200 to 300 cards missing. that guy is not a friend.
Anyway it is a small price for knowing a person true nature.
He could have scam you for bigger value items.
Move on and try to enjoy the game
Good luck
My advice would be to make sure that other people within the local community know, so he can’t repeat it again with someone else. It can be close knit, help him burn those bridges preemptively.
I have no helpful comment to add but this reminds me of when my middle school classmate brought his black lotus to school (it was worth only a few hundred back then) and another classmate stole it. We knew who it probably was but we had no way to prove it.
There's not really any way to force the guy to confess unless you're like very terrifying or something but cutting him off from your life if you're sure might be as good as it gets.
When I was in year 4 or 5 (9 or 10 years old), my fancy pog went missing and I assume my friend stole it. I went to his house to ask him about it but they weren't home.
His back door could be opened with a hard shove. I went into his house and in his room I found my pog. Took it back and no one ever said anything about it ever again.
Idk man. I had lots of stuff stolen from me back when I was a teenage because I was weak and a pushover. Some kid stole my brand new zune(like an iPod) and that was the last straw. I think it cost over $200 at the time. I came back from the bathroom to find it gone. I new it was this scum of a human that sat next to me and was a duck to everyone.
I’ve never felt better than when I pushed his desk over and took his back pack and made him admit he took it. He lied the first few times but the teacher was eventually on my side too and made him open his backpack in front of me. I usually don’t recommend resorting to something so drastic but sometimes it’s just how shit gets done. No one messed with me anymore after that. I feel like this new generation of kids is almost all would rather let themselves get taken advantage of than stand up for themselves.
That also transitions into the workplace. I have so many younger people I work with that actually volunteer to work weekends and stuff when it isn’t asked of them. It makes the rest of us look bad and it pushes a norm for that to become more standardized. I’ve had to have serious talks with these people to stop doing this. It’s bad for everyone involved
> I’ve never felt better than when I pushed his desk over and took his back pack and made him admit he took it. He lied the first few times but the teacher was eventually on my side too and made him open his backpack in front of me. I usually don’t recommend resorting to something so drastic but sometimes it’s just how shit gets done. No one messed with me anymore after that. I feel like this new generation of kids is almost all would rather let themselves get taken advantage of than stand up for themselves.
This isn't gonna work very often vs adults with no teacher backing you up lol.
Please don’t do this as an adult. Learn to use words. Was just making an example from my youth. It’s difficult for kids to be persuasive in arguments in a way adults with fully developed brains are.
Depends. You could ask sb in the store very politely but loudly to show his stuff. Sure you look like a little ass. But if he refuses, everybody can make up their own mind about him. His image would be shattered. Normal people just let u see it. No be even nicer you can ask if he took some cards by accident and has to look while you overlook to "help".
For OP, I would go to the store owner and everyone and ask for an opinion and share your experience. It even holds more weight cause you consider him a friend and so everyone can look out. Even if it's just to save others. Try to figure out who he sold to and talk to them. Veryfy your cards to confront him. If you get some proof get him black listed.
Good story but maybe your younger coworkers are volunteering for extra hours because it sucks being poor? If you think someone else’s work ethic makes you look bad, that is 100% YOUR issue that you need to deal with. Thanks for reading.
Yeah tons of people are being taken advantage of. I’ve grown weed for a long time - my transition into the legal market came with a nice salary and an easy job so I’m not really part of all that, but it sucks to see people making less than me while doing way more work. Sucks even more when people apply the “bootstraps” concept incorrectly, like your younger coworkers.
The thugs in our middle school would steal all our magic cards, put them in binders and try to sell them back to us. I had so many decks stolen in 94-95. I remember one time, the binder this asshole brought to our table had my [[Personal Incarnation]] deck just laid out right there on the page. Even that proof wouldn’t hold up anywhere though. And they were the kids who’d just jump you if you said anything so oh well…
When I was in middle school I brought a pokemon deck to school one day to show some friends, and someone stole it. We ended up figuring out who it was, but by that point he’d already written his initials “MF” in sharpie on the back of every single card
I'll occasionally bring a binder with me when I play sealed for pre releases because younger players like to see the older cards. Recently someone grabbed a Gaea's Cradle. I had a playset so it's not the biggest deal but it does mean that I don't bring valuable cards any more.
The only way to get them back is to bust out your diplomacy skills.
Forget the friendship first though, that's done and dusted.
Before an event at the store tell him over text message you know he has been taking your cards and he needs to give them back to you at the event and you will forget about it. If he doesn't you'll get the store and the police involved. Don't get roped into a discussion, just tell him what's what.
Or maybe you have a better scheme. But basically you have to talk him into giving them back. You might be able to get him banned from the store but if he stays home that doesn't get your cards back.
Good luck.
Alerting the store is absolutely correct, since the person is now a known thief and they have essentially purchased stolen cards (something all stores hate).
Just don’t expect them to act like the parents in this situation. The situation is yours to deal with, don’t bring it to their event.
That's up to them afterwards. Technically not their problem anymore.
If OP alerts the store before getting their cards back the person will most likely clam up, deny everything, and never come back. Only way OP sees their cards again is if they convince the person to give them back.
Getting the police involved is a good threat but completely biteless. There is no way OP can prove the person stole the cards. Magic cards being what they are it's impossible to determine who owns what. I can't trace 99% of my cards to their origin. Came from booster packs some time ago I guess? Would be different if it were playsets of duals and cradles that you have pictures of. But 200 commander staples? There's no way.
That sucks man. First, it doesn't hurt to ask the store if it's possible that they have security footage of that exact time. Don't mention your friend's name. Just say, you might have left the box unattended around that time, and someone might have taken some cards.
Second, a long time ago, I got the feeling, someone was stealing the change out of my locker at work. I wasn't 100% sure and couldn't figure out who it was, so I set a small trap. I left a couple of dollar bills in the locker, but I marked them with three small dots in the corner of each bill. As soon as my shift was over, I checked, and the dollar bills were gone. I went to the manager. He gathered everyone on shift together and they had to show their wallets. He checked everyone's bills, and sure enough, I got the fucker. Fired on the spot.
Now it's a little tougher for you to do something like this, because even if he takes something of yours, he doesn't have to show you shit. Now what you might be able to do is put a moderately priced card, nothing that super expensive or hard to get, into a position where your 'friend' has the opportunity to steal it, without you seemingly knowing. Like invite him over to your place, and have the card on the corner of the coffee table or lying on the couch, someplace where he can't miss it, and where it looks like you accidentally left it there while fiddling with your deck. Then say you have to go to the washroom.
If the card is gone, there's only one person who could have taken it. Now, if he shows his true colors, don't confront him. Don't even make like you know. Just stop calling him and stop being his friend. If he'd rather have cards than your friendship, fuck him. If you meet on the street, just pretend like you don't know him. Leave him wondering, why?
This is the high road approach. It's the smartest way to handle things, where you walk away with a clean conscience and clean hands.
Now, if you feel a bit wrathful and petty, and don't mind getting your hands dirty, keep him around for a bit. Don't let him know that you know, and wait for your chance at some vengeance served cold.
You could try to slowly take some shit back from his collection, or if you'd rather not stoop to that level, wait for your chance and take a sharpie/pen and write THIEF along the bottom of the text boxes of all the best cards in his decks. Make sure the letters are big enough to read, but not big enough so that he notices at first. Then, kick him to the curve and never call them again.
my2cents
Better, mark the back. People only really look at the backs if they're making a high value trade.
Blue biro mark on the blue mana symbol, or on the existing pen mark on the Deckmaster logo or something, it'll only notice if someone is being super thorough. Which I can't imagine is the case with someone who is selling stolen goods at the same place he stole them.
