28 -year-old Alex Michael McClellan of Bayard is now facing 15 years in prison and a $23,000 fine.
His crime?
Stealing a stack of paper cards with some printing on them—the kind of material you would typically toss into the recycling bin without a second thought. Except that these were rare Pokémon cards valued at over $11,000.
How did intrinsically worthless cards get to be so valuable? How did they become worth more than a young man’s freedom? That is the mystery of wealth.
Today, a one-pound box of table salt costs less than two dollars. But hundreds of years ago, in African cities like Timbuktu, salt was exchanged ounce-for-ounce with gold. In Ancient Rome, soldiers were sometimes paid in salt—that’s where we get the word “salary.” Roman trade routes like the Via Salaria were built expressly for the transportation of salt.
But, unlike Pokémon cards, a silly kid’s game, salt is vital for human survival. It’s just that modern mining and transportation have made salt cheaper to buy.
Everybody knows the story of how in 1626, the Dutch West India Company “bought” the island of Manhattan from the Canarsie tribe for $24 worth of beads (actually, more like $1,000 in today’s money). Now the value of Manhattan real estate is incalculable.
About the same time, in the early 1600’s, the Dutch became obsessed with tulips. Rare and beautiful tulips became so popular that tulip “futures” were actually traded on the stock exchange. Some special bulbs cost more than a house. Then in 1637, people must have suddenly realized tulips were only flowers and the tulip market crashed, leaving thousands bankrupt (the Canarsie had their revenge).
So how is value determined? A thing may have inherent value—like salt. Or it has market value—whatever people are willing to pay. Or it may be good for something—like iron. Or it has speculative value—like real estate at the edge of a growing suburb.
Right now, a Taylor Swift concert ticket could cost anywhere from $95 to $6,500. What do you think a Taylor Swift ticket will cost in 20 years? Twenty years ago, a set of the Encyclopedia Britanica cost thousands of dollars. Today, you might find them in thrift stores for ten bucks or less. Back then, burglars would break into homes to steal wide-screen TV’s.
Now you can’t give away a used TV. If you bought $1,000 worth of Microsoft stock in 1986, by 2025, it would be worth $6.4 million.
Today, wealth is assigned to what is essentially a mathematical formula. Cryptocurrency is a fantasy based on an algorithm and supported by nothing. It is a way to protect wealth in countries with unstable currency and it may be the future of money.
Not everybody is on board with crypto. J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon says, “Bitcoin is worse than tulip bulbs.” Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway says, “It’s a mirage. It’s probably rat poison squared.”
If he is convicted of theft, by the time Alex McClellan gets out of prison, the Pokémon cards he stole, risking his freedom and his future probably won’t be worth the paper they’re printed on.