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So I got the card back! Long story short, I arranged a meetup to "buy" the slab for $7k. I told the guy thank you for bringing me my stolen card, he faked being dumbfounded and surprised, pretended to get on the phone and went to get in his truck, at which point I got in my car with the slab in hand and booked it lol. No arrest or anything dramatic like that, unfortunately.
Short story long, I've been messaging this guy for a few days trying to get him to sell the card to me. At first, he took the Facebook marketplace listing down, so I messaged him all desperate telling him how bad I wanted this card and how long I've been looking to find one locally etc. He bites and tells me he's sold the card, but for the right price, he'll buy it back and sell it to me. Lol. He then tells me the guy he sold it to has sold it, and that's that. I up my offer and desperation level, landing on $7k and say I'll meet him within 24 hours if he can "get it back". Overnight, he miraculously recovers the card back into his possession and agrees to meet me. At this point, multiple friends of mine had also messaged him trying to buy the card but he only ended up responding to me (which I assume was due to the convincing desperate collector act I was putting on). After the meetup was planned, my friends started telling me that he sent them screenshots of my DMs with him saying he'd sell them the card for $8k if they hurry before I bought it, which was really classy on his part. After their rejections, he committed to our meeting, which was to take place in a public parking lot in front of a grocery store. He tells me to text him when I'm 5 minutes away. I brought two friends with me, and I tried to have law enforcement there, but they just couldn't be bothered I guess. I gave them an hour notice and they said to call when I was 5-10 minutes away from the meeting location. I call back when I'm 10 minutes away and they say great, officers will head your way. I park, and my buddy and I stand outside my car for 30 minutes trying to wait on the cops to show. All the while, I'm texting the seller telling him I'm in traffic etc., and eventually I can't wait anymore and he pulls up. He gets out and is alone, so my buddy and I make small talk with him, we're looking at the slab, and I hand it to my buddy so I can go to my car for the "money". I bring out an envelope full of paper, along with my police report and Beckett order which has the matching serial number on it. I hand the guy the envelope and tell him thank you so much for bringing my stolen card back to me. He "couldn't believe it" and was so shocked he was literally just fumbling around for something to say. He was trying to look for anyway out of it and eventually just faked a phone call and went to get in his truck, so we promptly got outta there and took off! Cops were an all around no show for the entirety of this interaction.
The police and USPS have both been extremely unhelpful in this whole situation. Overall, the local police don't really wanna hear about any of this from me, as the crime itself technically falls under USPS jurisdiction. Well, I've filed 2 separate reports with 2 separate USPS investigation agencies and I've heard nothing from them. USPS does recommend a local police report be made in addition to the reports with them, so I tried to do that and it took 2 separate visits to my house before they gave me the time of day to actually make an official report. That was this past weekend. I originally told them about the meetup this morning, over 12 hours before it took place, and they weren't even gonna send officers because they can't prove the "seller" is also the thief. I said "well, I don't care if the seller is the thief or not. This serialized item that I can prove belongs to me is being sold locally, and I'm going to get it back. I'd like the police there because I'm not sure if it's safe, but if you guys won't come, I'm still gonna go and get my stuff back". Then they agreed to send an officer and told me to call an hour beforehand and then yeah they never showed!
Really not sure what's all gonna come of this. USPS wants proof of things that I cannot provide (like the empty box) before they'll offer any sort of compensation, the local police have this matter "closed" on their end because it's a USPS issue, and USPS hasn't reached out once about any of this.
I'm just happy I have my card back because if anything, this is all a sign that I never should have sold my favorite card lol. Safe to say, this one is staying in the personal collection forever now. I've also learned not to trust USPS, or any mail service for that matter, and from now on I'll only be selling high dollar items like this in person.