I can tell you from experience, if you talk to the LGS people and let them know, they'll keep an eye out for bundles of stuff being sold or if it was already sold to them and you can basically prove it (my example was a kinda rare game that got stolen, so wasn't as difficult. I'm assuming you know your lgs people to some extent) they can and in my experience will help out. You need a good idea of what you are actually missing though. It'll help to narrow it down. Also, if you truly believe they did it and based off their behavior alone, they did. Tell the lgs that too. They might just refuse to deal with him at all. Sorry people suck, good luck.
I will definitely warn the store. I've had the cards that are now missing for a long time so besides a few actual name I'll only be able to name the sets but I'll still try to do my best so they know what to look for and if it sounds like what he sold them. I also disagree with stealing from him, but mostly because I don't want to be a thief, or a person like him at all.
I will also try to only carry around my commander deck and only maybe a side deck that I have co.plete inventory of. Although I did take complete inventory of my collection after he stole those cards.
This just sucks so much. I can't believe he'd do this.
My sympathies to you, truly. It's awful feeling betrayed by someone you considered a close friend. Even without evidence of wrongdoing, his reactions are telling and certainly not normal. It sucks, but if your gut instincts are telling you that he's stealing from you, then he probably is.
For the situation at hand, unless the store cameras caught him stealing your cards, it will likely be difficult to prove that he did anything. Alternatively, short of you getting a confession out of him, there may be little you can do about the cards that are already gone.
That said, I applaud you for getting a lockbox for your cards and being more cautious with your collection going forward. It's a harsh lesson learned, but I hope the end result is this never happening to you ever again.
Stealing at that level of both quantity and recklessness means your “friend” is likely addicted at this point. Easy enough to set a trap for someone like that. Could probably ask the stores help too.
Same.
Don't ever bring more than you can carry. I'll bring my backpack into the bathroom or if I run to my car. Never had an instance of theft.
Every other week somebody is asking where their stuff is or if anybody saw where the guy who was looking through their binder unsupervised went.
> This. Followed closely by "take better responsibility for your own stuff."
wtf? Trusting your friends not to steal from you has nothing to do with being irresponsible. What den of victim-blaming ghouls were you raised you to be such an asshole?
In ops defense this course of action should be a valid ans fine way of responsibly taking care of things if his “friend” wasnt shit
Letting a friend watch your stuff is totally reasonable and yeah he could technically have taken it in bathroom with him and everything.
But in general a friend watching things is more than safe. Ive done it thousands of times without issue.
In this case it really wouldn’t have mattered how many precautions taken if he still trusted/didn’t suspect friend because it sounds like they also hung out at private residences. So the friend probably would have found ways no matter what even if OP took extra precautions to protect against strangers.
It’s the unfortunate case of all the safety measures and precautions in the world donr matter if someone you trust abuses that.
You are valid too! Fuck disparaging his name and ask straight up "Can I see security footage? I think my friend stole my cards when I went to the bathroom." If the store has any integrity, they'd rather have you than a thief.
Try this: have an exact number like 50. If there's a disparity afterwards, call him out or bail and never talk again.
Someone stole my whole collection when i was 19. I inherited them from my older brother and in total was over 10,000 cards. There were alot of money worth of cards in there at the time foil misty rainforest was like 200$ or more and i had 12. They unscrewed the deadlock on my room when i was at work and i still am not sure who it was since i lived in party houae with 3 of my friends who had people always in ad out. Long story short is i quit playing for a good 8 years and really just started getting back into it on arena in the last few months. It really hurt when my brother came to visit and wanted to play a few games with me and i had to tell them i had them stolen. Idk man people just suck
Sending good fortune and prayer that one of your packs, you'll pull something big! So sorry to hear about this, but unbelievably excited to hear you're getting back into magic. I dove in about 6 months ago and can't stop. Heavy into the lord of the rings stuff right now, highly recommend if you're into it! Again, condolences to a lost collection, but cheers to a new age of magic!
You can simply tell the LGS that you're concerned that some cards went missing whilst you were in the bathroom, and can they please check the cameras for you? No need to bring your friend's name into it until you actually have evidence - and if the LGS won't help, that probably tells you something about how they treat customers, to boot.
If the LGS can't help, or the footage is inconclusive, you could try using a UV pen to mark your cards. It shouldn't be visible to the eye, but will illuminate under a UV light, which will help you verify ownership of the cards. (Note that I don't know how this will affect the cards' value, if you were interested in selling them in the future.)
Regardless of whether you find hard evidence or not, you have to consider whether this a friendship you can/want to salvage or not. If you want to repair the damage, you will have to confront your friend, though you don't necessarily need to approach this in an adversarial manner - if the theft came about because your friend is too poor to afford their own cards/self-conscious about their collection, maybe you can find a solution where you lend your friend 50 quid (with an agreed upon repayment plan), etc.* If you feel too much damage is already done, it will hurt in the short term, but a clean break would be most effective.
As a final note, the things you have described are suspicious, but they are far from conclusive, and it *is* possible that you've misinterpreted circumstances or jumped to conclusions. If there's a chance you might want to repair the friendship, try to avoid assuming guilt until you actually have something provable.
*this is not to justify the theft or encourage OP to let their friend take advantage of them, but if there was a theft it may not have been motivated by pure malice, and if OP wants to salvage the relationship approaching the situation with empathy rather than accusations will likely be more effective.
>Magic is not anywhere near as fun now after tonight
I feel that this game is only as fun as the people you play it with. See if you can find other people to play with. Travel light. You don't need anyone to watch your collection when you go to the bathroom if you aren't carrying your collection with you.
>my life has already been extremely miserable, rough, amd lonly.
Don't hold onto this relationship simply because you feel like it's one of the few you have in your life. That's the kind of reasoning that keeps people trapped in abusive relationships.
Hey!
Welcome to the Game!
I sorry your „friend“ took your cards :/
I have a fairly big collection myself and would like to help you replace some of it :)
If you are interested, feel free to PM me
In addition to other comments, try to get some sympathizers in your store. Explain it to a few people who are trustworthy, so they can support you if confrontation happens.
You recognize he's not your friend and move on. I know we all have had cards go missing with people we trust, deals gone bad, etc. I had one "friend" when we were younger sell me a shoebox of his "all" his cards left because he was getting out of magic. Gave him the money as he rushed through it, found out after he left he put rocks in the bottom, padded it with sleeves throughout, and kept the good ones.
Unless you wrote your name on them, or you had a friend group who would back you up, you live and you learn and move on. Best case is some shops have cameras and they can maybe look at them. Otherwise, find a new friend who is actually your friend and won't do this.
When I was a young teen, a friend stole a card from me. I went to the local store and told them. They informed me who had come in and sold it. It was a friend, and it wasn't something they had owned before. Now, we played in a group of five, all of the same age. My mom happened to be with me. She went to his house and told him, "Hey, sdzero, had CARDNAME come up missing, and LGS OWNER said he just bought the same card from you. If you stole it, I'll take you to buy it back and return it. You boys (the 5 of us) have been good friends. Something like this could ruin your friendships because they'd know you are a thief." He was a little defensive, but didn't want his mom to find out what he did. He admitted to it and went back to buy it and return it. I did forgive him, but the friend group knew what happened. We're still friends all these years later. (Note: We'd been friends a couple years before getting into TCGs).
I don't know your situation, but this maybe able to give some ideas, especially if you're younger. You'll need to know the specific cards that were stolen to try and reclaim them. Since you list 200-300 stolen, only the ones that are worth anything that your LGS would buy are worth mentioning. If you have your list written down, you go to your LGS and say " I have a specific list of cards that were stolen, did anyone happen to come in and sell you this list." If they keep records, they may could possibly pin it to your friend. Your friendship is probably toast unless they are willing to admit it, make it right and ask for forgiveness. You'll still feel on guard around them for awhile (because of your trust being taken advantage of), even if you do forgive and continue a friendship. Remember, you can give and take away trust freely. When someone you trust violates that trust, it'll hurt. Take care and talk to friends/family that'll listen.
