Stolen Slabs, Shop Scams and a Rookie to Watch

What stood out to me this week was how much of it is about thieves, with a dealer building her own alert system for stolen graded cards after losing more than $8,000 at a New Jersey show and the FBI warning shops in the same state.

Morgan Turner had more than $8,000 of inventory stolen after a card show in northern New Jersey and instead of just stewing on it she built Kapture, a free alert system where collectors register their graded cards and a theft gets sent out to subscribers nationwide. Two cards have already been recovered, one worth $2,000, and that's the part I like best because it gives people something to do besides post in a group and hope. Graded cards are easy to identify by slab, so a shared alert system makes a lot of sense, and one dealer's bad week turned into a tool for everybody.

Source: Sports Collectors Daily, Kapture Website Helps Collectors Track Down Stolen, Graded Trading Cards

Kevin McGonigle looks like the very likely AL Rookie of the Year after hitting .278 with 18 home runs and 12 stolen bases for the Tigers, and the cards are worth a look. His paper 2025 Bowman Prospects PSA 10s sell for $85-130, the Chrome version has recent sales of $125-170, and the Sapphire PSA 10s are selling for $300-350. The Chrome Prospect Autograph in a PSA 10 fetches around $900, and if he becomes what he looks like, that one could be the early card to have.

Source: Cardlines, The Best 1st Bowman & Rookie Cards of Kevin McGonigle

The FBI has warned card shops after seven New Jersey stores were hit between September 2025 and March 2026, with some losing tens of thousands of dollars in stock. A customer taps a phone, the payment fails, and they ask the cashier to key in a card number by hand, which turns out to be stolen, and shops often don't find out for weeks. There was also a smash-and-grab at Big Pack Hobby Shop that cost $40,000 to $50,000 in Pokemon cards. The FBI is urging shops to disable manual entry or ask for photo ID, and no arrests have been reported.

Source: Dexerto, FBI investigates thieves using stolen credit cards to buy rare Pokemon cards

Classic Auctions has a November sale coming up and the centrepiece is a Gretzky jersey from his first Kings season in 1988-89, photo-matched to his 1990-91 Upper Deck card, which is a pretty great link between a card people know and the real thing. There are more than 1,200 lots, including the Ray Bourque and Robbie Ftorek personal collections and the Howie Morenz family collection. No prices are out that I can point to, so it's one to watch when the sale comes around and see how that jersey does.

Source: Sports Collectors Daily, Gretzky Jersey Pictured on Upper Deck Card in Classic Auctions’ Sale

PSA is offering on-site grading and specials at the Toronto Sport Card Expo, with the announcement dated Nov 4, 2026. Grading at the show means collectors can bring cards along and get them submitted right there rather than mailing them off later, which is handy if you've got something you've been sitting on. I don't have the details of the specials to share, but it's a good reason for Toronto collectors to bring their best cards to the expo.

Source: PSA, On-Site Grading and Specials at the Toronto Sport Card Expo