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Be on the lookout for stolen Trade-N-Games rarities


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Many of us know Jason (Trade-N-Games) around here. He was/is a fixture of video game cons in the Midwest, I'd see him at almost every show year after year, and I even had the pleasure of visiting his store in Missouri a few years back where he gave us "the tour" of his private collection, something I'd see a few big YouTube stars like MetalJesusRocks (also an AtariAge member I should add) do a few years later.

 

Unfortunately it seems that the exposure he gained made him a target, because Jason just posted that his private stash (not his store inventory) got burglarized in what appears to be a targeted attack. They didn't try to clean out the museum, they just went for the safe and the high value items. Therefore if you own a game store in the Midwest or even outlying states and suddenly see a suspicious amount of rare shit walk through your door, like a Little Samson CIB and a 2600 Air Raid CIB at the same time, you might want to call in law enforcement.

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A shame, but kind of walked into that if you start effectively bragging online showing off the primo stuff thinking there aren't a-holes out there who would make the attempt eventually.  Hopefully somehow the stuff is recovered.  It's why I don't go about listing where I live, how to find me, keep social media on lock down, and rarely give a glimpse at the few nicer things I've retained as it's a thieving douche magnet.

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He did take sensible precautions though. He didn't allow people to film or photo the "holy grails" and he didn't want anyone filming the outside of the museum so they'd know the street address. It's sounding like it was probably an "inside job" based on the fact they knew exactly what to grab, even the stuff he WASN'T bragging about. :(

 

UPDATE: Jason has shared a list of what was snatched.

---

This is the list of what was in the safe that was stolen:

Atari 2600 all of these are pictured in my book “Classic 80’s Home Video Games” All these are boxed complete unless noted

Cubicolor #34
Guardian
Asterix
Atari Video Cube
Crazy Climber
Gravitar
Gremlins
Quadrun loose and new flat unopened box very unique
Swordquest Waterworld
BMX Airmaster
Ikari warriors
Motorodeo
Death Trap
Out of control
Spy hunter
Tapper
Up n down
Assault Bomb -
Great escape bomb –
Wall Defender Bomb –
Z-tack bomb
Cakewalk
Stronghold
Boing
Tooth protectors foam box and shipping box
Dice Puzzle
Exocet
Harbor escape
Scuba diver
Seahawk
Space canyon
Stuntman
Tank Brigade
Frogger 2
Mr do castle
Qberts Qubes
Chase Chuck Wagon
Glib
Music Machine
Bumper Bash
Gas Hog
Master BUILDER
Ram it
Stargunner
Marauder
Miner 2049 part 2
River Patrol
Springer
Rescue Terra
Halloween
Texas Chainsaw
Xman
Color bar generator shipping box
Off Your rocker

Atari 5200 all boxed
Gremlins
Big box Bounty bob strikes back
meteorites

Atari 7800
Tank command

Colecovision
Up n down
Tapper

Nintendo all boxed complete
Bubble bobble 2
Bubble bath babes
Hot slots
Peekaboo poker
Secret scout
Athletic world bandi
Caltron
Bible Buffet
Bubble bobble 2
Bonks Adventure Wata 9.4 A
Cheetahmen 2
Chubby cherb
Chiller
Color a dinosaur Wata slab
Contra force
Donkey kong math
Flintstones dinosaur
Little Samson
Monster in my pocket
Panic Restaurant
Power blade 2
Snow brothers
Stadium Events Cart & manual
Turtles Tournament fighter

NES Joystick test cart yellow Wata Slab 6.5
NES Power Pad test cart yellow Wata 6.5

Super Nintendo all boxed
Captain Novlin with slip sleev new
Hagen
Final Fight Guy
Noahs ark

3 Ninjas

Killer Instict Wata 9.6A+

Sega Genesis
Spider man carnage wata 9.4A++
Doom Troppers 9.8 A++

Sega CD
The Space Adventure
Snatcher
Keio Flying Squad

Edited by MegaManFan
a list
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A few of those things would stand out like a sore thumb if they were put up for sale.  I hate to think that the thief either was stealing for money in the safe (in which case they may choose to dump the contents for trash) or they are going into someone’s personal collection. I really hope neither of those happen. 

