How we estimate values

Where the list comes from

Everything here starts with the list PSA published on October 23, 2026, linked from its update on the theft (opens in a new tab). The file, Certificate_List.pdf (opens in a new tab), has 6,451 rows and two columns: the cert number and PSA's description of the card, such as 1990 HOOPS 65 MICHAEL JORDAN.

It has no grades, no values and no names. Not every row is a graded slab: 14 are PSA "No grade" vouchers, which PSA lists with no card details. PSA's update says the list includes serial numbers for serialized cards, but the file has no serial column, so a serial appears only where PSA wrote it into the description (a card marked 1/1, for example).

We keep a copy of the file exactly as we downloaded it, and every cert number on this site comes from it. If PSA publishes a new version, we rebuild the site from that.

From certs to cards

Many certs on the list are copies of the same card. The most common, Michael Jordan (1990 NBA Hoops #65), appears 51 times, once for each stolen copy. We group certs whose descriptions match exactly, which turns 6,451 certs into 3,916 cards. Each card page lists every stolen cert number for that card.

A parser then reads each description for the year, brand, set, card number, player or character, variant and language, and writes a plain headline for the card. PSA abbreviates heavily, so some descriptions needed a rule written by hand, and a few are still flagged as uncertain. Every card page also shows PSA's description exactly as written, so you can compare the two.

How a value is estimated

PSA's list carries no prices, so we research them by hand. For a card we price, we look for recent public sales of the same card at PSA 10, PSA 9 and PSA 8, and record each one: the date, the price, the grade, where it sold and a link to the sale.

The estimate for a grade is the median of the sales we cite at that grade, rounded to the dollar. With an even number of sales it is the average of the middle two. A grade with no cited sale shows "No sales" and gets no value. Each grade's value shows how many sales it rests on, and a card's label counts them by grade, such as "SlabHeist estimates from 15 public sales (5 at PSA 10, 5 at PSA 9, 5 at PSA 8)". With it come the date we checked and how sure we are that the sales are for this exact card, shown as Close match, Likely match or Rough match.

Sales in other grades, such as PSA 7 or a BGS 9.5, can appear among a card's recent sales, but they never set a PSA 10, 9 or 8 value. We also leave out price-guide figures from services such as PriceCharting or Card Ladder. Those are their makers' own estimates, while a sale is a fact we can link to.

A slab with an eye-appeal sticker, such as MBA, counts at its PSA grade, so its sale is in that grade's median. Stickered copies can sell above plain ones, and we do not know whether any stolen slab carried a sticker, so on a card with few sales one stickered sale can pull its estimate up.

When it says "Price check pending"

A card shows "Price check pending" until we have cited at least one public sale at PSA 10, 9 or 8. Right now 2,125 of 3,916 cards have an estimate, covering 66% of the stolen slabs.

Pending cards still list every stolen cert and still show up in the checker. When you sort by value, priced cards come first and pending ones follow. Their pages stay out of search engines until a price lands, because a page without a value does little for someone searching for that card.

Grades are unknown

PSA's list does not say what grade each stolen slab received. A stolen copy could be a PSA 10 or a PSA 6. That is why every card shows three values: one each for PSA 10, PSA 9 and PSA 8.

Where we total the stolen value, we give a range. The low end counts each priced card at its PSA 8 estimate, or at its lowest priced grade when no PSA 8 sale is cited. The high end counts it at PSA 10, or at its highest priced grade when no PSA 10 sale is cited. Each card's figure is multiplied by its stolen copies. Only priced cards count, and the total always says what share of the slabs it covers. Copies graded below PSA 8 could fall under the low end.

The only official figure is PSA's own estimate, reported by police: at least $963,000, for two of the three pallets.

Photos and credits

Most cards here have no photo. They get our evidence tag and a text slab with the card's own details. Where a free card database has an image of the same card (same set, number, name and language), we show it. That mostly covers English Pokémon, One Piece, Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards; sports cards almost never have one. A photo shows the card, not the stolen copy.

We copy each image to our own image server instead of loading it from the source. We never show PSA's photos of a slab, or anything that imitates PSA's label.

Reference images come from these databases:

• TCGdex (opens in a new tab): 717 cards
• Pokémon TCG API (opens in a new tab): 81 cards
• Scryfall (opens in a new tab): 7 cards
• YGOPRODeck (opens in a new tab): 3 cards

Card artwork © Nintendo, Creatures, GAME FREAK and The Pokémon CompanyPortions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. © Wizards of the Coast LLC.Card artwork © Studio Dice/Shueisha, TV Tokyo and Konami

How often it changes

The cert list changes only when PSA publishes a new one. Prices are added by hand as we research them, and every estimate shows the date it was checked, so an old number is easy to spot. The counts on this page were taken when the site was last built, on October 25, 2026.

A cert's status can change faster than we can follow. Before you buy or sell a slab, look up its cert on PSA's own lookup (opens in a new tab).

What nobody can know from the list

• Which grade each stolen slab has.
• Whether a slab has been recovered, or cracked out of its case and sold raw. A card out of its slab has no cert to check.
• Who took the slabs. That is for the police and the FBI, and we never name suspects.

Corrections

Found a wrong value, a misread description or a sale we missed? Email hello@slabheist.com with the card's page and a link to your source. We check every report and update the page with the date of the change.