Thanks to the popularity of card games like Pokémon, the trading card business has boomed into a multi-billion-dollar industry — and criminals want a piece of the action.

Case in point, collectors who sent their valuable trading cards to PSA, or Professional Sports Authenticator, to get their cards graded were shocked to find an email in their inbox on Monday letting them know that their cards had been stolen while in shipment. Images of the email went viral on social media, and a PSA spokesperson confirmed to Mashable that thieves targeted "a third-party shipping vehicle carrying PSA-graded items."

"After leaving our PSA facility in South California, a FedEx vehicle transporting PSA orders was burglarized, and items were stolen," reads an email from the company posted by victims online. "Unfortunately, this theft affected your order."

Mashable has reported on the intense Pokémon collectibles market, one of the biggest draws in the trading card games (TGC) community, where resellers already make it difficult for everyday players to get their hands on new releases. Sports cards are also in high demand, and rare individual cards have sold for millions of dollars.

In the collectible world, grading a card means getting it authenticated by a professional who also assesses the condition of the item, which could greatly boost its resale value on the aftermarket. PSA is viewed as the industry leader in sports and hobby card grading.

To give an example of just how much could've been stolen in the alleged FedEx truck heist, one X user claimed they had sent cards worth more than $100,000 to PSA for grading — and they were all stolen.

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