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This is horrible to hear about. I hope he had full insurance for everything, has alerted all forums and stores, and is in contact with law enforcement. Prints, cell signals, neighborhood security cams, his own cams, the inevitable digital crumbs left behind by the thief, etc- whoever did this can definitely be bought to justice.

 

For those of us that don't already live in a safe area where the neighbors all have cameras and have a dog or two and have some proper security cams of our own (Wyze work well) with night vision, motion sensing, phone alerts, etc, have everything tagged for asset location tracking and photographed for insurance, this theft should serve as wakeup call. Many of us have a few grand in games in hardware (sometimes individual items!) and the smart ones among us know to spend a proper amount on securing it.

 

It also helps to have a few very unique or one of a kind items, as was mentioned above, and to have fellow collectors know about them. As noted, a lot of what is listed simply cannot be easily fenced online, and even offline would eventually raise eyebrows if anyone ever even spoke of it. Some of the Nintendo stuff could plausibly be found in the wild, but nobody is just going to happen to have a boxed Halloween or an Air Raid. I hope everything gets returned safely and whoever did this truly regrets it.

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As I understand it everything was insured, and the incident has been signal boosted, police are aware, etc. but this was just so specifically targeting his game safe (which the thieves knew specifically about) and nothing else that I feel like this was an active hit, where someone paid to have these things stolen so that they could have them personally. I'd be surprised if any of them turn up without another collector getting arrested for it.

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On 8/18/2019 at 10:03 AM, Blazing Lazers said:

 

It also helps to have a few very unique or one of a kind items, as was mentioned above, and to have fellow collectors know about them. As noted, a lot of what is listed simply cannot be easily fenced online, and even offline would eventually raise eyebrows if anyone ever even spoke of it. Some of the Nintendo stuff could plausibly be found in the wild, but nobody is just going to happen to have a boxed Halloween or an Air Raid. I hope everything gets returned safely and whoever did this truly regrets it.

But he didn't have an Air Raid in there did he? Or a BOXED Halloween? I didn't see those in reading the list but maybe I missed them? I was actually reading that list thinking...man a lot of this is just rare enough to be very valuable but not SO rare that there are only X known copies and they're all *generally* accounted for, NWC style of Air Raid style. I thought anyway. I'm not great on 2600 values.

 

EDIT : Ah ha reading the thread more and the article that is out there, not just the list I saw a million places, they were ALL BOXED???? (play sound in your head of B-O-I-N-G!!!!! as my eyes pop out of my head!!!)

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2 hours ago, GoldenWheels said:

EDIT : Ah ha reading the thread more and the article that is out there, not just the list I saw a million places, they were ALL BOXED???? (play sound in your head of B-O-I-N-G!!!!! as my eyes pop out of my head!!!) 

Yeah, and the ones that really made my jaw drop were the stuff like Air Raid and Tooth Protectors. I think that anybody who tries to sell those is immediately going to raise red flags because you don't see those for sale in retro stores or conventions. It's like the difference between Earthbound and everything else. People think Earthbound is rare, but you can go to any con anywhere in the country and multiple dealers have it. Air Raid? Tooth Protectors? CIB? They do NOT.

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I've ordered several times from TnG, and Jason is one of the great old school collectors.  I saw this on FB last week and was totally shocked.  Definitely an inside job.  What a travesty.  What's absurd is that 95% of what they stole cannot just be pawned off, or sold on the black market.  It's an extremely small community that would be interested.  Frankly, if another true collector buys this stuff, they ought to rot in hell.

Edited by Greg2600
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8 hours ago, ubersaurus said:

As I understand it everything was insured, and the incident has been signal boosted, police are aware, etc. but this was just so specifically targeting his game safe (which the thieves knew specifically about) and nothing else that I feel like this was an active hit, where someone paid to have these things stolen so that they could have them personally. I'd be surprised if any of them turn up without another collector getting arrested for it.

I don't know Jason but he seems like a great guy and I really appreciate when people share pictures or let others see their collections. I'd hate to think that another collector would have been involved. I'm hoping it was someone who simply went for the safe and got a big surprise when it turned out to be games instead of cash or jewels. Hopefully everything will be returned.

 

I'm glad it was insured but I'm wondering what type of proof is needed to determine the value of what he lost. Insurance companies may have trouble appreciating the value of an ultra-rare cart.

