Magic: The Gathering heist leaves Guelph, Ont. business out more than $200K in cards, scotch and electronics

The Round Table Board Game Café in Guelph, Ont. is out more than $200,000 in product after a break-in over the weekend.

Thieves targeted valuable collector’s items in the store, including a $3,000 bottle of scotch whiskey, some electronics and a collection of Magic: The Gathering cards.

Thomas Gofton, the owner of The Round Table Board Game Café, told CTV News he and his team have been collecting the cards for six years.

“[It’s] a very popular game,” said Gofton. “Huge stock market like prices, It’s got an ebb and flow to it and high collectability.”

Gofton said his personal collection worth an estimated $15,000 was also taken.

“Fatigue on the heart in the fact that it took me years to build this,” said Gofton. “This was built from a community of people. From our Kitchener location and our Guelph location. This is a collection of people that has spent their lives and their time here building this collection with us.”

Gofton said his “prized bottle of scotch” was also taken.

“It’s about $3,000 dollars,” he said. “It’s two of 248, handwritten and in a wooden case.”

Police said video surveillance showed two males forcing their way into the business at approximately 3:45 a.m. Saturday.

“It’s unusual, we don’t normally see dollar values in that range,” said Scott Tracey, Guelph Police Service spokesperson. “Given the nature of the items, it may not be a physically large amount of property that would equate to that. But certainly, the dollar value is certainly more than we see usually.”

Gofton says he is hopeful the trading cards will be returned.

In the meantime, he said he plans to throw a big party this weekend to help offset the losses.

“[We will] try and get a bit of a recovery from the community that has already expressed an incredible amount of ‘What can we buy, what can we do, can we give you stuff?’ And I’m like ‘no don’t give us money, just come out and experience the place, give us a big party’ and I think we’ll survive,” he said.

As for his personal collection of Magic: The Gathering cards, Gofton said he doesn’t plan on rebuilding that anytime soon.