Armed robbers targeted a Manhattan Pokémon shop this week in a heist that was unsurprising to trading-card fanatics, who say merchandise from the franchise has exploded in value and is being tracked by criminals.

On Wednesday evening, three masked and hooded men, including one armed with a handgun, walked into the Poké Court shop in Chelsea, an NYPD spokesperson said. One of them smashed display cases with a hammer and stole what the owner of the shop said is more than $120,000 worth of merchandise.

Courtney Chin, the store owner, said the robbery was unfortunate for her business, but not entirely surprising given a recent rise in interest in the cards — including among criminals.

“It’s almost like a rite of passage as a card shop. You just get robbed,” she said.

Pokémon trading cards and other collectibles associated with the Japanese media franchise have exploded in popularity in recent years, according to Matt Quinn, the vice president of CGC cards, a company that certifies trading cards. An auction company is currently offering a Pikachu illustrator card that influencer Logan Paul has worn around his neck for nearly $6 million, Quinn noted.

And while the demand for cards featuring Charizard and Blastoise has grown, so has the threat of robbery and other crime in the industry, he added.

A rise in popularity

Chin, 35, said she opened a Pokémon shop in Manhattan two years ago after deciding to make her collecting hobby a full-time job. Her store moved locations recently and was hosting its first in-person arts-and-crafts event Wednesday when the robbers struck, she said.

The store was packed with collectors in their 20s and up when the three masked men stormed inside, she said. “There are zero children in the store,” Chin said.

People around Chin’s age are part of what is driving an influx of cash into the Pokémon trading business, Quinn said.

“You have people like my age, I’m 42,” he said. “A lot of people my age are starting to come into better jobs, making more money and they want these cards they could never have or afford when they were kids. It just becomes this collecting frenzy.”

Quinn said his company has seen an astronomical rise in Pokémon’s popularity in recent years.

He said his company certifies — or grades — about 25,000 trading cards per day, and most of them are Pokémon cards.

“The amount of submissions we’ve been getting has just been drastically increasing over the last year and-a-half,” Quinn said.

Threat of crime

The NYPD did not comment on whether there has been an uptick in robberies targeting Pokémon cards and other collectibles. But Wednesday’s robbery is not out of the ordinary.

In November, a thief stole nearly $10,000 worth of Pokémon and sport cards from a SoHo store owned by football great Tom Brady, the NYPD said at the time.

In 2024, federal prosecutors in New York charged a man with wire fraud for allegedly scamming buyers of Pokémon and sports cards out of $2 million.

The defendant in that case, Anthony Curcio, misrepresented the grade cards had received and sold them at inflated prices, according to federal prosecutors. He pleaded not guilty and is currently on trial.

Quinn said collectors should treat high-value cards the same way they’d treat diamonds or other valuables. He said his office in Sarasota, Florida, is guarded by armed security guards and features a casino-level surveillance system.

“You always have to be vigilant when you’re carrying collectibles,” he said. “These little pieces of cardboard can be worth millions. People know that.”