$10K worth of cards stolen from Tom Brady's NYC CardVault store

Details are starting to emerge about a man who walked into Tom Brady’s New York City CardVault location and walked out with nearly $10K worth of baseball and Pokémon cards that he never actually purchased.

The information is still a bit unclear, but what we know is that on October 20th the card crook visited the store on Lafayette Street in Soho and allegedly attempted to purchase a few cards but had his payment declined.

He reportedly accessed the store’s touch-to-pay system, manually bypassed the transaction, convinced the employee the payment had cleared, and walked out with the cards.

Details about the suspect

The NYPD has a few images of the suspect (below). According to New York’s Fox 5, the suspect is a man with “medium complexion” and was last seen wearing a black Yankees baseball hat, a black hoodie, and black shorts. The man also appears to own a white phone (or a phone in a white case) and at the time of the theft was carrying a light yellow New York tote bag.

Images captured of the CardVault suspect | www.fox5ny.com

The NYPD is currently investigating the matter and is asking the public for help. If you have any information regarding this crime, please call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.

CardVault Expansion

While this is no doubt an unfortunate event for Brady’s CardVault, they show no signs of slowing down. In fact, on Sunday November 16th, they’ll be opening up their newest store located in the Mall of America. This Minnesota location marks the 9th brick and mortar location since their 2020 debut.

Brady is also leveraging the CardVault brand to dip his toes into collectibles vlog content with his series Behind the Vault. Episode 20 shows an inside look into their SoHo location.

Is card theft on the rise?

The monster grail sales across sports cards, Pokémon cards, and other high-end collectibles have drawn the attention of both investors and opportunistic thieves. There have been numerous stories in recent years the world over about card thieves executing everything from simple smash-and-grabs to more elaborate Ocean's Eleven type heists and everything in between.

This summer, 1st Edition Collectibles in New Bedford, Massachusetts had over $110K worth of Pokémon cards stolen in an overnight smash-and-grab robbery. While over in Japan, the head of a PR company stole 9 Pokémon cards valued at over $50K and unbelievably tried to sell $29K worth the following day.

But none of these hold a candle to the greatest card heist of them all, which happened at the 2024 Dallas Card Show, when a carefully planned heist resulted in the pilfering of over $2 Million worth of baseball cards, including a 1952 Mickey Mantle valued at $175K.

PSA 7 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle (#311) | CardLadder

It's hard to say definitively if card theft is truly trending higher, but it certainly feels that way. Whether you're buying cards online or selling cards at a CardVault, please be careful on both ends of the deal.