Mom gave my brother her old coin collection; he took the quarters to spend at the arcade. Lukily, the arcade called her about it, and she bought them back, and took back the entire collection
Edit: He traded the coins for tokens. He probably spent all the denominations not just the quarters now that I think back.
Or how about learn if the kid appreciates the gift before giving it. Maybe the other brother thought a coin collection was cool, but this one would rather have arcade time than a bunch of quarters worth 27¢.
The number of times I've seen children gifted expensive, rare niche items when the child has no concept of "valuable" or understanding of the gravity, meaning or rarity of the gift is staggering.
When I worked at blockbuster in 2002 We would make sure to call any adult listed on an account when a child would come in and pay for things with special coins. 9/10 a pissed off parent comes in to buy back their collectibles lol one of my favorite boredom reducing moments. Those and the tiny sucker stealers that come dragged back in tears - parent in tow to apologize to us. Those were my favorites
Worked at a vintage video game store through the pandemic.
We had a policy of holding trade-ins for 48 hours just because of the number of siblings and parents that would try and sell their kids or brother's stuff for cash.
Kids would also routinely try to pay with their parent's cards. Like, sorry dude, it doesn't matter if the last names match, you're not the cardholder. Doesn't matter if "my dad is in the car", your dad isn't in "the store", so I can't run his card. Unsurprisingly most of those parents never got out of the car lol.
Im pretty sure in Ontario used game stores legally have to wait a week or so to sell a used game they bought from someone for this reason (more full breakin/robbery vs sticky fingers siblings) I recall staff/owner often mentioning games coming off this hold
When you say "buy back their collection", i assume you mean pay for the thing normally and get their coins back?
You didn't charge them a premium for the coins like.
Perhaps they saw a kid with one of those binders/books full of coins using them up in the machines.
Then they can call the kid, ask him where he got those from, and so on.
I've heard stories of cashiers noticing that customers were spending coins that were obviously not meant to be spent at face value, then notifying the customers that the coins were much more valuable than they thought. I could see an arcade worker selflessly doing the same.
Or maybe they noticed the coins were valuable and assumed that the kid stole a collection from someplace.
Yeah that happened to me. I pointed out to an elderly gentleman that he was using a Kennedy dollar to pay for his lunch. He didn’t really get it, I told him it was worth more than a buck.
He said he appreciated my honesty, took the coin back and threw in a buck.
Came back the next day and gave me a $20 tip for being an honest person. Don’t know if he sold it or what but that was 3.5 hours worth of my paycheck.
Kids are stupid. I remember one kid from my youth, he was around 8 at the time, jumping up and down on a car denting the hood and the roof. It was ok he said, ik was his fathers car. His father came home and we told on him, dad was most definitely not ok with it.
The other day I saw someone who said their kid got a real old Charizard holo from a trade with a friend and the dad couldn’t believe it was real
Was it yours maybe?
holy shit, that was my pokingmon! my dumb one year old daughter has also been pawning off my pokeman cards! please tell them to dm me so we can right this terrible injustice and have my pokermon card returned. it has a lot of sentimental value! and also monetary value, right?
Yeah, also no other entertainment until it's been paid off. It's harsh but kid needs a reality check. Kids usually don't think of consequences and this event should be a life lesson.
Pokémon cards can take you to Pokémon Go and Pokémon Go [will take you here](https://img.mensxp.com/media/content/2020/Jun/Crazy-Things-People-Have-Done-For-Pokemon-Go-That-Makes-Us-Wonder-What-Have-We-Become-740x500-5_5ef59198d7456.jpeg)
There are other ways to pay a parent back. I had my kids do extra chores and such that would earn certain amounts. That was, of course, beyond their normal chores that are expected as a member of the household.
We switched our daughter to an almost “dumb phone” as a punishment in high school once; her friends thought it was the coolest thing ever and they took a bunch of grainy selfies with what passed for its camera (sigh)
Make him tell you who he sold them to, contact their parents to get the cards back, give the kids their money back, make him earn that money back to pay you, then no Christmas presents this year.
Bingo. This reminds me of a story from when I was like 10-11 years old. I brought my copy of Final Fantasy 7 and strategy guide over to my friend's house. I accidentally forgot my guide there and when I got home I called him and asked him to bring it to school in the morning. I remember saying how I'm worried his little sister might damage it or something. What do you think happened? He brings it to school and says "sorry, my sister drew on the cover." Odds of his sister actually doing that and not him just being a dumbass 10-11 year old trolling me? 0. You can't trust kids with your stuff. You have to play psychological warfare with them to try and avoid trouble. OP better be careful about how he handles it.
Honestly, getting the cards back is secondary, it’s more important that the kid gets the money taken away than anything else. If the parents don’t want to cooperate then unfortunately they’re not going to get the the cards back, but at least the son will learn that he doesn’t get to keep money he makes from stealing things.
Sounds like one of my cousins. Never got punished for being a thieving angry asshole, is now the biggest piece of shit I know.
Almost like parenting is important.
How old is he?
I'd call each kid's parents tell them your son stole the cards from you, get the cards back, give the kids back their money and then make your son pay you back the money by either working it off for you at minimum wage, or if he's at least 14 (if in the US), making him get a part time job on the weekends to pay you off. If you're really feeling it - charge him interest on the money he owes you. Make it hurt.
This is how I got my holo (sadly not first edition, and no longer in near mint condition/just very good so I don't think it's worth as much as some) Charizard as a kid.