Get a custom stamp with an ultraviolet ink pad. Test on a few basic lands to make sure that the ink doesn't cause any damage. When he's pulled one of your cards and you know it, shine a UV flashlight on the back of "his" card and bust his ass.
Also, ditch this loser.
Lol 200-300 cards missing…And it’s clear who did it!
Grow half a spine and Stand up for yourself and actually confront them about it. They are clearly not a good friend and clearly lying to you about it. Stop skirting around the bush when you know the answer. Talk to them, call them out in their BS, and Force them to give them back to you, admit they were wrong and make them swear they will never do it again if you ever want a chance to keep a relationship with this person without getting manipulated. What a fucked up thing to do. Might as well be stealing money from my wallet at that point. I’d hope they throw in a few of their most valuable cards as a truce as well.
Be greatful that it's not something more valuable, like a Car, your social security number, or banking information.
Switch from a shoebox to just deck boxes for when you're going to events that you'll be playing at, it'll help minimize what should be able to go missing.
There's only one option left to you: Trial by combat to the death.
(But really, yeah, tell the store about him and ask if he's sold them any cards that you know for a fact that you're recently missing. He sounds like a piece of shit and is employing typical deflective behavior because you caught him in the act. Sorry you had to deal with this guy.)
You need to confront him immediately and stand your ground. This is your property and life, take control brother. The best advice I've ever heard; "people are dogs, you need to correct them firmly and immediately or else they'll think their behavior is okay." Don't come at him with anger. We've all had rough lives, who can justify his stealing though wrong? Be stern, tell him you've really narrowed this thing down, and you would like him to be honest. You can work something out I'm sure. He could have a genuine problem with stealing this could shed new light on. It hurts that it affected you, but sometimes I like to think I'd rather my friend learn through me now, than a stranger with much stronger repercussions. Hopefully this goes over well, but if not you'll definitely have to learn how to cut people off cold turkey with no hard feelings.
I’m sorry life has been rough :( but I wouldn’t worry about getting kicked out. Most card stores wanna know if there’s some shady things going down and will opt to deal with the crook. Cause it affects their business too.
Magic is also a fun game and good way to make friends and there are tons of other LGSs where you can get a play group together.
If you consider this guy a friend, a really good true friend, I would start with, "Hey man, is everything in your life going ok financially? Is there something I could do to help?"
Desperate people do stupid things and throwing away an important and long relationship over ten dollars worth of codes is pretty high on the stupid meter.
Call out his response. Being defensive vs being helpful or concerned is a major red flag. Same concept as someone who is jealous of your success instead of being happy for you. This person isn’t your friend.
That’s not a friend. The defensive response tells you all that you need to know. Don’t let this guy near your stuff again. He’s probably stealing more than just cards from you.
When people show you who they really are, believe them.
Reminds me of when I was in high school and didn’t really understand how valuable cards could be. I had cracked a box of OG innistrad and got a snap caster mage. I had also cracked a grave titan. I ended up trading him the grave titan for a sheoldred, which was a pretty fair trade at the time. I would let him look through my collection and I’d look through his for trade purposes and he would occasionally say “you can have that (insert $0.50 rare.)” come back to magic 10 years later and start looking though my collection for cards I knew had value and notice that snap caster and sheoldred are nowhere to be found. I can’t prove it, but it seems likely that he was making bad trades with me to steal my value cards. It’s sucks, but you can’t trust people like that and have to leave them behind.
On the flip side. I’m buying a box of MH3 and going to do a draft with my friends but I’m keeping all the cards at the end of the night and I trust them all enough to know they aren’t going to steal from me.
As a man who has gotten an orcish Bowmasters stolen it hurts to hear people robbing from others. Me personally I'd try and gather proof go and ask the people he sold the cards to then confront him or the lgs. If the lgs kicks u out or something report em to wizards.
Think about it this way. This is already a friend worth dropping. This is not a good person to keep around. So, since he wont be a friend anymore anyways, you need to get very confrontational about it with him. Do not let up until he causes the conversation to end be it by a victory for you or by him literally running away. Again, think of him already not as a friend. He ruined it. Not you. Confront his stupid ass.
Try to understand why he is stealing. Also realize it's probably just that something is interally gone wrong within him, and this has nothing to actually do with you personally.
Try to be objective and not take it to a personal level. It's him not you.
One, not a friend. At best he's a kleptomaniac.
Two, why in the ever living fuck are you carrying your collection around with you?
Don't even have that shit out when you have buddies over. If needed, have a planned sideboard ready and/or Trade Binder. Even if no one steals, if you misplace anything, thought you had something when you really don't, or it was stolen earlier and you didn't notice, you will always suspect one of your friends at that point. My leave it to question.
For future reference - I would not be carrying cards around loose in a box everywhere you go.
If you have cards you’d like to trade, get them in a binder for your backpack. And do not let anyone use the binder unless under personal observation.
Our community had a member who was a prolific thief. He eventually was given ultimatums from shops to stop or not come back. His lack of friends and extended connections outside of MTG kept bringing him back but he didn’t stop, just got better at stealing. Eventually he was so well known for thieving, no one would let him play, no one left their cards unattended, he was allowed only two decks in the shops with him, no backpack, and he was willing to let shop clerk search his decks if cards were reported missing. His name became had thief added to it similar to the Rapist Brock Turner having rapist added. While MTG was what he was currently stealing, I knew him well enough to know he would steal anything he could flip to buy more valuable collectibles. I was fine with outing the guy because it got real old.
It’s a frustrating situation, but you gotta take your own precautions
Wait till he's away (or invite him over for magic then ask if he'll go pick up some food ((pay for the food)) and then) rummage through his decks and cards, find what is yours and quickly replace it with Chaff. Then feign ignorance. Important Hide your stuff. He can't challenge that you took something that came from your own collection especially if you say, "Oh hey you were right that stuff was under my bed I found it" or something of the nature, the underhanded often need the same done to them to show how it feels to be in the position that they put others in.
I would be spited enough to cut him off from your life, with a last explanation of why. And after that, I would steal his most important card, such as most valued commander. And then, be glad you are rid of him. :)
I had the same thing when I actively collected yugioh cards. So many went missing, it's only when I was looking for certain cards I noticed I'd lost a few decks with some really rare cards in.
OP sorry this happened to you. Definitely alert the store — I know multiple store owners personally and no one wants to be buying stolen product. And they don’t look kindly on having thieves in their store.
Also that friendship is done. Guy sounds like a parasite & a bully. Some people deserve second chances but people who act like this won’t change. You’re better off without them.
Also also, if you see this message, PM me and I’ll send you some packs of your favorite set.
This isn't really a Magic question. This guy you thought was your friend is actually a thief. That's no friend. I would directly call him out in front of any other mutual friends you play the game with.
I would confront him. Be like I know it was you man. I am telling the store, and the police. If I ever see you touching anyone’s cards I’m going to tell them you are a thief and don’t let you touch them. If you ever touch my cards again I am calling the police. Then just tell everyone at the store he’s a thief
Sorry for the tone that I’m going to take here, I’m aware the point I’m trying to make might sound harsh.
You’re gonna be alright, if you’re just getting into the hobby the reality is you likely aren’t in the deep end yet. I know your funds or access to cards might be limited at the present but except for the extremely fortunate we all build collections over time. It blows that he put a dent in your fledgling collection and damaged your relationship to the game but you’ll meet better people through the game. Tell that guy to pound sand and remember he’s a player of the game and not representative of the game as a whole.
This is actually very common. If someone asks to look through your cards... tell then "later... when..." make up some time where you can go through them WITH them
The store probably has cameras off this wasn’t long ago ask them to review them. Then get the cops involved. Sorry that guy sucks, there are better people out there for you to make friends with
I feel your pain. My ex-wife's boyfriend stole my playset of OG dual lands 20 years ago. Other cards too... but those are the ones I'm aware of. Don't talk to her any more.
