PokeDean got hit. Here’s the video:
My Entire Lifetime Pokémon Collection Was Stolen From My Home…
Do you take precautions when you travel, even for a day? While Dean is very popular, expensive collections are still expensive. And you don’t always know the company you keep (or who’s friends with them) to the fullest.
From what I’ve looked up, it’s likely his home address was publicly listed as he ran is business from his home.
He also seemingly didn’t have any alarm systems, or home security cameras etc (this is VERY common in the UK, people don’t really have security).
He also doesn’t seem to have any insurance.
I feel so bad for him. He seems like a very good person and I hope he will recover quickly and learn from this.
Ultimately, everyone with any items of meaningful value need
1- insurance if you store items at home
2- security cameras / alarms
3- safe deposit box for high value items outside the home
4- a big dog
5- floor safe bolted to the floor
But prevention is often more effective -
1- Do not have your home address on packages either as sending or receiving.
2- If you run an at home pokemon business, register your business with a 3rd party location eg. Lawyers office (some businesses offer this service for cheap)
3- consider a PO Box
The UK is in dire straights at the moment and people need to protect themselves.
This is truly awful and I wish Pokedean all the best and hope that he can find who ever did this. Hearing him almost break apart during the video is heart breaking.
I thought about this subject this weekend in a way that I normally wouldn’t (I live in a leafy village in one of the worlds safest countries.) I’m away for the first time in a while and I see more and more reports of organized theft. Definitely makes you think about how you can make it more difficult for the robbers. I can only imagine the pressures of people with tec-9’s and affiliates in their backyard.
Its sad that Pokemon - a hobby we all love and enjoy, has come to this state.
It will only get worse as more and more theft happens. The fact that we have to protect sentimental cardboard over things that dont have perceived value is such a weird time. Given some non tcg things can be traced Its still an odd timeline to be in as a fan. As long as the market holds though it won’t stop.
Theres always someone out there that wants someone else’s stuff!
Unfortunately as others had said all Pokémon items need to be stored securely with insurance. Storing stuff at home in boxes ready to be grabbed, with an identifiable address is asking for trouble.
Hopefully the Police investigating are looking at gathering doorbell camera footage from neighbours as it might highlight a vehicle they can pull an ANPR from near a major traffic junction nearby. Definitely they have been waiting or know when he leaves and likely they would have loaded up a vehicle and drove off given how methodical they were inside.
I really want to keep thinking that people are mostly good but lately this mindset has been drifting away from me, especially considering what people are willing to do for cardboard that was worthless two decades ago. What a sad day for the hobby, an odd timeline indeed.
The issue is when you combine internet flexing (even if unintentional), with values (as most viral reels about pokemon are nowadays) PLUS then be a public figure with an identifyable address. It’s very attractive for the bad 1%.
There is a Scottish female Instagram person who makes said videos with 100k in sealed product in her backdrop talking about how much it all is. I wrote a comment on one of her videos saying she needs to be careful and was attacked by her white knight followers. I think now she has done that, or at least pretended to have moved her collection elsewhere.
On a wider note, see so many people flexing collectr screenshots in Facebook groups - some showing over 5 figures in collections - all linked to their personal profile.
Literally smoothest of brain moves.
Rule # 1 of investing in anything, dont screenshot your ‘portfolio’ and share with people.
There are a lot of YouTube personalities that share their collections via the Collectr app and it makes me so nervous
One silver lining is hopefully most of the card inventory he is actively selling is at his store. If you don’t have a safety deposit box, just keeping items at a few different locations can help a lot. Because if not a robbery, you could always have a fire, or anything else, and everything won’t be wiped out at once.
Sounds like it was a huge hit for his PC. Base set box, complete poncho psa 10 set etc…
Laughable to think the UK police will devote any time to this.
This seems like one of the best options, especially for your average collector. Gary apparently keeps his collection scattered over multiple locations.
People keep mentioning insurance, but does anyone actually know of a case where they paid out? A lot of policies exclude collectibles, and the ones that do allow collectibles don’t have a history of paying out from what I’ve seen.
You want dedicated collectibles insurance which is separate from your traditional homeowners or renters policies. A lot of people here use and recommend CIS: https://collectinsure.com/
Has anyone actually had them pay out though?
Its so crazy to see, especially when people do this in local groups. Big fan of hiding your power level.
To be fair, if I had collectibles insurance (I do) and I were robbed, I would not update the specifics of the payout publicly 
Yeah that’s fair. I’m just pointing out that insurance companies are worthless to the collector if they don’t actually pay out claims. I would love for there to be proof that CIS is a great company and that I can trust them with insuring my collection, but so far I haven’t seen anything that makes me think they’ll actually pay out.