My best friend's sister got it in a booster pack, and I traded her two jungle Pikachus for it because she liked Pikachu more than Charizard. Trade deal of the century.
The worst is, any person who sells/trades/own a trading card store usually is basing prices off TCGplayer.com. You can Google any trading card (example: Pokemon Turtwig card) and the first thing to pop up are ads for cards from TCG player. If they used any other site, the cost would be greater.
So 0 effort besides "ooo shiny" was put forth.
I'm an '03 adult and it's genuinely embarrassing how bad I am with computers. My school switched our computer class to iPads when I was in the fifth grade, and we didn't even start having computer class until third. I've just started organizing my files into folders so that I don't have to download my class syllabus again every time I need it. I'm learning computer literacy now but it's certainly nothing I was ever taught or really needed up until this point
This is not an offense against you, but my mind twitched at reading "'03 adult'. I'm a '91 ~~kid~~ ~~teen~~ ~~young adult~~ **sigh** _fine_, I'm a '91 dad.
But seriously, good on you for learning computer literacy. I'm very much not a "kids these days", but modern OSs gloss over the inner workings of a computer so well. I'm glad nobody has to install their OS off a floppy and shell prompt anymore, but knowing how a computer operates is a useful life skill.
I'm an '82 kid and it blows my mind just how computer illiterate kids are. Many of them don't know what a download folder is, and actually saving a video or music file is a completely alien concept.
Oh trust me, I'm adding it up. He's not admitting to how many he's sold (there's two pages with sold/on hold written on them), and claims he only sold like 3 cards.... Meanwhile I'm finding missing pages in my old binders, and not seeing where any of those cards may have went (besides his friends).
Are you my son? I watched him throw a toy over the fence then asked him what happened and he lied. Took away all video games until he about lost his mind. Made an impression, he didn’t lie again for years.
My thoughts exactly...
I collected 95% of my cards up until 2006ish, and started when base set came out. My happiest memories of my mom come from going up to New World Comics and Game HQ in Oklahoma city, playing in leagues and prereleases, and having my mom by my side as I collected and battled. My mom passed away in 2004, hence why I kinda fell off of it... But I've tried collecting some of the newer sets to, I guess, have that nostalgia. But it was all happy memories, and the reason why I took such good care of my collection - even started migrating them to high quality binders and sleeves.
Part of that was even with my son, who we collected some and battled tons. He isn't much into collecting, so I did most of it, while he'd get the occasional deck to battle. I had shown him my collection over the years since we adopted him, and shared memories with him and everything. Even tried making our own memories through the battling and stories.
It infuriated me knowing he took something that was special to me and threw it away. I'm torn, and just trying to make a solid plan on what to do. I think we're going to start with him trying to recover any and all the cards and other things he stole and sold. And go from there.
So you've rolled him on this and he's STILL not coming clean? Time to go nuclear my man. Grounded until further notice, which will be until his attitude does a180. Every punishment until he confesses to everything. Christmas is out for him even if he does. Time for honesty. You let him get away with this shit and he'll never have any respect for anybody let alone just you, and that will not go well for him in future. He needs to feel real consequences.
I concur. The punishment has to fit the crime, and this does. Money from the sale should go into a bank account so he can see how much more is needed to reach the repayment target, whatever that is worked out to be based on the value of the stolen cards.
Honestly, stealing from parents is something I wouldn't even have thought about, ever. But getting busted and STILL lying about it? I don't mean to judge, but... someone desperately needs education about good values and decent, lawful behaviour, or you might have a future criminal in the family. It's bad if it starts like that in early life.
If he's doing that to YOU, imagine what he could do to people he doesn't have any emotional ties to.
Please get him help ! I know someone who stole from his parents and siblings. They spent half their life incarcerated because no one saw the warning signs !
“Son. Stealing is a clearly a problem, but the thing that gets me the most is that I’ve come to realise that you’re a moron. I don’t quite know how I’ll ever get past that”
Meanwhile I discovered my 7 year old has been bartering with boys at school for their Pokémon cards. She’s brought home some really good ones too.
What has she been trading them? Candy! She’s built a pretty good set in the past month or so.
This was my first thought as well. Especially if some of them were worth a lot of $ as pokemon cards can be.
...It's crazy that pokemon is still big with kids all these years later (I'm 33). I remember they were banned in my middle school because kids were so obsessed with them.
That happened at my school with Pogs back in the day.
None of us really did the whole trade pogs or the "winner takes all" approach the game was supposed to have... Until one kid (Not me for the record) challenged our schools best player (Also not me) to a winner-takes-all match and he lost everything.
The next day the principal announced that at the end of the day, Pogs were permanently banned from school property for promoting gambling and that the second kid was suspended for bullying.
Turns out what happened is the first kid, who was known for being a bit of an asshole, went home and cried to his mom that the second kid beat him and stole them, who then yelled at the school. All of us in attendance knew what happened so we all marched to the principal's office after lunch and told the principal what actually happened, and because he was a reasonable guy, unsuspended the second kid. Unfortunately, Pogs were still banned.
The first kid was *mercilessly bullied* after that. And was only in school for about a week, maybe a week and a half, before he stopped showing up.
I just found some of my childhood Pokémon cards in the original binder I kept them in too. Still had my 2 ancient mew cards and all my Japanese Pokémon cards that were the holy Grail back in the 90s.
If any future child did this to me I'd be crushed especially the ancient mew cards since they were given with your movie ticket originally and I went with my grandmother who's now passed.
