Pokemon shops are getting robbed at an alarming rate. GameStop is trying to reinvent how you buy graded cards. A basketball card just broke records. And Logan Paul had the most Logan Paul week in collectibles history.

This week:

💜 A Kobe Bryant card just became the most expensive solo Kobe ever sold
🚨 Pokemon robberies are surging, and the numbers are staggering
🎮 GameStop just launched a platform that could change how you collect cards
🐉 Logan Paul spent $550K on manga and sold a chain to Pawn Stars in the same week
🔥 Heatseekers: Top upcoming releases

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On April 23, Alt, the fractional collectibles investment platform, acquired a 1997 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems Green Kobe Bryant for $3.15 million, making it the most expensive solo Kobe Bryant card ever sold at public or private sale.

The card is from Kobe's second NBA season and is one of just 10 green PMG parallels ever produced in the 1997 Metal Universe set. Only three of those 10 have been graded by PSA, and this particular copy holds a PSA 5, with just one graded higher. The previous record for a solo Kobe card was $2.4 million.

Metal Universe PMGs are among the most iconic inserts in the entire hobby. The green parallels (/10) sit at the very top of the food chain, and the combination of Kobe, a legendary set, and extreme scarcity made this a trophy asset. Alt acquired it through a private transaction and will store it in its vault in Delaware, offering fractional shares to investors.

Whether you're bullish on fractional collectibles or not, the number speaks for itself. $3.15 million for a PSA 5. Imagine what a higher grade would bring.

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Pokemon cards have been the source of a slew of robberies recently. Collectible shops from all over have been hit this year, with total losses exceeding $500,000 in stolen cards and merchandise.

In Southern California alone, two separate heists resulted in over $300,000 in stolen cards. In Manhattan, a Pokemon store reported $100,000 in merchandise taken in a single robbery. In British Columbia, over $30,000 in merch was stolen. Chicago police are warning that people are literally getting held up at gunpoint at meetups in person for their cards.

The appeal to thieves is obvious: a handful of cards worth thousands of dollars fits in a pocket. Unlike electronics, opened cards don't have serial numbers or tracking. And the secondary market (eBay, local card shops, Facebook groups) makes them easy to move.

For collectors and shop owners, the implications are definitely real. The hobby's growth has been incredible, but this is one of the side effects you don’t think about till it’s here.

If you're selling high-value cards to strangers, meet in a public place with cameras. If you're a shop owner, take inventory security seriously. The cards are too valuable to be casual about it. And be safe out there!

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On April 15, GameStop launched Power Packs, a digital-to-physical hybrid platform that's part pack-ripping experience, part graded card marketplace.

Here's how it works: you buy a digital pack ($25 to $2,500 depending on the tier), open it online, and the card you pull is a real, PSA-graded card stored in the PSA Vault. From there, you can sell it back to GameStop instantly, ship it to your home, or hold it in your digital collection. Pokemon, Football, Basketball, and Baseball categories are all available at launch.

The pack levels (Starter, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond) scale with potential value. Higher tiers give you a shot at bigger hits. GameStop has highlighted chase cards with estimated market values up to $38,811 in the Pokemon category.

The reaction from the hobby has been mixed. Some see it as a genuinely innovative way to rip packs and access graded cards without the hassle of submitting to PSA yourself. Others see it as card gambling dressed up in a GameStop wrapper, with the same dopamine loop as mystery boxes.

Regardless of where you land, the model is interesting: instant liquidity on graded cards, PSA integration, and a pack-ripping experience that ships real product. If it works, expect competitors to follow.

Logan Paul had a week.

On April 21, Paul announced he'd purchased two of the most significant manga issues in existence: Dragon Ball Chapter 1 (graded 9.2, the highest grade in existence, pop 1) for $550,000 and One Piece Chapter 1 (graded 9.0, second highest grade in existence, pop 3) for an undisclosed price. Paul called them "the greatest mangas in the world" and posted the slabs on X/Twitter. Then Speed called him out and ratio’d him HARD 😂

Then, in a video posted the next day, Logan took his Polymarket-branded chain to Pawn Stars. The chain, which he wore during WrestleMania 42, was a 110-carat piece he claimed was worth $200,000 to $250,000. Rick Harrison's response? "Who wants a chain that says Polymarket on it?" He offered $30,000. Logan took it.

So in the span of a few days, the same person spent half a million dollars on manga grails and took an 85% loss on a wrestling chain at a pawn shop. That's the Logan Paul collecting experience in a nutshell: record-breaking acquisitions and absurd content moments, often in the same week.

Love him or not, the man moves markets. After his $16.5 million Pikachu Illustrator sale in February and now a $550K manga purchase, he's quickly becoming the most visible collector in the world. And the Pawn Stars clip? That's just good television.

The world of collectibles is wide and deep, and there’s a constant stream of new releases. Here are some of the big ones that are coming up:

This week’s theme feels like scale to us.

A single Kobe card sold for $3.15 million. A single manga chapter sold for $550,000. A single lifejacket from 1912 sold for $900,000. And on the other end of the spectrum, thieves are targeting Pokemon shops because a handful of stolen cards can be worth tens of thousands or more

The numbers in this hobby keep getting bigger. The auction records, the celebrity purchases, the theft totals (unfortunately), and the grading volumes.

Whether you're pulling $4 packs at Target or bidding six figures at auction, the collecting world is expanding in every direction. And it's moving fast.

See you next week!