YouTuber's trading card company raided by thieves

Thieves have stolen thousands of rare trading cards from a company that evaluates the items.

Ace Grading, based in Banbury, said thousands of pounds worth of cards were stolen from their headquarters on the evening of 13 December in what the company have called a "targeted attack".

YouTuber Randolph, who runs the company, told the BBC that the items taken were "valuable, but they're also really sentimental".

Thames Valley Police said it was investigating the robbery, adding that an estimated £250,000 worth of stock had been stolen.

The company grades trading cards, such as Pokémon - of which the estimated value of can be hundreds, or even thousands of pounds.

Customers send their cards to grading companies, who then evaluate the standard of the card out of 10.

The process is seen as a way of increasing the card's value and authenticity.

Randolph, who has more than 1.2m subscribers on YouTube said: "Having some respect for these cards is really important, their value is really underestimated.

"To those who they're important to, they really are so important."

The "targeted attack" had come "completely out of the blue" at a time when "business has never been better", he added.

Ace Grading has began contacting customers whose cards were taken and offering them compensation.

The "impact is massive" Randolph said, adding that it was his "whole life right now".

"We're a very specialist company, and my main goal right now is to keep the lights on."

He added that the company had received "loads of support from the community".

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