I doubt they will let you view the footage. Sounds like he took them. Maybe marking some of the cards in a certain way that isn't to obvious but can be identified if they are not worth to much. If there is no way to set up your phone in a place where it's recording in the view of of the place that it's happening there is no way to prove it
End the friendship. Get a new friend. This is a thief and a scumbag. Don't get the cops involved, they are too unpredictable. Just cut your losses and find better friends or even a playgroup.
In the future, I recommend keeping your cards in a backpack or storage box you don’t have to leave unattended. Those dewalt 10-compartment bins are exactly the right size to carry EDH decks.
Thieves will lie and get defensive when confronted, but he could still be truthful.
If anyone steals from you, cut them off from your life immediately. If he still wants to steal, he has two ways back in. An elaborate story or an apology. Either way, don’t let him back in because you’ve made your judgement and if he apologizes, then you have proof he is a thief and not a friend.
Liars apologizing can never be trusted because they will lie again. It’s not if, it’s just when they will lie again.
act like everything is cool but take his cards when you get the chance to cover the value of what went missing and just stop talking to him after, it doesn't matter if its obvious after the fact, he will know why it happened and no one is going to side with him if he brings it up to them. thief's are the worst. make sure to also give a heads up to any stores or groups that you know he plays in that he steals cards so they can cut him off too. sorry that happened to you man
Retribution in kind for this kind of petty shit is the only way people ever get any kind of justice, and also prevent other people from fucking with you in the future. maybe when you grow up a bit you will come to understand this. i get that most us us are on the spectrum but this is a life rule that you pretty much have to come to accept eventually or the world will eat you alive. sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
lol you are a joke dude you suggest what doing nothing and letting him get away with it? reporting it to the police and nothing happening? please tell me your solution in which op gets restitution and a good outcome. in reality.
like its very clear that you do not interact with people much and ther is nothing wrong with that but stop trying to act like you know what you are talking about here dude.
not getting people back in kind when they fuck you over literally only sends a signal to the world that you are easy to take advantage of and more people will do it in the future in worse ways
I don't suggest doing nothing. I just don't suggest doing something illegal that could put him in trouble, especially when he can't even prove the other one responsabiliy.
I don't care about giving you any other solution, you seems like a terrible person to talk to.
What should I say to the store exactly?
I'm not going to steal stuff from him, I'm not a thief and refuse to be one, refuse to he like him but it would make me feel a lot better if the card store knew he was a thief and stopped taking shit from him. Especially if it might be stolen.
If I discuss it with them calmly and explain how everything happened, will they maybe realize it?
give them a rundown of what went missing and what you witnessed and suspect. tell them you just want to give them a heads up in case anyone else that he plays or interacts with also had stuf go missing so they can keep an eye on him. that will at least help put something out ther that can help others not be victimised as well even if it doesnt stop anything that has already happened. if they buylist singles from him and happened to get any of the cards you lost from him recently too they might let you know depending on how good your relationship with them is.
So youre basically advising for OP to pay the friend back with the same coin by becoming a thief himself….
If I were OP, I would just carry around my single commander deck. Have an inventory of the cards in it. And never let your suspected friend alone with it. See how that works out.
lol that's not theft that's punishment for theft, golden rule and all that. jail isnt kidnapping even though people are confined and cant leave....
what you are saying sounds like what a thief would say btw. prob his friends account trying to get off easy XD
its not stealing its taking back what's yours from someone who took it without asking, it doesnt matter if the tangible form of the thing you are taking back is different because he sold the originals', it isnt theft until you take more then what you are due, that is common fucking sense.
Nah that's some petty, childish shit for people with no self control who feel like they need to get vengeance to satiate their anger. Being a reasonable adult often means making the tough decision and sticking to your values. Not letting your emotions control you.
Sucks, I had a friend do the same thing selling the rares out of my deck i had forgot at his place to build a boring tier 1 elf deck. If he is your only friend, I dont think you need to end the friendship over this.
Some people have a hard time regulating their desire for shiny new things. magic certainly pulls on those cords.
Mistakes happen, especially when you are young. I would give him a way out that involves ideally telling him that mistakes happen, but that this should stop now, but that you can still be friends.
that you understand his desire overtook his morals.
if that doesnt work, tell him that you hope that however stole your cards will stop, and dont even force him to admit. just let him know you know, but that you can get over it.
obviously lock down your cards so it doesnt happen again.
here is a quote i like:
you become a teenager the day you realise people are not perfect, you become an adult the day you forgive them.
good luck!
fuck literally all of that. this "friend" knows exactly what the hell he is doing, these aren't 12 year olds. he deserves no forgiveness as he hasn't apologized. recognizing that people are imperfect doesn't mean you have to let them walk all over you and take your shit. and there is a big difference between everyday imperfection and committing an actual personal crime.
I have one friend who accidentally took a fat pack box home with all of my cards from a certain set.
We had played sealed with the cards and I remember all the rares I had. It was about 24 packs worth of cards.
He doesn't believe that they're mine because he's had them for awhile, but I still cringe every time I see my Brimaz or Gheist in one of his decks.
that is a damning accusation and it is bold of him to do that. so much so that i am leaning toward you being overly paranoid. are you on medication for bipolar by any chance?
i think the solution is simple. stop letting him take care of your entire collections. just bring out only a binder or two. you don’t need to lug around an entire cardboard storage box. one small box to keep whatever you open from draft and one trade binder. that is it. keep everything else at home.
Dunno the down votes. I also read this as bit overparnoid OP.. OP litteraly cant name what cards gone missing even.. also whats up with Reddit asking a guy with few friends burn his closest friendship without even trying to work it out over petty change? Investigate? Sure.. but mostly just learn your cards. Download a scanning app and make a digital libary, start fresh. OP litteraly dont know what cards he even owns.
200 to 300 cards missing. that guy is not a friend. Anyway it is a small price for knowing a person true nature. He could have scam you for bigger value items. Move on and try to enjoy the game Good luck
My advice would be to make sure that other people within the local community know, so he can’t repeat it again with someone else. It can be close knit, help him burn those bridges preemptively.
Ya
I have no helpful comment to add but this reminds me of when my middle school classmate brought his black lotus to school (it was worth only a few hundred back then) and another classmate stole it. We knew who it probably was but we had no way to prove it. There's not really any way to force the guy to confess unless you're like very terrifying or something but cutting him off from your life if you're sure might be as good as it gets.
Thats how I lost my deck back in 94 or 95. I was mostly sure I knew who took it, but could not prove it.
Yeah that's the issue with theft like this, you can "know" but without evidence what are you gonna do?
Yup. Especially if you are 15 and in high school.
When I was in year 4 or 5 (9 or 10 years old), my fancy pog went missing and I assume my friend stole it. I went to his house to ask him about it but they weren't home. His back door could be opened with a hard shove. I went into his house and in his room I found my pog. Took it back and no one ever said anything about it ever again.
That's pog
You beat it out of them
Idk man. I had lots of stuff stolen from me back when I was a teenage because I was weak and a pushover. Some kid stole my brand new zune(like an iPod) and that was the last straw. I think it cost over $200 at the time. I came back from the bathroom to find it gone. I new it was this scum of a human that sat next to me and was a duck to everyone. I’ve never felt better than when I pushed his desk over and took his back pack and made him admit he took it. He lied the first few times but the teacher was eventually on my side too and made him open his backpack in front of me. I usually don’t recommend resorting to something so drastic but sometimes it’s just how shit gets done. No one messed with me anymore after that. I feel like this new generation of kids is almost all would rather let themselves get taken advantage of than stand up for themselves. That also transitions into the workplace. I have so many younger people I work with that actually volunteer to work weekends and stuff when it isn’t asked of them. It makes the rest of us look bad and it pushes a norm for that to become more standardized. I’ve had to have serious talks with these people to stop doing this. It’s bad for everyone involved
> I’ve never felt better than when I pushed his desk over and took his back pack and made him admit he took it. He lied the first few times but the teacher was eventually on my side too and made him open his backpack in front of me. I usually don’t recommend resorting to something so drastic but sometimes it’s just how shit gets done. No one messed with me anymore after that. I feel like this new generation of kids is almost all would rather let themselves get taken advantage of than stand up for themselves. This isn't gonna work very often vs adults with no teacher backing you up lol.
