Justin Estes, owner of TCG Planet, commented, “It's a weird feeling. Especially in small-town Perry, you don't expect anything like that. Even like last night, we made sure we walked out together, because it's scary, still in the back of our mind.”
Cameras in other nearby businesses caught the burglar clearly, and Estes says he looks familiar, stating, “We believe he was in the store multiple times throughout the week and two times the day that he was here when he broke in.”
The Pokémon TCG secondhand market has been very active in the last few months, especially with the recent release (and subsequent scalping) of Prismatic Evolutions and the scarcity of cards in primary retailers. While reports don’t specify exactly what products were stolen, major retailers are struggling to keep any Pokémon cards at all in stock. The Pokémon Company International released a statement acknowledging the scarcity of cards, and assuring customers they are working to print more. “...We are maximizing production to increase product availability upon release, and we will continue to reprint impacted products to replenish stock at participating retailers…” the company stated.
TCG Planet thanked the community for their support and announced that they would reopen on Wednesday on their Facebook page. Estes and the neighboring businesses have shared their camera footage with the Perry Police Department, and the investigation is currently ongoing.