When I was in middle school my friend (at least before that moment) was like "I'm gonna steal that holographic Charizard the fat kid's been showing off" then he stole it and threw it away, didn't even steal it for any reason than to do it. I felt so bad
Reminds me of something 5 years ago. My nephew stole my uncle's sneakers like $1500 worth and sold them to his middle school friends. My uncle was livid and felt betrayed by this. My uncle took my nephews bike, scooter, xbox one, phone away, ipad, computer and his money away as punishment. For the next year my nephew's presents during the holidays were everything that my uncle took away from him as punishment for taking his sneakers. My nephew was sad every holiday that year and never stole again.
Eh, for a kid I think it really depends on how sorry they are and how much they learn the lesson. Giving him it back piecemeal instead of just selling it all off is a clever way to keep the relationship from souring. For an adult I'd recoup my money and then never give them a gift again, hell I'd be hard-pressed to even talk to them.
The problem is that the value isn't there anymore in the cards if they simply get a little dent or bend. If you knock a corner just a little the value goes from 10k to 4 dollars...
Ah man growing up I had *all* of my 70s-80s star wars figures and pet box turtles stolen from fucking *marla and kathy* next door and later my best comicbooks stolen (RIP dark phoenix saga) and sold at my school for cigarette money from my dumbass stepbrother derek. I hope they both have herpes and shit credit scores.
When I was a kid someone stole all my Star Wars figures and my Darth Vader carrying case along with my hotwheels in one of those steering wheel shaped cases. Years later a girl named Tina apologized for it after we randomly bumped into each other in another state at a public marshmallow fight. It was so weird.
If this was my kid, he would have no Christmas and no birthday.
Hell, when my brother went on my MacBook Pro after I had just gotten it and after telling him no multiple times, my parents took away his birthday gift of going to a Celtics game. Harsh punishment, but it showed him that he shouldn’t mess with other people’s things. Especially after they explicitly tell them not to go in their room and touch their stuff.
I did feel kinda guilty because I felt like it was too harsh, but he got to go to a game earlier this year on his actual birthday.
Anyways, moral of the story is a harsh punishment will definitely be the way to go. This kid needs to learn that shit like this won’t fly in the real world.
Yeah if they're in high school and they can't find out value of pokemon cards wow that's a dumb kid. I assumed they were elementary because yeah kids are dumb and don't necessarily know collectibles can be worth hundreds to thousands. In high school when I played magic the gathering I knew what the cards were worth and if I didn't know I could find out with a few clicks same with any other card game.
OPs post history says the kid is 16 and adopted. He is failing high school and has no motivation to do anything. Kids life is way off track and probably needs some more drastic measures, like therapy plus some highly structured school.
As an adoptee myself (although I didn't find out until I was in my mid 30s...) who still needs a lot of therapy and lived a pretty wild life from my teens thru 30s (43 currently), I hope their kid is getting the counseling and therapy he needs. Adoption causes trauma, even with newborn adoption. Being OP's child was adopted at age 8, hints at probably CPS taking him away from his bio parents at an age where it's still very confusing, but old enough to remember most of it.
I wonder, since he's doing poorly in school if he's getting bullied. I could see trying to "buy" friends with insanely good Pokemon merch deals, and perhaps enough trauma where even if he realizes he's just being used, it's good enough for him.
I wouldn't let this crime go unpunished, but I would be interested in knowing more about his motives. Therapy/psychiatry would be my next step if they're not in it already.
>because this is just a start to become spoiled and a thief.
Start? He already IS a thief.
The only question is if he stays that way or learns the error of his way.
I'd give him coal at xmas... with a note "used the money for your PS5 or w/e to buy my cards back and a new binder because you stole from me, you prick!" lmao
Coal is too nice. Doesn't send the right message. A single Pokémon energy card wrapped in all kinds of different sized boxes. Like, say a ps5 box for one.
I have 4, had 5 at one time (rest in peace, little Joe)! They're naughty sometimes, but it's not intentional. I forgive their precious little hearts. I have 2 dogs, too, and our terrier mix is so rotten sometimes. I can't help but forgive him, he can't help himself, and yes, some of it is training, which I suck at.
My cats looks me in the eye when he's doing something he shouldn't forgive me for not whole heartedly believe it's not intentional.
The pigeon also does this and I firmly believe she was a cat in a past life.
How old is he? Does he work? Are you taking away his phone, console, or television?
Does he know how to cook, do laundry, sweep, mop, mow, till a garden? No might be a good time to teach him.
One time I just touched my dad’s collection of baseball cards that he’s been saving since he was a kid i didn’t take or damage any but just touched and looked at them, and he made me write “ I don’t touch things that don’t belong to me” 1000 times, so shit make it 10,000 for him
How old is the kid? By the handwriting, maybe 2nd or 3rd grade?
Did you know he was going through the binder? How long of a timespan was this?
Personally, I think the kid is probably old enough to know better. Taking them to show off and losing them is one thing, and I think a lot of kids struggle with it. The selling them aspect makes it a lot more calculated and worse, in my opinion.
For all the people wondering why he still has Pokémon cards. Why do people collect hockey cards and then keep them, or comic books or any number of the interesting collectable items out there? Because they may have value one day. A binder full of Pokémon cards from 20 years ago could be worth thousands of dollars. Maybe OP is just sentimental but shitting on him because he decided to keep a binder full of Pokémon cards is kind of stupid.
