Gotta Find 'Em All: Rare Pokémon Card Worth $60,000 Lost In Mail

In 1999, a collectible Pokémon card was awarded to a third-place winner in a Japanese competition called Super Secret Battle. Based on its historical value, the card's worth snowballed over the years to a whopping $60,000 in 2018. At that time, it sold on eBay and was mailed overseas to the buyer. However, the card, known as Trainer No. 3, vanished in transit, leaving the Pokémon card world in dismay.

Once the seller, pokemonplace, sold the card, it was sent out via USPS mail and was insured for $50,000, which is the most that anyone can insure a package with the service. Unfortunately, tracking ceased shortly thereafter and it never successfully made its way to its final destination.

When speaking to Polygon, the seller said, "My responsibility was to ship the card to Aramex... a middle man company that then ships the card to the buyer. The tracking information I have was with registered mail and shows tracking and a signature. Aramex claims they haven’t received it and signed for a bulk lot."

However, since the lot the card was supposed to be in was signed for, pokemonplace is unable to file an insurance claim.

A theory as to what happened, as stated by Pokémon trading card authority smpratte, is that someone who shipped the card noticed how much that particular package was insured for and stole it based on the number alone. Unfortunately for the potential thief, due to the card's rarity, it will be difficult to sell.

“You cannot sell this card publicly,” smpratte said, based on how well-known the card is among collectors. Additionally, it cannot be taken out of its plastic as that would immediately signify to whoever was looking at it that tampering had taken place.

Even though pokemonplace considers the card to be lost, they did offer a $1,000 reward for anyone with information leading to its whereabouts, as stated in this video.