The Pokémon Company responds to reports of printing staff stealing rare cards

The Pokémon TCG community has been in an uproar over the last several days following leaked images of stolen Secret Rare Pokémon cards and claims that they were stolen by staff who work at the printing or distribution facilities began circulating. And, after days of this information dominating online conversations, The Pokémon Company has responded—downplaying the situation and reaffirming its commitment to quality products. 

The main image that started this discussion shows hundreds of Secret Rare cards from November 2021’s Fusion Strike set being reviewed. This was later confirmed to be a leaked image from an internal investigation by TPC after Dallas-based card community and store Trading Card World reported that someone brought in this lot of cards which staff assumed was fake or stolen. 

According to a TPC spokesperson, the investigation regarding stolen cards is actually still ongoing, but the company wants to reassure customers that the theft had a minimal impact on products. 

“We take the protection of our IP and associated products very seriously. This matter remains under investigation and we cannot comment on details at this time,” TPC said to Kotaku. “However, we can confirm that Sword & Shield ­booster packs and products were shipped to retail as intended and we have no indication that the integrity of the products were impacted by any confirmed or unconfirmed theft.”

While no specific details were given, this information lines up with speculation that only one box of Secret Rare cards was stolen and that would have limited how many products from Fusion Strike had fewer “hit cards” because of it. It also helps that nearly 27 million cards are printed per day when sets are being worked on. 

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TPC also reiterated that it is continuing to improve production and security for the TCG and intends to work on maintaining the trust of fans who purchase its products. 

Essentially, TPC is aware of the outrage shown by fans after these images were shown and the worry many had that this was a common issue that would result in worse card pulls for TCG products they purchase. And, even though no comments on the situation beyond generalizations were shared, there has been no report of theft like this happening with products post-2021, even if smaller ones do happen from time to time. 

It is unlikely that this statement will completely calm the waves made by the initial image of stolen cards caused, but at least we know TPC is working to fix things in some fashion.