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On 8/16/2019 at 9:00 PM, Tanooki said:

A shame, but kind of walked into that if you start effectively bragging online showing off the primo stuff thinking there aren't a-holes out there who would make the attempt eventually.  Hopefully somehow the stuff is recovered.  It's why I don't go about listing where I live, how to find me, keep social media on lock down, and rarely give a glimpse at the few nicer things I've retained as it's a thieving douche magnet.

Yup. And you shouldn't post videos or pics of the inside of your house either because that helps potential assailants and thieves to formulate a plan of attack. Pics from smartphones contain location metadata down to the nearest few meters. And I don't post those unless I scrub them which takes time.

 

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Exactly, and I guess I'm fairly paranoid, but as far as my limited social media use, the account publicly unless I'm part of a group can not be found it doesn't exist (don't trust corporate asshat HR depts, etc) and even then no pictures to find of there with faces on them, not of me or the kid, creeps me out what weirdos could do.  And when I said bragging I wasn't just like saying it was done as such, but when you're a known and people have a general idea what there may be, then more of it is shown, as images can be tracked, you're effectively if not by intend bragging and making yourself a target, especially if said pictures paint an even prettier picture of what could get snatched over what was known/assumed.

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It's not really paranoia. It's common sense. Posting pics of your possessions on social media is the modern-day equivalent of running down the street yelling I got all this stuff! Come see it! Come take it when I'm not around!

 

A rhetorical question or food for thought: Is it really important to you that people you don't know, know about what you have? If yes, that's a little bragging. Vain. Hollow. And just a bit risky.

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10 hours ago, ubersaurus said:

As I understand it everything was insured, and the incident has been signal boosted, police are aware, etc. but this was just so specifically targeting his game safe (which the thieves knew specifically about) and nothing else that I feel like this was an active hit, where someone paid to have these things stolen so that they could have them personally. I'd be surprised if any of them turn up without another collector getting arrested for it.

 

And how did they know the safe wasn't bolted to the floor? 500LBS gone within the 5 mins response time of the police is just too fishy. I don't think anyone has mentioned if there is camera footage yet? With any bushiness like that I think it would be common practice to have multiple cameras would it not? If it comes back that the cameras where off? That wouldn't be good. I really hope this all gets sorted out and Jason gets his stuff back without any funny business.

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31 minutes ago, Keatah said:

It's not really paranoia. It's common sense. Posting pics of your possessions on social media is the modern-day equivalent of running down the street yelling I got all this stuff! Come see it! Come take it when I'm not around!

 

A rhetorical question or food for thought: Is it really important to you that people you don't know, know about what you have? If yes, that's a little bragging. Vain. Hollow. And just a bit risky.

 

I look at that as mix between bragging and store promotion and when someone calls you on the former you can say it's all for the later. I myself would never "run down the street" like you put it for the exact reasons you also mentioned. 

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14 minutes ago, Shawn said:

 

And how did they know the safe wasn't bolted to the floor? 500LBS gone within the 5 mins response time of the police is just too fishy. I don't think anyone has mentioned if there is camera footage yet? With any bushiness like that I think it would be common practice to have multiple cameras would it not? If it comes back that the cameras where off? That wouldn't be good. I really hope this all gets sorted out and Jason gets his stuff back without any funny business.

He did mention online that the police do have some evidence that he’s not allowed to discuss, so fingers crossed it goes somewhere. Moving a 500 pound safe certainly suggests to me more than one person, unless they brought a dolly or something.

 

and the hell of it is... his stuff would end up being evidence for who knows how long if they are caught!

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Jason has done video tours of his store and personal collection in the past, which including some pretty high priced stuff in the back.  I'm actually stunned he had even pricier stuff, given what I remember seeing.  I could have sworn he showed off stuff in a safe, but maybe this was an additional one?  In any event, that was several years ago.  I'm quite baffled how they got in, and removed a safe like that, before the alarms got the police there.

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He first showed off the safe at 8:22 of this video back in 2010...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAfmTVJCpRY

Although I believe the store has moved since then?  You can see what appears to be the same safe in these vids...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX7XK7Wn-Pw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuWnd3ejv3w


I will say that I've never known Jason to be the "bragging" type and I don't see any of these vids as such, as someone posted earlier.  Although in hindsight, it definitely wasn't a good idea to publicly show where the games were stored.

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