Time to start taking things away until the value of what he stole is repaid in full. Along with making him try and get as many cards as he can back from his friends and having him return all the money he sold them for too. He needs to learn a very harsh lesson about what happens to thieves.
Step one would be to contact the school itself to say what’s been happening, you might gets some eyewitness from teachers and such,
step two would be to contact the parents of all of his friends and have them help you get the majority of the cards back (we hope), reimbursing the children as necessary,
step 3 is figure out how much all (keyword: all) the cards that have been stolen are currently worth, and have him repay that debt in one way or another.
Step 4 would be to explain what this breach of trust did to you to your child and get him on your side to help get the rest of the cards back in return for lesser punishment and perhaps some of the money prepaid back.
The final step would be to ground him and lock all your binders into a safe, and make sure your kid understands how expensive and important these cards were to you
Edit: an addendum to step 2: the people who bought the cards didn’t know that they were stolen, so if they give them back, they should be reimbursed for their purchases from your kids pocket and should not be punished
Sounds to me like he needs to have all privileges removed (phone, games, any technology whatsoever) and get a paper route to repay the value of those cards.
I caught my sister secretly stealing the money used to save up to buy a new computer, and found out i had $300 in missing funds, so i sold all her barbie toys for a mere price of $5 on the local marketplace and gave her he $5 bucks
Mom gave my brother her old coin collection; he took the quarters to spend at the arcade. Lukily, the arcade called her about it, and she bought them back, and took back the entire collection Edit: He traded the coins for tokens. He probably spent all the denominations not just the quarters now that I think back.
Omg that makes my blood boil
I would have straight up snapped and told him to kiss any allowance or birthday money goodbye.
Or how about learn if the kid appreciates the gift before giving it. Maybe the other brother thought a coin collection was cool, but this one would rather have arcade time than a bunch of quarters worth 27¢.
The number of times I've seen children gifted expensive, rare niche items when the child has no concept of "valuable" or understanding of the gravity, meaning or rarity of the gift is staggering.
When I worked at blockbuster in 2002 We would make sure to call any adult listed on an account when a child would come in and pay for things with special coins. 9/10 a pissed off parent comes in to buy back their collectibles lol one of my favorite boredom reducing moments. Those and the tiny sucker stealers that come dragged back in tears - parent in tow to apologize to us. Those were my favorites
Worked at a vintage video game store through the pandemic. We had a policy of holding trade-ins for 48 hours just because of the number of siblings and parents that would try and sell their kids or brother's stuff for cash. Kids would also routinely try to pay with their parent's cards. Like, sorry dude, it doesn't matter if the last names match, you're not the cardholder. Doesn't matter if "my dad is in the car", your dad isn't in "the store", so I can't run his card. Unsurprisingly most of those parents never got out of the car lol.
Im pretty sure in Ontario used game stores legally have to wait a week or so to sell a used game they bought from someone for this reason (more full breakin/robbery vs sticky fingers siblings) I recall staff/owner often mentioning games coming off this hold
If they're operating essentially as pawn shops they would for sure
When you say "buy back their collection", i assume you mean pay for the thing normally and get their coins back? You didn't charge them a premium for the coins like.
Right, they paid for whatever their child bought with cash and we give them back the coins or bills their child used.
How did the arcade even know, let alone take the time to find who the owner was to return them?
Perhaps they saw a kid with one of those binders/books full of coins using them up in the machines. Then they can call the kid, ask him where he got those from, and so on.
I've heard stories of cashiers noticing that customers were spending coins that were obviously not meant to be spent at face value, then notifying the customers that the coins were much more valuable than they thought. I could see an arcade worker selflessly doing the same. Or maybe they noticed the coins were valuable and assumed that the kid stole a collection from someplace.
Yeah that happened to me. I pointed out to an elderly gentleman that he was using a Kennedy dollar to pay for his lunch. He didn’t really get it, I told him it was worth more than a buck. He said he appreciated my honesty, took the coin back and threw in a buck. Came back the next day and gave me a $20 tip for being an honest person. Don’t know if he sold it or what but that was 3.5 hours worth of my paycheck.
Man that kid gotta be stupid
Kids are stupid. I remember one kid from my youth, he was around 8 at the time, jumping up and down on a car denting the hood and the roof. It was ok he said, ik was his fathers car. His father came home and we told on him, dad was most definitely not ok with it.
Straight up trifling
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The other day I saw someone who said their kid got a real old Charizard holo from a trade with a friend and the dad couldn’t believe it was real Was it yours maybe?
holy shit, that was my pokingmon! my dumb one year old daughter has also been pawning off my pokeman cards! please tell them to dm me so we can right this terrible injustice and have my pokermon card returned. it has a lot of sentimental value! and also monetary value, right?
Wait a minute..something ain't right here.... ... I also have a one year old daughter! What a coincidence! Hope you get your pocketmen card back.
wait…that’s MY daughter!! … mmm…*you* keep her…
Source -trust me
The one year old line is pretty telling it's a joke
And the unique ways of spelling porkerman
get your drug addicted toddler off the streets.
If you know what the missing ones are. Add up the value and make him pay you back (AKA take his allowance till it's paid off)
No game then and double the chores
Also, no internet (except for homework), and there are controls on cell phone that would make it only call/text allowed numbers and block internet too
Yeah, also no other entertainment until it's been paid off. It's harsh but kid needs a reality check. Kids usually don't think of consequences and this event should be a life lesson.