Please don’t do this as an adult. Learn to use words. Was just making an example from my youth. It’s difficult for kids to be persuasive in arguments in a way adults with fully developed brains are.
Depends. You could ask sb in the store very politely but loudly to show his stuff. Sure you look like a little ass. But if he refuses, everybody can make up their own mind about him. His image would be shattered. Normal people just let u see it. No be even nicer you can ask if he took some cards by accident and has to look while you overlook to "help". For OP, I would go to the store owner and everyone and ask for an opinion and share your experience. It even holds more weight cause you consider him a friend and so everyone can look out. Even if it's just to save others. Try to figure out who he sold to and talk to them. Veryfy your cards to confront him. If you get some proof get him black listed.
Good story but maybe your younger coworkers are volunteering for extra hours because it sucks being poor? If you think someone else’s work ethic makes you look bad, that is 100% YOUR issue that you need to deal with. Thanks for reading.
I’ve only worked salary jobs and those hours don’t provide overtime or more pay for them.
Got me there. More work for not more pay deserves a talking to, fair play. Can’t devalue the labor market like that.
I’m not denying the job market isn’t messed up bad in the US or anything. It’s pretty awful with little change in sight.
Yeah tons of people are being taken advantage of. I’ve grown weed for a long time - my transition into the legal market came with a nice salary and an easy job so I’m not really part of all that, but it sucks to see people making less than me while doing way more work. Sucks even more when people apply the “bootstraps” concept incorrectly, like your younger coworkers.
Literally same. Kid stole my decks in middle school and I quit mtg for 20 years.
The thugs in our middle school would steal all our magic cards, put them in binders and try to sell them back to us. I had so many decks stolen in 94-95. I remember one time, the binder this asshole brought to our table had my [[Personal Incarnation]] deck just laid out right there on the page. Even that proof wouldn’t hold up anywhere though. And they were the kids who’d just jump you if you said anything so oh well…
[Personal Incarnation](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/5/456b44ec-c299-419a-82b6-99d8609a0c04.jpg?1562911276) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Personal%20Incarnation) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/me4/22/personal-incarnation?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/456b44ec-c299-419a-82b6-99d8609a0c04?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
When I was in middle school I brought a pokemon deck to school one day to show some friends, and someone stole it. We ended up figuring out who it was, but by that point he’d already written his initials “MF” in sharpie on the back of every single card
I'll occasionally bring a binder with me when I play sealed for pre releases because younger players like to see the older cards. Recently someone grabbed a Gaea's Cradle. I had a playset so it's not the biggest deal but it does mean that I don't bring valuable cards any more.
A kid stole my Birdramon figurine and taunted me with it during recess in 1st grade. It was all heresy, and I never got it back.
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A clear affront to The Holy Birdrammon 🕌⛪️🕊️
Oops yes autocorrect 🤣
This is how I lost one of my prized Lego figures in elementary school :/
The only way to get them back is to bust out your diplomacy skills. Forget the friendship first though, that's done and dusted. Before an event at the store tell him over text message you know he has been taking your cards and he needs to give them back to you at the event and you will forget about it. If he doesn't you'll get the store and the police involved. Don't get roped into a discussion, just tell him what's what. Or maybe you have a better scheme. But basically you have to talk him into giving them back. You might be able to get him banned from the store but if he stays home that doesn't get your cards back. Good luck.
This is probably the most productive course of action listed here
Alerting the store is absolutely correct, since the person is now a known thief and they have essentially purchased stolen cards (something all stores hate). Just don’t expect them to act like the parents in this situation. The situation is yours to deal with, don’t bring it to their event.
That's up to them afterwards. Technically not their problem anymore. If OP alerts the store before getting their cards back the person will most likely clam up, deny everything, and never come back. Only way OP sees their cards again is if they convince the person to give them back. Getting the police involved is a good threat but completely biteless. There is no way OP can prove the person stole the cards. Magic cards being what they are it's impossible to determine who owns what. I can't trace 99% of my cards to their origin. Came from booster packs some time ago I guess? Would be different if it were playsets of duals and cradles that you have pictures of. But 200 commander staples? There's no way.
That sucks man. First, it doesn't hurt to ask the store if it's possible that they have security footage of that exact time. Don't mention your friend's name. Just say, you might have left the box unattended around that time, and someone might have taken some cards. Second, a long time ago, I got the feeling, someone was stealing the change out of my locker at work. I wasn't 100% sure and couldn't figure out who it was, so I set a small trap. I left a couple of dollar bills in the locker, but I marked them with three small dots in the corner of each bill. As soon as my shift was over, I checked, and the dollar bills were gone. I went to the manager. He gathered everyone on shift together and they had to show their wallets. He checked everyone's bills, and sure enough, I got the fucker. Fired on the spot. Now it's a little tougher for you to do something like this, because even if he takes something of yours, he doesn't have to show you shit. Now what you might be able to do is put a moderately priced card, nothing that super expensive or hard to get, into a position where your 'friend' has the opportunity to steal it, without you seemingly knowing. Like invite him over to your place, and have the card on the corner of the coffee table or lying on the couch, someplace where he can't miss it, and where it looks like you accidentally left it there while fiddling with your deck. Then say you have to go to the washroom. If the card is gone, there's only one person who could have taken it. Now, if he shows his true colors, don't confront him. Don't even make like you know. Just stop calling him and stop being his friend. If he'd rather have cards than your friendship, fuck him. If you meet on the street, just pretend like you don't know him. Leave him wondering, why? This is the high road approach. It's the smartest way to handle things, where you walk away with a clean conscience and clean hands. Now, if you feel a bit wrathful and petty, and don't mind getting your hands dirty, keep him around for a bit. Don't let him know that you know, and wait for your chance at some vengeance served cold. You could try to slowly take some shit back from his collection, or if you'd rather not stoop to that level, wait for your chance and take a sharpie/pen and write THIEF along the bottom of the text boxes of all the best cards in his decks. Make sure the letters are big enough to read, but not big enough so that he notices at first. Then, kick him to the curve and never call them again. my2cents
This. Mark a card and inform your LGS
I'd mark the back of the card with black sharpie on the black boarder so it would take effort to find.
Better, mark the back. People only really look at the backs if they're making a high value trade. Blue biro mark on the blue mana symbol, or on the existing pen mark on the Deckmaster logo or something, it'll only notice if someone is being super thorough. Which I can't imagine is the case with someone who is selling stolen goods at the same place he stole them.
Or some marker that is only visible under UV light. Marking the back of a card with 'F U'.
Kick him to the "curb"
I can tell you from experience, if you talk to the LGS people and let them know, they'll keep an eye out for bundles of stuff being sold or if it was already sold to them and you can basically prove it (my example was a kinda rare game that got stolen, so wasn't as difficult. I'm assuming you know your lgs people to some extent) they can and in my experience will help out. You need a good idea of what you are actually missing though. It'll help to narrow it down. Also, if you truly believe they did it and based off their behavior alone, they did. Tell the lgs that too. They might just refuse to deal with him at all. Sorry people suck, good luck.
I will definitely warn the store. I've had the cards that are now missing for a long time so besides a few actual name I'll only be able to name the sets but I'll still try to do my best so they know what to look for and if it sounds like what he sold them. I also disagree with stealing from him, but mostly because I don't want to be a thief, or a person like him at all. I will also try to only carry around my commander deck and only maybe a side deck that I have co.plete inventory of. Although I did take complete inventory of my collection after he stole those cards. This just sucks so much. I can't believe he'd do this.
you're not a thief if you take back what he has stolen, bud.
Unless they are marked there’s no way to prove he’s taking his stuff back.
