A Texas man who stole boxes of cards from the sports card shop where he was employed has been sentenced.
Jentry Domingo Holt, 35, pleaded guilty to theft charges after he was caught on camera stealing from OPC Baseball Cards in Caldwell.
Clips from surveillance cameras showed Holt swiping inventory from the store’s shelves and carrying it out to his vehicle in the spring of 2022.
Store owner Tom Salem says in all, Holt stole a minimum of $15,000 in merchandise.
Holt was sentenced to three years of probation, a $1,550 fine, $290 in court costs, 100 hours of community service and $500 in restitution to cover the deductible on the store’s insurance claim.
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2023 was another busy year for grading companies. The four major graders tracked by Gem Rate saw over 9.1 million sports card submissions over the last 12 months. Tack on the TCG numbers (cards like Pokemon, Magic The Gathering, etc.) and you get a total of just over 17 million according to Gem Rate.
Here’s a look at the number of sports cards graded in that 9.1 million total (which is about 5% less than 2022):
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A fully PSA graded 1952 Topps Baseball set, including EX 5 examples of Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays, sold for $305,000 Saturday night. The set offered by Goldin included 51 cards graded PSA 6 and 356 PSA 5s.
Also sold: a 2003-04 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection case of three boxes from LeBron James’ rookie year which netted $231,800.
A 1997-98 Skybox Metal Universe PMG Red Michael Jordan slabbed Authentic sold for $161,040, a 1998-99 Skybox Premium Star Rubies Jordan graded PSA 6 (#21/50) realized $158,600 as did a complete PSA graded set of 1996 Pinnacle Select Certified Mirror Gold Baseball.
A 2018 Prizm Lamar Jackson Gold Vinyl /5 PSA 10 (pop 2) sold for a record $19,520.
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Sports collectibles haven’t yet climbed into the realm of fine art or fancy cars at Sotheby’s but the company did offer at least one segment of its 2023 Year in Review on some of the athletic oriented items it sold. Among them: the $5.8 million Kobe Bryant game jersey, a record-setting pair of MJ shoes, Tom Brady’s last game jersey and a set of Lionel Messi’s jerseys from the 2022 World Cup.
“2023 reiterated the strength of game-worn collectibles,” the company stated. “The early success of our new partnership with NBA further indicates that this market will continue to expand in 2024.”
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