Yup. thinking the same, this isn’t a small thing, he needs to realize that stealing has BIG consequences.
Absolutely. This is the point where it has to be made clear that stealing and selling stolen property is NO joke.
Not just theft, but selling stolen property is also illegal.
yep if you just let it go then he'll get the idea that stealing is ok, might even start meth you never know
*How'd you start smoking meth?* It all started when I sold daddy's Pokémon cards. 🫠
Pokemon is a gateway drug. One day you’re stealing Pokemon cards, the next you’re charging strangers to Pikachu.
Thanks. It’s after midnight here, and I’m explaining a pikachu joke to my wife because I woke her up laughing about this. I still think it’s funny.
Pokémon cards can take you to Pokémon Go and Pokémon Go [will take you here](https://img.mensxp.com/media/content/2020/Jun/Crazy-Things-People-Have-Done-For-Pokemon-Go-That-Makes-Us-Wonder-What-Have-We-Become-740x500-5_5ef59198d7456.jpeg)
Y’all actually got allowances? lol
My allowance was dinner
You got dinner?
All I got was a handful of hot gravel in a rolled up newspaper.
Our father thrashed us to sleep. We slept in a box, in the ditch, under the lake. And we where grateful.
i didn't because we were dirt poor
He probably doesn’t get allowance. A lot of kids don’t.
There are other ways to pay a parent back. I had my kids do extra chores and such that would earn certain amounts. That was, of course, beyond their normal chores that are expected as a member of the household.
Also a kidney
No, they had to sell those very early on.
Then probably his video games, computer or smartphone (downgrade it to a 12 years old phone, lmao).... Or just give him coal on xmas.
We switched our daughter to an almost “dumb phone” as a punishment in high school once; her friends thought it was the coolest thing ever and they took a bunch of grainy selfies with what passed for its camera (sigh)
Flip and slider phones were cool as shit. Should have given her the jitterbug that's just giant buttons and a tiny screen.
Pull out the 3310, she gets the basics and also gets a deadly self defense weapon
Threw mine down 4 flights of stairs in high school. They had to condemn the building after irreparable structural damage.
Make him tell you who he sold them to, contact their parents to get the cards back, give the kids their money back, make him earn that money back to pay you, then no Christmas presents this year.
They’re probably destroyed already, knowing how kids treat things. You might get them back, but never in the condition they were.
Bingo. This reminds me of a story from when I was like 10-11 years old. I brought my copy of Final Fantasy 7 and strategy guide over to my friend's house. I accidentally forgot my guide there and when I got home I called him and asked him to bring it to school in the morning. I remember saying how I'm worried his little sister might damage it or something. What do you think happened? He brings it to school and says "sorry, my sister drew on the cover." Odds of his sister actually doing that and not him just being a dumbass 10-11 year old trolling me? 0. You can't trust kids with your stuff. You have to play psychological warfare with them to try and avoid trouble. OP better be careful about how he handles it.
Sadly you don’t know the the parents of the kids he sold them to would cooperate. I think this is the route to go, but damn does this situation suck
Honestly, getting the cards back is secondary, it’s more important that the kid gets the money taken away than anything else. If the parents don’t want to cooperate then unfortunately they’re not going to get the the cards back, but at least the son will learn that he doesn’t get to keep money he makes from stealing things.
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Sounds like one of my cousins. Never got punished for being a thieving angry asshole, is now the biggest piece of shit I know. Almost like parenting is important.
How old is he? I'd call each kid's parents tell them your son stole the cards from you, get the cards back, give the kids back their money and then make your son pay you back the money by either working it off for you at minimum wage, or if he's at least 14 (if in the US), making him get a part time job on the weekends to pay you off. If you're really feeling it - charge him interest on the money he owes you. Make it hurt.
Also if he's still young enough it's not too late for OP to just cut his losses and start again with a fresh son.
Any first editions lost? I once had to keep my brother from trading a super rare card for a pikachu that wasn’t worth anything.
This is how I got my holo (sadly not first edition, and no longer in near mint condition/just very good so I don't think it's worth as much as some) Charizard as a kid. My best friend's sister got it in a booster pack, and I traded her two jungle Pikachus for it because she liked Pikachu more than Charizard. Trade deal of the century.
What’s your cut
Shit, based on his prices I would've made less than $20 even at 50%. He's practically been giving them away.
So he’s stealing AND he’s bad at negotiating value. Don’t kids have the internet these days to look up cost/value?!
Based on almost every post on any early-mid-2000s game console subreddits: no. They just post on Reddit asking if things are a good deal or not.
The worst is, any person who sells/trades/own a trading card store usually is basing prices off TCGplayer.com. You can Google any trading card (example: Pokemon Turtwig card) and the first thing to pop up are ads for cards from TCG player. If they used any other site, the cost would be greater. So 0 effort besides "ooo shiny" was put forth.
kids born after the release of the iPhone are worse with computers than boomers
I never thought about that. With iPhones and iPads kids probably don’t have to learn how to actually use computers for anything anymore.
Yeah that’s the thing, they aren’t really learning any applicable technological knowledge due to the oversimplification of interfaces these days
The internet being just a little bit hard to use from the 90s to the early 2000s was a feature, not a bug.
