Lost During a Big Move? Stolen While Out of Town? Or Consumed in a Tragic Fire?
What’s the worst way your meticulously grown Pokémon card collection could perish? Water damage from flooding definitely ranks up there. But water damage from a broken sewer line might just be the absolute worst.
That’s exactly what happened to one collector who is still trying to process the loss.
“It hurts that I lost a multiple thousand dollar collection, but it really just hurts from losing all the memories,” he wrote.
Unopened packs of Astral Radiance, Surging Sparks, Chilling Reign, Stellar Crown, and more lay scattered on a grey basement floor, having sat in pools of contaminated water from the broken sewer line. The owner, Reddit user Substantial-Pie-4973, also lost his entire collection of opened packs.
Some of the rarest cards spotted in his binder included a Moonbreon and a Tomokazu Komiya Charmeleon.
“I went to the store and got a phone call from my wife. She told me the basement was flooding, and right when I heard those words, my heart dropped,” he shared.
“The sewage line busted in the basement which ruined almost all of our belongings and my entire Pokémon collection. The cards in my binders, all of my sealed and loose packs had been soaking in the sewage water for about 2-3 days from what I’m being told. Since the storage room is closed off, we did not smell or see any of the flooding.”
Substantial-Pie-4973 explained how the collection ended up in the basement in the first place. He took a pay cut to help his father open a new business, and he and his wife were living at his grandparents’ house until they could afford a new place to live. As a result, everything was stored in cardboard moving boxes in the basement.
In addition to not being aware of the leak initially, Substantial-Pie-4973 recently had surgery for a hernia. This delayed him from getting everything opened and sorted as soon as the flood was discovered. Unfortunately, none of the collection was insured.
An Absolute Nightmare Scenario
“Category 3 water damage can be super harmful, and porous items like cards are not safely salvageable, so pretty much everything that was touched had to be thrown out,” he explained.
“Getting that hit after opening so many packs, finding that product everyone is wanting on the shelf at the store, trying to complete certain sets — all gone before I felt like I could blink.”
Lessons to Take Away
While this heartbreaking story serves as a good reminder to:
1. Avoid storing collections in basements
2. Keep everything in sealed plastic containers
3. Include your collection as a separate item in your insurance policy
It also highlights that those best practices aren’t always possible for everyone. Sometimes life deals you a break, and sometimes it kicks you when you’re already vulnerable.
A Silver Lining
One silver lining is the supportive response from fellow collectors. They are encouraging Substantial-Pie-4973 to livestream his pulls for the remaining damaged packs and to seek donations to help rebuild his cherished collection.
“Open the poop packs! Open the poop packs!” chanted one enthusiastic commenter.
“It’s every collector’s worst nightmare,” wrote another. “Hard to spin it in any positive way. I’m sorry you’re going through all that.”
Our thoughts are with Substantial-Pie-4973 as he navigates this difficult chapter. May his collection — and the memories it holds — find a way to grow again.
https://kotaku.com/pokemon-card-collection-basement-storage-insurance-2000639383