A game played with cardboard cards is carrying Hasbro. Magic: The Gathering sold more than $600 million in the latest quarter. That is up 34% from a year ago. Hasbro (HAS) raised its outlook again, and the stock jumped 11% in a day. Last week, thieves in Santa Ana, Calif. showed the other side of that number. They took $963,000 of cards off a FedEx truck.
Connor Hart reported the earnings in Wednesday's Journal. Hasbro's revenue rose 15% to $1.6 billion. Analysts had expected $1.48 billion. Profit came in at $2.77 a share, up from $1.64 a year earlier. The company now expects sales to grow 7% to 9% this year, leaving out currency swings. The old forecast was 5% to 7%. It also doubled this year's buyback target to $400 million. Chief Executive Chris Cocks said Magic should grow again in 2027, with six big releases planned. "We're entering the holidays with momentum," he said. Shares closed at $109.52 on Tuesday, Oct. 20. They kept climbing, to $117.23 by Thursday's close.
Now the truck. Esther Fung's story ran on page A3 of the same paper. Santa Ana police say the haul was hundreds of sports and Pokémon cards, valued at about $963,000. The cards had been graded and were headed back to their owners. Skyler Bennett, a trader in Michigan, had 104 cards on board. He had them insured for $156,000. In July he'd paid Professional Sports Authenticator, or PSA, $8,000 to check and grade them. "This is by far the most valuable shipment of cards I would've ever had," he said. Two pallets were taken. The lock on the truck went with them.
Who pays when the cards are gone
PSA says the cards weren't in its hands when they were stolen. It has deactivated the stolen cards' certificates and told marketplaces to watch for them. It says it's also taking steps to pay owners fair market value. Bennett had his own insurance too, which gave him a second backstop. Rare cards can be worth as much as $16 million. Card shops in Chicago and New York have been hit this year. In January, three armed robbers raided a Pokémon store in Manhattan during a crafts event. Nobody was hurt. When cardboard is worth that much, it gets treated like cash.
Our read
This is an Insurance M11 story with an Investments/Risk IN04 footnote. Hasbro sits in none of our books, and we're not chasing a stock that just ran 11% in a day on one franchise. One game is doing much of the lifting, so a weak release year could hurt. Our verdict is hold, meaning enjoy the story and keep your hands in your pockets. The planning lesson is the truck. A standard homeowner's policy may limit what it pays for collectibles, and it may cover less once they leave the house. Many people learn the limits after something's gone. Bennett knew his number, $156,000, before the theft.
Here's the connection to your own plan. Maybe you or your kid has a binder, a shoebox or a graded slab worth real money. This week, pull out your homeowner's policy and find what it says about collectibles. If the limit is lower than the binder, ask your agent about a scheduled rider at appraised value. Ask, too, whether it covers the cards while they're in the mail. Keep the grading receipts and certificate numbers somewhere other than the box. If the numbers don't line up, bring the policy to a review and we'll read it with you.