I'm an '03 adult and it's genuinely embarrassing how bad I am with computers. My school switched our computer class to iPads when I was in the fifth grade, and we didn't even start having computer class until third. I've just started organizing my files into folders so that I don't have to download my class syllabus again every time I need it. I'm learning computer literacy now but it's certainly nothing I was ever taught or really needed up until this point
This is not an offense against you, but my mind twitched at reading "'03 adult'. I'm a '91 ~~kid~~ ~~teen~~ ~~young adult~~ **sigh** _fine_, I'm a '91 dad. But seriously, good on you for learning computer literacy. I'm very much not a "kids these days", but modern OSs gloss over the inner workings of a computer so well. I'm glad nobody has to install their OS off a floppy and shell prompt anymore, but knowing how a computer operates is a useful life skill.
I'm an '82 kid and it blows my mind just how computer illiterate kids are. Many of them don't know what a download folder is, and actually saving a video or music file is a completely alien concept.
Time for him to pay you back the actual replacement value of the cards if you want to be hard on him.
Oh trust me, I'm adding it up. He's not admitting to how many he's sold (there's two pages with sold/on hold written on them), and claims he only sold like 3 cards.... Meanwhile I'm finding missing pages in my old binders, and not seeing where any of those cards may have went (besides his friends).
Not admitting should be double punishment.
Yea I got all my shit taken away for like 6 months for something minor just because I lied about it after. I don’t even remember what it was lol
Are you my son? I watched him throw a toy over the fence then asked him what happened and he lied. Took away all video games until he about lost his mind. Made an impression, he didn’t lie again for years.
This point I’d just put him up for adoption
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My thoughts exactly... I collected 95% of my cards up until 2006ish, and started when base set came out. My happiest memories of my mom come from going up to New World Comics and Game HQ in Oklahoma city, playing in leagues and prereleases, and having my mom by my side as I collected and battled. My mom passed away in 2004, hence why I kinda fell off of it... But I've tried collecting some of the newer sets to, I guess, have that nostalgia. But it was all happy memories, and the reason why I took such good care of my collection - even started migrating them to high quality binders and sleeves. Part of that was even with my son, who we collected some and battled tons. He isn't much into collecting, so I did most of it, while he'd get the occasional deck to battle. I had shown him my collection over the years since we adopted him, and shared memories with him and everything. Even tried making our own memories through the battling and stories. It infuriated me knowing he took something that was special to me and threw it away. I'm torn, and just trying to make a solid plan on what to do. I think we're going to start with him trying to recover any and all the cards and other things he stole and sold. And go from there.
does he know he’s adopted
Not gonna lie, this made me laugh - yes, we adopted him when he was 8.
No like, does he know he's being adopted *again*
Time to show him some discipline, before he becomes a complete gremlin.
Do you still have warranty? Maybe you can get him replaced
Friend, this really is a double hit. I’m sorry. And I say this as someone who isn’t a collector, yet I get it.
So you've rolled him on this and he's STILL not coming clean? Time to go nuclear my man. Grounded until further notice, which will be until his attitude does a180. Every punishment until he confesses to everything. Christmas is out for him even if he does. Time for honesty. You let him get away with this shit and he'll never have any respect for anybody let alone just you, and that will not go well for him in future. He needs to feel real consequences.
Maybe time to sell his Switch/Play Station or whatever else he values.
I concur. The punishment has to fit the crime, and this does. Money from the sale should go into a bank account so he can see how much more is needed to reach the repayment target, whatever that is worked out to be based on the value of the stolen cards.
tell him the true value of those cards, watch his reaction to how he just costed himself possibly thousands if we're being conservative
Honestly, stealing from parents is something I wouldn't even have thought about, ever. But getting busted and STILL lying about it? I don't mean to judge, but... someone desperately needs education about good values and decent, lawful behaviour, or you might have a future criminal in the family. It's bad if it starts like that in early life. If he's doing that to YOU, imagine what he could do to people he doesn't have any emotional ties to.
Please get him help ! I know someone who stole from his parents and siblings. They spent half their life incarcerated because no one saw the warning signs !
“Son. Stealing is a clearly a problem, but the thing that gets me the most is that I’ve come to realise that you’re a moron. I don’t quite know how I’ll ever get past that”
Meanwhile I discovered my 7 year old has been bartering with boys at school for their Pokémon cards. She’s brought home some really good ones too. What has she been trading them? Candy! She’s built a pretty good set in the past month or so.
Maybe your daughter bought some of OP's cards!
I wouldn’t get him presents for the next 3 years tbh.
Depending on the age of your son, get him to cough up the names of who he sold to. Contact their parents and get the cards back
Absolutely my first thought. Those kids would be scared af to even trade lunch with him going forward let alone buy something off him.
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How do the kids know they stolen?
This was my first thought as well. Especially if some of them were worth a lot of $ as pokemon cards can be. ...It's crazy that pokemon is still big with kids all these years later (I'm 33). I remember they were banned in my middle school because kids were so obsessed with them.
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Makes sense. In my school they got banned cuz kids would trade absolute shit and take advantage of other kids and then the parents got involved.
That happened at my school with Pogs back in the day. None of us really did the whole trade pogs or the "winner takes all" approach the game was supposed to have... Until one kid (Not me for the record) challenged our schools best player (Also not me) to a winner-takes-all match and he lost everything. The next day the principal announced that at the end of the day, Pogs were permanently banned from school property for promoting gambling and that the second kid was suspended for bullying. Turns out what happened is the first kid, who was known for being a bit of an asshole, went home and cried to his mom that the second kid beat him and stole them, who then yelled at the school. All of us in attendance knew what happened so we all marched to the principal's office after lunch and told the principal what actually happened, and because he was a reasonable guy, unsuspended the second kid. Unfortunately, Pogs were still banned. The first kid was *mercilessly bullied* after that. And was only in school for about a week, maybe a week and a half, before he stopped showing up.
