Pokémon Turns 30 as Record Card Sale and Wave of Thefts Expose a Booming Market

Overview

• A rare Pikachu Illustrator card sold on February 16 for about $16.5 million, with auction records naming AJ Scaramucci as the buyer.
• U.S. incidents this year include a January armed robbery in a New York shop where masked men stole more than $100,000 in cards.
• In California this month, thieves drilled through a wall to seize roughly $180,000 in merchandise from a specialty store, whose owner called card shops "a prime target."
• French outlets report recent break-ins at specialty retailers, including a Paris store, prompting tighter measures such as locked displays and upgraded surveillance.
• The franchise marks the anniversary with global visibility, from a Super Bowl spot launching the "What’s Your Favorite?" campaign to lifetime totals of 489 million games shipped and over 75 billion cards produced.