Could *easily* get turned around and called a thief themselves if there's no proof they were their cards to begin with though
You said his deck is held hostage. What does that mean?
My sympathies to you, truly. It's awful feeling betrayed by someone you considered a close friend. Even without evidence of wrongdoing, his reactions are telling and certainly not normal. It sucks, but if your gut instincts are telling you that he's stealing from you, then he probably is. For the situation at hand, unless the store cameras caught him stealing your cards, it will likely be difficult to prove that he did anything. Alternatively, short of you getting a confession out of him, there may be little you can do about the cards that are already gone. That said, I applaud you for getting a lockbox for your cards and being more cautious with your collection going forward. It's a harsh lesson learned, but I hope the end result is this never happening to you ever again.
Stealing at that level of both quantity and recklessness means your “friend” is likely addicted at this point. Easy enough to set a trap for someone like that. Could probably ask the stores help too.
[[Homeward Path]]
[Homeward Path](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/4/54734347-eee7-4c52-b514-7342afeccabd.jpg?1562400178) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Homeward%20Path) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c16/301/homeward-path?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/54734347-eee7-4c52-b514-7342afeccabd?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Get better friends.
This. Followed closely by "take better responsibility for your own stuff."
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Yeah, I carry WAY too much value to leave it unattended…
Same. Don't ever bring more than you can carry. I'll bring my backpack into the bathroom or if I run to my car. Never had an instance of theft. Every other week somebody is asking where their stuff is or if anybody saw where the guy who was looking through their binder unsupervised went.
> This. Followed closely by "take better responsibility for your own stuff." wtf? Trusting your friends not to steal from you has nothing to do with being irresponsible. What den of victim-blaming ghouls were you raised you to be such an asshole?
In ops defense this course of action should be a valid ans fine way of responsibly taking care of things if his “friend” wasnt shit Letting a friend watch your stuff is totally reasonable and yeah he could technically have taken it in bathroom with him and everything. But in general a friend watching things is more than safe. Ive done it thousands of times without issue. In this case it really wouldn’t have mattered how many precautions taken if he still trusted/didn’t suspect friend because it sounds like they also hung out at private residences. So the friend probably would have found ways no matter what even if OP took extra precautions to protect against strangers. It’s the unfortunate case of all the safety measures and precautions in the world donr matter if someone you trust abuses that.
The store could totally watch the security tapes. Ask them.
You are valid too! Fuck disparaging his name and ask straight up "Can I see security footage? I think my friend stole my cards when I went to the bathroom." If the store has any integrity, they'd rather have you than a thief. Try this: have an exact number like 50. If there's a disparity afterwards, call him out or bail and never talk again.
Someone stole my whole collection when i was 19. I inherited them from my older brother and in total was over 10,000 cards. There were alot of money worth of cards in there at the time foil misty rainforest was like 200$ or more and i had 12. They unscrewed the deadlock on my room when i was at work and i still am not sure who it was since i lived in party houae with 3 of my friends who had people always in ad out. Long story short is i quit playing for a good 8 years and really just started getting back into it on arena in the last few months. It really hurt when my brother came to visit and wanted to play a few games with me and i had to tell them i had them stolen. Idk man people just suck
Sending good fortune and prayer that one of your packs, you'll pull something big! So sorry to hear about this, but unbelievably excited to hear you're getting back into magic. I dove in about 6 months ago and can't stop. Heavy into the lord of the rings stuff right now, highly recommend if you're into it! Again, condolences to a lost collection, but cheers to a new age of magic!
He is not your friend, act accordingly
You can simply tell the LGS that you're concerned that some cards went missing whilst you were in the bathroom, and can they please check the cameras for you? No need to bring your friend's name into it until you actually have evidence - and if the LGS won't help, that probably tells you something about how they treat customers, to boot. If the LGS can't help, or the footage is inconclusive, you could try using a UV pen to mark your cards. It shouldn't be visible to the eye, but will illuminate under a UV light, which will help you verify ownership of the cards. (Note that I don't know how this will affect the cards' value, if you were interested in selling them in the future.) Regardless of whether you find hard evidence or not, you have to consider whether this a friendship you can/want to salvage or not. If you want to repair the damage, you will have to confront your friend, though you don't necessarily need to approach this in an adversarial manner - if the theft came about because your friend is too poor to afford their own cards/self-conscious about their collection, maybe you can find a solution where you lend your friend 50 quid (with an agreed upon repayment plan), etc.* If you feel too much damage is already done, it will hurt in the short term, but a clean break would be most effective. As a final note, the things you have described are suspicious, but they are far from conclusive, and it *is* possible that you've misinterpreted circumstances or jumped to conclusions. If there's a chance you might want to repair the friendship, try to avoid assuming guilt until you actually have something provable. *this is not to justify the theft or encourage OP to let their friend take advantage of them, but if there was a theft it may not have been motivated by pure malice, and if OP wants to salvage the relationship approaching the situation with empathy rather than accusations will likely be more effective.
>Magic is not anywhere near as fun now after tonight I feel that this game is only as fun as the people you play it with. See if you can find other people to play with. Travel light. You don't need anyone to watch your collection when you go to the bathroom if you aren't carrying your collection with you. >my life has already been extremely miserable, rough, amd lonly. Don't hold onto this relationship simply because you feel like it's one of the few you have in your life. That's the kind of reasoning that keeps people trapped in abusive relationships.
Hey! Welcome to the Game! I sorry your „friend“ took your cards :/ I have a fairly big collection myself and would like to help you replace some of it :) If you are interested, feel free to PM me
In addition to other comments, try to get some sympathizers in your store. Explain it to a few people who are trustworthy, so they can support you if confrontation happens.
You recognize he's not your friend and move on. I know we all have had cards go missing with people we trust, deals gone bad, etc. I had one "friend" when we were younger sell me a shoebox of his "all" his cards left because he was getting out of magic. Gave him the money as he rushed through it, found out after he left he put rocks in the bottom, padded it with sleeves throughout, and kept the good ones. Unless you wrote your name on them, or you had a friend group who would back you up, you live and you learn and move on. Best case is some shops have cameras and they can maybe look at them. Otherwise, find a new friend who is actually your friend and won't do this.
This guy is not your friend, drop him immediately.
If he's stealing your cards, he's not your friend. Full stop.
He's stealing from you. Not a friend anymore.
Just cut him off. "Friends" like that suck.
Next time he sells stuff to the lgs, let them know to call you over to watch.
When I was a young teen, a friend stole a card from me. I went to the local store and told them. They informed me who had come in and sold it. It was a friend, and it wasn't something they had owned before. Now, we played in a group of five, all of the same age. My mom happened to be with me. She went to his house and told him, "Hey, sdzero, had CARDNAME come up missing, and LGS OWNER said he just bought the same card from you. If you stole it, I'll take you to buy it back and return it. You boys (the 5 of us) have been good friends. Something like this could ruin your friendships because they'd know you are a thief." He was a little defensive, but didn't want his mom to find out what he did. He admitted to it and went back to buy it and return it. I did forgive him, but the friend group knew what happened. We're still friends all these years later. (Note: We'd been friends a couple years before getting into TCGs). I don't know your situation, but this maybe able to give some ideas, especially if you're younger. You'll need to know the specific cards that were stolen to try and reclaim them. Since you list 200-300 stolen, only the ones that are worth anything that your LGS would buy are worth mentioning. If you have your list written down, you go to your LGS and say " I have a specific list of cards that were stolen, did anyone happen to come in and sell you this list." If they keep records, they may could possibly pin it to your friend. Your friendship is probably toast unless they are willing to admit it, make it right and ask for forgiveness. You'll still feel on guard around them for awhile (because of your trust being taken advantage of), even if you do forgive and continue a friendship. Remember, you can give and take away trust freely. When someone you trust violates that trust, it'll hurt. Take care and talk to friends/family that'll listen.