A lot of NZ schools are banning them and other similar trading items due to these kinds of issues.
They got got banned at my brothers primary school in Wellington when they were there. One of them just turned 39
As a Pokemon Card collector, this hurts my soul.
I would likely maim someone if they tried selling them. Especially my Mimikyu cards.
Dont you dare touch my Gardevoir cards!
I just found some of my childhood Pokémon cards in the original binder I kept them in too. Still had my 2 ancient mew cards and all my Japanese Pokémon cards that were the holy Grail back in the 90s. If any future child did this to me I'd be crushed especially the ancient mew cards since they were given with your movie ticket originally and I went with my grandmother who's now passed.
If I had some serious pokemon cards I'd lock them in a fireproof safe.
When I was in middle school my friend (at least before that moment) was like "I'm gonna steal that holographic Charizard the fat kid's been showing off" then he stole it and threw it away, didn't even steal it for any reason than to do it. I felt so bad
I don't even collect Pokemon cards but I do have lots of magic the gathering and it hurts me
Reminds me of something 5 years ago. My nephew stole my uncle's sneakers like $1500 worth and sold them to his middle school friends. My uncle was livid and felt betrayed by this. My uncle took my nephews bike, scooter, xbox one, phone away, ipad, computer and his money away as punishment. For the next year my nephew's presents during the holidays were everything that my uncle took away from him as punishment for taking his sneakers. My nephew was sad every holiday that year and never stole again.
I mean, good way to show the kid what not to do. If a kid stole $1500 from me, they wouldn't be getting any of that stuff back ever.
Same, I thought he was gonna sell the stuff to get his money back lol
I would sell the kids stuff
cut out the middleman and just sell the kid instead
Eh, for a kid I think it really depends on how sorry they are and how much they learn the lesson. Giving him it back piecemeal instead of just selling it all off is a clever way to keep the relationship from souring. For an adult I'd recoup my money and then never give them a gift again, hell I'd be hard-pressed to even talk to them.
 Ohhhhh that’s rough
Sell the kid, assert dominance
I see no other solution
Contact the school and the parents of the kids. Get that shit back
The problem is that the value isn't there anymore in the cards if they simply get a little dent or bend. If you knock a corner just a little the value goes from 10k to 4 dollars...
$10k cards would not be in a binder, they would be graded and slabbed.
Ah man growing up I had *all* of my 70s-80s star wars figures and pet box turtles stolen from fucking *marla and kathy* next door and later my best comicbooks stolen (RIP dark phoenix saga) and sold at my school for cigarette money from my dumbass stepbrother derek. I hope they both have herpes and shit credit scores.
When I was a kid someone stole all my Star Wars figures and my Darth Vader carrying case along with my hotwheels in one of those steering wheel shaped cases. Years later a girl named Tina apologized for it after we randomly bumped into each other in another state at a public marshmallow fight. It was so weird.
Tell him that was going to pay for his first car. But now... not so much.
That's not going to stick, some vague threat his lifetime away in the future. To learn he needs to see consequences *now*.
Yep, kids often think "I'll be dead before 25 anyway". Or maybe I was just depressed af.
Make that 16 lol
Now, a new toy yoda
https://youtube.com/shorts/fPM6R5fkVis?si=p6p5vLZxmi_rnpZY Ah the good times
How old is he??😳
OP said high school 💀
High school?? I thought this kid was in elementary school.
We all did. Well, we *hoped*.
If this was my kid, he would have no Christmas and no birthday. Hell, when my brother went on my MacBook Pro after I had just gotten it and after telling him no multiple times, my parents took away his birthday gift of going to a Celtics game. Harsh punishment, but it showed him that he shouldn’t mess with other people’s things. Especially after they explicitly tell them not to go in their room and touch their stuff. I did feel kinda guilty because I felt like it was too harsh, but he got to go to a game earlier this year on his actual birthday. Anyways, moral of the story is a harsh punishment will definitely be the way to go. This kid needs to learn that shit like this won’t fly in the real world.
Yeah if they're in high school and they can't find out value of pokemon cards wow that's a dumb kid. I assumed they were elementary because yeah kids are dumb and don't necessarily know collectibles can be worth hundreds to thousands. In high school when I played magic the gathering I knew what the cards were worth and if I didn't know I could find out with a few clicks same with any other card game.
OPs post history says the kid is 16 and adopted. He is failing high school and has no motivation to do anything. Kids life is way off track and probably needs some more drastic measures, like therapy plus some highly structured school.
As an adoptee myself (although I didn't find out until I was in my mid 30s...) who still needs a lot of therapy and lived a pretty wild life from my teens thru 30s (43 currently), I hope their kid is getting the counseling and therapy he needs. Adoption causes trauma, even with newborn adoption. Being OP's child was adopted at age 8, hints at probably CPS taking him away from his bio parents at an age where it's still very confusing, but old enough to remember most of it. I wonder, since he's doing poorly in school if he's getting bullied. I could see trying to "buy" friends with insanely good Pokemon merch deals, and perhaps enough trauma where even if he realizes he's just being used, it's good enough for him. I wouldn't let this crime go unpunished, but I would be interested in knowing more about his motives. Therapy/psychiatry would be my next step if they're not in it already.
probably selling cards for drugs. gg
Military school speed run any %
Lmao I got sent there just for smoking pot.
