Close to its one-year mark since opening in Santa Maria, Central Coast Collectibles suffered back-to-back burglaries in July that cost the store a pretty penny.
The break-ins happened within just a few weeks of each other, said owner and founder Tyler Santos, whose shop at 1930 S. Broadway specializes in trading cards and tabletop games.
The most recent incident involved a burglar ramming through the shop’s barred front window with a forklift, while the other left Santos to deal with a busted back door.
He said that it’s hard for some to believe that the costs tied to repairing the shop pale in comparison to the cumulative value of the trading cards stolen.
“The most expensive card alone was $5,000,” said Santos, who described the rare find as a limited-edition Pokémon card featuring Umbreon, a four-legged critter known for its poisonous sweat and ability to glow at night.
Game on
Central Coast Collectibles’ two locations are at 1930 S. Broadway in Santa Maria and 105 W. Ocean Ave. in Lompoc. For more information, visit centralcoastcollectibles.com or follow Central Coast Collectibles on Facebook.
A total of 42 Pokémon cards worth about $90,000 combined were taken in July during the first break-in, according to Santos.
“When people hear we got broken into and they hear how much the value was, a lot of people instantly jump to, ‘Oh, it’s insurance fraud. There’s no way this stuff’s worth that much,’” Santos said. “But in reality, there’s cards out there that go for thousands of dollars.”
What makes trading cards like the Umbreon so valuable, Santos explained, correlates with the chances of stumbling upon the card in a regular pack of Pokémon cards—typically $4 to $4.50 per pack at Target, GameStop, and other big retailers.
“You’d have to open thousands of these packs to statistically hit one,” Santos said. “That’s where that value comes from, because the pull rate to get that card is so difficult. Obviously if you pull it, it’s going to have a high premium because there’s people out there who have spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars themselves [on regular packs] and never got it.”
A trading card collector since childhood, the 32-year-old Santa Ynez Valley resident remembers becoming a Pokémon diehard at the peak of the franchise’s popularity during the late ’90s.
The Pokémon craze prompted his elementary school to ban kids from bringing Pokémon cards on campus.
Santos said he’s still in touch with one of his teachers who expresses regret over that time period, not realizing how valuable some of those confiscated cards would be in the future.
“She still always jokes about how she used to take away my Pokémon cards and throw them away,” Santos said with a laugh. “She’s like, ‘You know, I never would have known that this stuff was worth this much, … I feel so bad.’”
As he got older, Santos’ card collecting hobby branched out to Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic: The Gathering, continued through adulthood, and set the stage for his career path.
He opened his first Central Coast Collectibles location in Lompoc in 2022, and its success prompted him to open its sister store in Santa Maria in 2025. As for future locations, Santos said he’s confident about expanding to add stores in both the cities of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara someday.
Along with its trading card and tabletop game selections, Central Coast Collectibles offers table space for games or to simply sit around and hang out.
“We have seats here for about 60 people and open tables,” Santos said about his Santa Maria location. “A lot of people usually come through with their friends. … We have people who come in to just to sit and get work done, while being surrounded by stuff they like.”
Some of the Santa Maria shop’s frequent visitors are residents of a local nursing home, he added.
“They’ll bring puzzles and just sit down for a couple hours,” Santos said. “It’s a community space for people to hang out. We don’t charge for table space. … You’re welcome to come in here at any time and play anything.”
Highlight
• Vandenberg Space Force Base will host a groundbreaking ceremony on Aug. 17, starting at 1 p.m., to celebrate the construction of the new Air Education and Training Command Sentinel Formal Training Unit. Once completed, this 160,000-square-foot facility will consolidate skills training for missile operators and technical training for missile maintainers into a single, integrated campus, according to the base.
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in August 13 – August 20, 2026.