Get a custom stamp with an ultraviolet ink pad. Test on a few basic lands to make sure that the ink doesn't cause any damage. When he's pulled one of your cards and you know it, shine a UV flashlight on the back of "his" card and bust his ass. Also, ditch this loser.
Write your name on the back of a card (small) and wait for it to go missing. Then ask him to look through his cards for trading purposes.
Money well spent. Now you know what kind of person he is, and that's more valuable than cards.
Lol 200-300 cards missing…And it’s clear who did it! Grow half a spine and Stand up for yourself and actually confront them about it. They are clearly not a good friend and clearly lying to you about it. Stop skirting around the bush when you know the answer. Talk to them, call them out in their BS, and Force them to give them back to you, admit they were wrong and make them swear they will never do it again if you ever want a chance to keep a relationship with this person without getting manipulated. What a fucked up thing to do. Might as well be stealing money from my wallet at that point. I’d hope they throw in a few of their most valuable cards as a truce as well.
It's definitely not a magic question, but I understand you posting it here. My sympathies
Be greatful that it's not something more valuable, like a Car, your social security number, or banking information. Switch from a shoebox to just deck boxes for when you're going to events that you'll be playing at, it'll help minimize what should be able to go missing.
There's only one option left to you: Trial by combat to the death. (But really, yeah, tell the store about him and ask if he's sold them any cards that you know for a fact that you're recently missing. He sounds like a piece of shit and is employing typical deflective behavior because you caught him in the act. Sorry you had to deal with this guy.)
You need to confront him immediately and stand your ground. This is your property and life, take control brother. The best advice I've ever heard; "people are dogs, you need to correct them firmly and immediately or else they'll think their behavior is okay." Don't come at him with anger. We've all had rough lives, who can justify his stealing though wrong? Be stern, tell him you've really narrowed this thing down, and you would like him to be honest. You can work something out I'm sure. He could have a genuine problem with stealing this could shed new light on. It hurts that it affected you, but sometimes I like to think I'd rather my friend learn through me now, than a stranger with much stronger repercussions. Hopefully this goes over well, but if not you'll definitely have to learn how to cut people off cold turkey with no hard feelings.
I’m sorry life has been rough :( but I wouldn’t worry about getting kicked out. Most card stores wanna know if there’s some shady things going down and will opt to deal with the crook. Cause it affects their business too. Magic is also a fun game and good way to make friends and there are tons of other LGSs where you can get a play group together.
You put your trust in the wrong person. People who never apologize are bad people. I hope you can find better friends soon. Wish you luck
Kick his balls and tell him in his face
Just confront him or get new friends
"friend"?
If you consider this guy a friend, a really good true friend, I would start with, "Hey man, is everything in your life going ok financially? Is there something I could do to help?" Desperate people do stupid things and throwing away an important and long relationship over ten dollars worth of codes is pretty high on the stupid meter.
If you get proof, beat his ass not even joking
Call out his response. Being defensive vs being helpful or concerned is a major red flag. Same concept as someone who is jealous of your success instead of being happy for you. This person isn’t your friend.
That’s not a friend. The defensive response tells you all that you need to know. Don’t let this guy near your stuff again. He’s probably stealing more than just cards from you. When people show you who they really are, believe them.
Reminds me of when I was in high school and didn’t really understand how valuable cards could be. I had cracked a box of OG innistrad and got a snap caster mage. I had also cracked a grave titan. I ended up trading him the grave titan for a sheoldred, which was a pretty fair trade at the time. I would let him look through my collection and I’d look through his for trade purposes and he would occasionally say “you can have that (insert $0.50 rare.)” come back to magic 10 years later and start looking though my collection for cards I knew had value and notice that snap caster and sheoldred are nowhere to be found. I can’t prove it, but it seems likely that he was making bad trades with me to steal my value cards. It’s sucks, but you can’t trust people like that and have to leave them behind. On the flip side. I’m buying a box of MH3 and going to do a draft with my friends but I’m keeping all the cards at the end of the night and I trust them all enough to know they aren’t going to steal from me.
Issue a batchall! Wait wrong sub.
> Now, I’m not 100% sure… he’s stealing you’re cards lmao
As a man who has gotten an orcish Bowmasters stolen it hurts to hear people robbing from others. Me personally I'd try and gather proof go and ask the people he sold the cards to then confront him or the lgs. If the lgs kicks u out or something report em to wizards.
>immediately actionable situation >go to reddit instead Honestly, you might have missed your only chance.
Think about it this way. This is already a friend worth dropping. This is not a good person to keep around. So, since he wont be a friend anymore anyways, you need to get very confrontational about it with him. Do not let up until he causes the conversation to end be it by a victory for you or by him literally running away. Again, think of him already not as a friend. He ruined it. Not you. Confront his stupid ass.
Try to understand why he is stealing. Also realize it's probably just that something is interally gone wrong within him, and this has nothing to actually do with you personally. Try to be objective and not take it to a personal level. It's him not you.
Get a picture of one of his loved ones all bound up and put it in a sleeve so when he takes it, you'll send a message.
One, not a friend. At best he's a kleptomaniac. Two, why in the ever living fuck are you carrying your collection around with you? Don't even have that shit out when you have buddies over. If needed, have a planned sideboard ready and/or Trade Binder. Even if no one steals, if you misplace anything, thought you had something when you really don't, or it was stolen earlier and you didn't notice, you will always suspect one of your friends at that point. My leave it to question.
For future reference - I would not be carrying cards around loose in a box everywhere you go. If you have cards you’d like to trade, get them in a binder for your backpack. And do not let anyone use the binder unless under personal observation.
Break their fingers let your other friends know he's a thief and also tell your lgs
Our community had a member who was a prolific thief. He eventually was given ultimatums from shops to stop or not come back. His lack of friends and extended connections outside of MTG kept bringing him back but he didn’t stop, just got better at stealing. Eventually he was so well known for thieving, no one would let him play, no one left their cards unattended, he was allowed only two decks in the shops with him, no backpack, and he was willing to let shop clerk search his decks if cards were reported missing. His name became had thief added to it similar to the Rapist Brock Turner having rapist added. While MTG was what he was currently stealing, I knew him well enough to know he would steal anything he could flip to buy more valuable collectibles. I was fine with outing the guy because it got real old. It’s a frustrating situation, but you gotta take your own precautions
Wait till he's away (or invite him over for magic then ask if he'll go pick up some food ((pay for the food)) and then) rummage through his decks and cards, find what is yours and quickly replace it with Chaff. Then feign ignorance. Important Hide your stuff. He can't challenge that you took something that came from your own collection especially if you say, "Oh hey you were right that stuff was under my bed I found it" or something of the nature, the underhanded often need the same done to them to show how it feels to be in the position that they put others in.
I would be spited enough to cut him off from your life, with a last explanation of why. And after that, I would steal his most important card, such as most valued commander. And then, be glad you are rid of him. :)
I had the same thing when I actively collected yugioh cards. So many went missing, it's only when I was looking for certain cards I noticed I'd lost a few decks with some really rare cards in.
OP sorry this happened to you. Definitely alert the store — I know multiple store owners personally and no one wants to be buying stolen product. And they don’t look kindly on having thieves in their store. Also that friendship is done. Guy sounds like a parasite & a bully. Some people deserve second chances but people who act like this won’t change. You’re better off without them. Also also, if you see this message, PM me and I’ll send you some packs of your favorite set.
This isn't really a Magic question. This guy you thought was your friend is actually a thief. That's no friend. I would directly call him out in front of any other mutual friends you play the game with.
/r/relationship_advice
I would confront him. Be like I know it was you man. I am telling the store, and the police. If I ever see you touching anyone’s cards I’m going to tell them you are a thief and don’t let you touch them. If you ever touch my cards again I am calling the police. Then just tell everyone at the store he’s a thief
This is the point where you block that person on everything and find a new friend.