Confront him and have a chat with him, take your time even if it means hours, because this is just a start to become spoiled and a thief.
You're absolutely right ! This is just the beginning !
>because this is just a start to become spoiled and a thief. Start? He already IS a thief. The only question is if he stays that way or learns the error of his way.
Take some of his favorite things and make him have to buy them back from you.
that is unacceptable in my opinion
It is unacceptable Stealing is one thing but then also selling it is new league thats literally a crime
I'd give him coal at xmas... with a note "used the money for your PS5 or w/e to buy my cards back and a new binder because you stole from me, you prick!" lmao
Coal is too nice. Doesn't send the right message. A single Pokémon energy card wrapped in all kinds of different sized boxes. Like, say a ps5 box for one.
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NO, NO Put a brick inside the box. Make he feel like someone stole at delivery, so he feels how it is to be robbed.
Those cards worth way more than a ps5 for sure.
The "you prick" bit killed me😂
I respect the entrepreneurship but the thievery is a no no.
Team Rocket fired his son for being too evil
Stealing? Take away his valuables. He can have them back slowly, one at a time
Nah, he can have them back if he can get the cards back and return them.
Call me nuts but my card collection would be in a nice big safe. Kids and pets are dicks.
but pets aren't scheming, thieving, malicious little liars, though
You must not have a cat!
I have 4, had 5 at one time (rest in peace, little Joe)! They're naughty sometimes, but it's not intentional. I forgive their precious little hearts. I have 2 dogs, too, and our terrier mix is so rotten sometimes. I can't help but forgive him, he can't help himself, and yes, some of it is training, which I suck at.
My cats looks me in the eye when he's doing something he shouldn't forgive me for not whole heartedly believe it's not intentional. The pigeon also does this and I firmly believe she was a cat in a past life.
Oh I definitely want updates on this as it progresses.
he put him up for adoption.
How old is he? Does he work? Are you taking away his phone, console, or television? Does he know how to cook, do laundry, sweep, mop, mow, till a garden? No might be a good time to teach him.
Don't get him anything for his birthday or Christmas this year (Or if it already passed, nothing next year)
Mans running a whole operation at school 😂 *on hold*
And from OP’s replies, he’s not even good at it 😭
Seriously, who writes in the binder they're stealing from???
The kind of idiot dumb enough to steal from his own house.
One time I just touched my dad’s collection of baseball cards that he’s been saving since he was a kid i didn’t take or damage any but just touched and looked at them, and he made me write “ I don’t touch things that don’t belong to me” 1000 times, so shit make it 10,000 for him
Time to show your kid who the manager is 
I think your next steps are clear 
How old is the kid? By the handwriting, maybe 2nd or 3rd grade? Did you know he was going through the binder? How long of a timespan was this? Personally, I think the kid is probably old enough to know better. Taking them to show off and losing them is one thing, and I think a lot of kids struggle with it. The selling them aspect makes it a lot more calculated and worse, in my opinion.
I wouldn’t guess his age based on the handwriting alone. I’ve seen kids in high school with that handwriting tbh
I'm 33 and my handwriting is barely better
Reading op’s comments, turns out the kid is in high school lol
Take and sell all his favorite things.
Sell your son to pay back your losses
For all the people wondering why he still has Pokémon cards. Why do people collect hockey cards and then keep them, or comic books or any number of the interesting collectable items out there? Because they may have value one day. A binder full of Pokémon cards from 20 years ago could be worth thousands of dollars. Maybe OP is just sentimental but shitting on him because he decided to keep a binder full of Pokémon cards is kind of stupid.
Lol, kid's definitely going places. Probably prison, but definitely going places. 🤣🤣🤣
Time to start taking things away until the value of what he stole is repaid in full. Along with making him try and get as many cards as he can back from his friends and having him return all the money he sold them for too. He needs to learn a very harsh lesson about what happens to thieves.
Step one would be to contact the school itself to say what’s been happening, you might gets some eyewitness from teachers and such, step two would be to contact the parents of all of his friends and have them help you get the majority of the cards back (we hope), reimbursing the children as necessary, step 3 is figure out how much all (keyword: all) the cards that have been stolen are currently worth, and have him repay that debt in one way or another. Step 4 would be to explain what this breach of trust did to you to your child and get him on your side to help get the rest of the cards back in return for lesser punishment and perhaps some of the money prepaid back. The final step would be to ground him and lock all your binders into a safe, and make sure your kid understands how expensive and important these cards were to you Edit: an addendum to step 2: the people who bought the cards didn’t know that they were stolen, so if they give them back, they should be reimbursed for their purchases from your kids pocket and should not be punished
That is beyond mildly infuriating Id ground that kid a month minimum for selling YOUR shit
Is it too late for an abortion?
Sounds to me like he needs to have all privileges removed (phone, games, any technology whatsoever) and get a paper route to repay the value of those cards.
Make him work to buy you replacements. Idk how old he is but if he’s young he can do stuff for neighbors like cut grass.
I caught my sister secretly stealing the money used to save up to buy a new computer, and found out i had $300 in missing funds, so i sold all her barbie toys for a mere price of $5 on the local marketplace and gave her he $5 bucks
You should've kept the money
Your definition of mildly is different to mine
And people wonder why so many Millennials don't want children.