the compensation stuff coming out though in the youtube comments, various social media channels. This is not the first time middlemen have had parcels lost/stolen. Shouldnt there be enhanced compensation/insurance in place to avoid risk of people only getting fractions of the value back?
To note, one of the key guys at Ace was Tom from GradedGem before he moved to Ace and the whole GradedGem saga happened where they ran out of cash as middlemen and were forced to sell of their own collections to fund the cost as many people walked away from their junk slabs, the odd parcels got stolen/lost in transit so they should of had experience of this thingā¦This shouldnt of been new news to Ace ( not saying they wouldnt of stepped up the compensation/security because of this).
Given its an ongoing police investigation they probably cant reveal detail but would be interesting to see why things like āexpense equipmentā was left but only the cards stolen too, were the cards just sitting in the office or in a secure safeā¦is there internal CCTV too.
Lets hope this doesnt bankrupt what i see as not a company i personally use but still a good company non the less with a great guy at the helm.
Looks like quite a few sports card collectors had 1 of 5s, autos, 1/1s stolen, this may be a good thing as this will help trace down the cards as a whole to the culprits. For all we know they could still be sitting on the stash and if police find them fast enough its a recovery situation!
Itās much easier to take and sell a few boxes of pokemon cards on the open market without detection, compared to stealing and trying to sell a massive bulky sonic welder
Iād be beyond amazed. I think this rumour is just spawning because of tribalistic ACE hate and the idea that they are a āsmall companyā.
Whilst they might be smaller than other grading companies, they are still a decent sized business, & itās not the owners first rodeo in business either. My head would be on Mars if I found out they have no insurance
The door has a lock on it. What more do you want?!
But really, office security isnt thought about like that until its made an issue and this is unfortunately making it an issue. Part of the reason why few people trust smaller grading companies as opposed to larger established ones is because of these types of resources that arent immediately obvious.
I removed a couple posts that linked potential security issues of other companies not involved with ACE. I know they are well intended, but a friendly reminder, threads are picked up by google, so in situations like this where someoneās livelihood is being discussed, itās better to err on the side of caution.
The UK police donāt take a lot seriously, let alone stolen trading cards! Can nick stuff from shops and nothing is done if itās below a certain value. Had police out to our workplace multiple times for various things and they take forever to turn up, and then itās usually a āthereās nothing we can do about itā attitude.
Then there was the āplanā recently to free up prison places by releasing over a 1,000 criminals earlyā¦proper criminals too that posed for the cameras in release while they were getting picked up by their gangster mates in Bentleys and G-Wagons. At the same time, other people have been thrown in the slammer for multiple years for saying something in X lol.
I live here and I would honestly expect to never see anything that was stolen from me ever again. I have no faith in our police as a service (of course, there are a lot of excellent individuals in the force) and would just immediately write off anything stolen from me as gone for good.
So apologies for the cynical post but I would be surprised if this incident has a positive ending! Obviously we can hope that this is one of those rare times where justice is served and the goods are found but I think the probability is low unfortunatelyā¦
On the topic of ACE I looked at their public records and it shows in April 2024 the company was nearly Ā£500k in negative equity. It probably would have taken another 5 years to become financially healthy. This burglary would of set back the company significantly.
Even if ACE can put the financial liability behind them, what will this do to consumer confidence? This type of event can be a nail in the coffin for small businesses that rely heavily on reputation and own little marketshare.
I feel awful for those involved and I hope that things can get resolved as soon as possible. This type of behavior is awful to see in the hobby and reminds me of the card-related thefts and assaults in the U.S. during the pandemic. I hope that we donāt see copycat crimes in the near future.
This all depends on what insurance they had, if it was the right insurance and if they met the terms of the insurance, I know a place that got robbed (it was a tv repair shop) and they didnāt get paid out as the CCTV wasnāt working for 3 days before hand, so if ACEās insurance states that they must have working cctv etc the insurance can refuse to pay out,
for clarity Iām not saying this is whats happened/happening but just one of the ways they could be screwed,
ontop of this they have a charge hold against them at companies house that states they must have adequate insurance or the charge will be filled (basically bankrupting them) so its defiantly not a good time for them, I hope they pull through but personally I will be taking my business elsewhere (recommendations welcome I still want to use a UK grader)
Kind of. I had a FedEx package get lost/stolen coming back from them this year. The declared values are really only if the cards get lost or damaged while in CGC possession. For the lost package they had their insurer provide payout numbers. They were a bit all over the place. A $500 card got a payout of $300 but a $15 dollar card got a payout of $100, etc. It ended up working out all in all but still not sure how insurance determined all the prices lol
The speed of the insurance payouts is what is giving me a red flag.
Usually an insurance payout is a lengthy process, even for something easily priced up.
Imo they are paying out from their own cash, but could be wrong.
Perhaps they have to pay out first and then make a claim with their provider.
Not sure the total cash value of raw cards they had stolen but since they are a relatively small operation comparatively (with most cards sent there being lower value) hope they will be able to stomach that loss if not covered by their policy.
As much as I advocate grass roots competitors in the grading scene, it would be cool if PSA or even CGC/BGS had an office in the UK where you could hand deliver submissions. PSA did good with Japan. With each new country they open an office, expect an increase in the pop reports though (there is a large quantity of raw cards that remain untapped).
As for the robbery, it is what it is. I wouldnāt expect more than the insurance payout offer. There are risks in everything.
Also, if they are sophisticated I would think the thieves would transport them to another country like America or China (even using something simple like standard postage). Possibly stolen to order. If they are non sophisticated and they try selling them in the UK there is a chance they are caught.
CGC do actually have an office in London, where you can drop-off submissions. They still get shipped to the US to be graded though.
Would be nice if PSA did the same.
Really unfortunate situation for Ace and anyone who submitted during this time. I can imagine some used them because they wanted to reduce the risk involved with shipping internationally, only to get stung a different way.
Yeah, I donāt grade my own cards and one of the reasons is the number of people and couriers involved for grading from the UK. In my mind, there are just too many companies involved and too much chance for stuff to go missing, get stolen etc.
Especially the return leg when I would be concerned about a courier I have so many reservations about - like Yodel or Evri - being responsible for delivering my package. Both of those are completely useless when things go wrong as I have learnt time and time again.
Even if I got paid out properly, it wouldnāt be any compensation for losing cards Iāve owned for years.