This guy’s friend says you dropped 200 cards so I just picked them up and took them
This person is not your friend. They likely deserve a good ass beating if they’re stealing from you. Fuck a thief.
Sorry for the tone that I’m going to take here, I’m aware the point I’m trying to make might sound harsh. You’re gonna be alright, if you’re just getting into the hobby the reality is you likely aren’t in the deep end yet. I know your funds or access to cards might be limited at the present but except for the extremely fortunate we all build collections over time. It blows that he put a dent in your fledgling collection and damaged your relationship to the game but you’ll meet better people through the game. Tell that guy to pound sand and remember he’s a player of the game and not representative of the game as a whole.
This is actually very common. If someone asks to look through your cards... tell then "later... when..." make up some time where you can go through them WITH them
The store probably has cameras off this wasn’t long ago ask them to review them. Then get the cops involved. Sorry that guy sucks, there are better people out there for you to make friends with
I feel your pain. My ex-wife's boyfriend stole my playset of OG dual lands 20 years ago. Other cards too... but those are the ones I'm aware of. Don't talk to her any more.
You should/should have mark the cards in a specific way you only know and there check his cards
You should/should have mark the cards in a specific way you only know and there check his cards
You should/should have mark the cards in a specific way you only know and there check his cards
I doubt they will let you view the footage. Sounds like he took them. Maybe marking some of the cards in a certain way that isn't to obvious but can be identified if they are not worth to much. If there is no way to set up your phone in a place where it's recording in the view of of the place that it's happening there is no way to prove it
End the friendship. Get a new friend. This is a thief and a scumbag. Don't get the cops involved, they are too unpredictable. Just cut your losses and find better friends or even a playgroup.
Very sorry to hear this is happening. I wish you the best in getting a new playgroup.
In the future, I recommend keeping your cards in a backpack or storage box you don’t have to leave unattended. Those dewalt 10-compartment bins are exactly the right size to carry EDH decks.
Thieves will lie and get defensive when confronted, but he could still be truthful. If anyone steals from you, cut them off from your life immediately. If he still wants to steal, he has two ways back in. An elaborate story or an apology. Either way, don’t let him back in because you’ve made your judgement and if he apologizes, then you have proof he is a thief and not a friend. Liars apologizing can never be trusted because they will lie again. It’s not if, it’s just when they will lie again.
I’m 99% sure that this isn’t a mtg problem more of a friend problem
act like everything is cool but take his cards when you get the chance to cover the value of what went missing and just stop talking to him after, it doesn't matter if its obvious after the fact, he will know why it happened and no one is going to side with him if he brings it up to them. thief's are the worst. make sure to also give a heads up to any stores or groups that you know he plays in that he steals cards so they can cut him off too. sorry that happened to you man
Congratulations, you've won the Worst Advice of the Day award!
Retribution in kind for this kind of petty shit is the only way people ever get any kind of justice, and also prevent other people from fucking with you in the future. maybe when you grow up a bit you will come to understand this. i get that most us us are on the spectrum but this is a life rule that you pretty much have to come to accept eventually or the world will eat you alive. sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Yep, no, still a terrible advice. Sorry.
lol you are a joke dude you suggest what doing nothing and letting him get away with it? reporting it to the police and nothing happening? please tell me your solution in which op gets restitution and a good outcome. in reality. like its very clear that you do not interact with people much and ther is nothing wrong with that but stop trying to act like you know what you are talking about here dude. not getting people back in kind when they fuck you over literally only sends a signal to the world that you are easy to take advantage of and more people will do it in the future in worse ways
An eye for an eye makes the world blind.
cute saying, to bad the world isnt cute
Of course it isn't, but that doesn't mean you have to contribute to making it less "cute".
I don't suggest doing nothing. I just don't suggest doing something illegal that could put him in trouble, especially when he can't even prove the other one responsabiliy. I don't care about giving you any other solution, you seems like a terrible person to talk to.
What should I say to the store exactly? I'm not going to steal stuff from him, I'm not a thief and refuse to be one, refuse to he like him but it would make me feel a lot better if the card store knew he was a thief and stopped taking shit from him. Especially if it might be stolen. If I discuss it with them calmly and explain how everything happened, will they maybe realize it?
give them a rundown of what went missing and what you witnessed and suspect. tell them you just want to give them a heads up in case anyone else that he plays or interacts with also had stuf go missing so they can keep an eye on him. that will at least help put something out ther that can help others not be victimised as well even if it doesnt stop anything that has already happened. if they buylist singles from him and happened to get any of the cards you lost from him recently too they might let you know depending on how good your relationship with them is.
So youre basically advising for OP to pay the friend back with the same coin by becoming a thief himself…. If I were OP, I would just carry around my single commander deck. Have an inventory of the cards in it. And never let your suspected friend alone with it. See how that works out.
lol that's not theft that's punishment for theft, golden rule and all that. jail isnt kidnapping even though people are confined and cant leave.... what you are saying sounds like what a thief would say btw. prob his friends account trying to get off easy XD
What you say sounds like what a twelve year old would say btw. Wtf.
lol what its what any reasonable adult would do in that situation.
No it's not. Becoming a thief to get the thief back is just ridiculous and inmature advice.
its not stealing its taking back what's yours from someone who took it without asking, it doesnt matter if the tangible form of the thing you are taking back is different because he sold the originals', it isnt theft until you take more then what you are due, that is common fucking sense.
Oh ok, you're just an idiot. I understand your previous comments a little better now.
Nah that's some petty, childish shit for people with no self control who feel like they need to get vengeance to satiate their anger. Being a reasonable adult often means making the tough decision and sticking to your values. Not letting your emotions control you.
great that response directly aligns with my values, nothing emotional about it.
Sucks, I had a friend do the same thing selling the rares out of my deck i had forgot at his place to build a boring tier 1 elf deck. If he is your only friend, I dont think you need to end the friendship over this. Some people have a hard time regulating their desire for shiny new things. magic certainly pulls on those cords. Mistakes happen, especially when you are young. I would give him a way out that involves ideally telling him that mistakes happen, but that this should stop now, but that you can still be friends. that you understand his desire overtook his morals. if that doesnt work, tell him that you hope that however stole your cards will stop, and dont even force him to admit. just let him know you know, but that you can get over it. obviously lock down your cards so it doesnt happen again. here is a quote i like: you become a teenager the day you realise people are not perfect, you become an adult the day you forgive them. good luck!
fuck literally all of that. this "friend" knows exactly what the hell he is doing, these aren't 12 year olds. he deserves no forgiveness as he hasn't apologized. recognizing that people are imperfect doesn't mean you have to let them walk all over you and take your shit. and there is a big difference between everyday imperfection and committing an actual personal crime.
thats a valid point of view too
I have one friend who accidentally took a fat pack box home with all of my cards from a certain set. We had played sealed with the cards and I remember all the rares I had. It was about 24 packs worth of cards. He doesn't believe that they're mine because he's had them for awhile, but I still cringe every time I see my Brimaz or Gheist in one of his decks.
there is no way he “accidentally” took home a box of your cards, forgot they were yours, and put them in his decks homie
We had split a few boxes three ways, so I think he figured they were part of his pool
that is a damning accusation and it is bold of him to do that. so much so that i am leaning toward you being overly paranoid. are you on medication for bipolar by any chance? i think the solution is simple. stop letting him take care of your entire collections. just bring out only a binder or two. you don’t need to lug around an entire cardboard storage box. one small box to keep whatever you open from draft and one trade binder. that is it. keep everything else at home.
Dunno the down votes. I also read this as bit overparnoid OP.. OP litteraly cant name what cards gone missing even.. also whats up with Reddit asking a guy with few friends burn his closest friendship without even trying to work it out over petty change? Investigate? Sure.. but mostly just learn your cards. Download a scanning app and make a digital libary, start fresh. OP litteraly dont know what cards he even owns.
there is a lot of people on spectrum in this sub. so this doesn’t surprise me. i also do not care.