Magic: The Gathering heist leaves Guelph business without more than $200K in cards, Scotch and electronics

The Round Table board game cafe in Guelph is on the market for more than $200,000 after being broken into over the weekend.

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

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

“[It’s] a very popular game,” Gofton said. “A huge stock market like prices, there are ebbs and flows and high collections.”

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

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

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

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

Police said surveillance video showed two men forcing their way into the business around 3:45 a.m. Saturday.

“It’s unusual, we don’t usually see dollar values ​​in this range,” said Scott Tracy, a spokesman for the Guelph Police Department. “Given the nature of the items, it may not be a physically large amount of property to equate to this. But certainly the dollar value is certainly more than we usually see.

Gofton says he hopes the exchange cards will be returned.

Meanwhile, he said he plans to throw a big party this weekend to make up for the losses.

“[We will] try to get some payback 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 was like “no, don’t give us money, just go out and experience the place, throw 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 it anytime soon.