Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady has been building a business empire since retiring from the NFL. His latest venture, a trading card retail chain called CardVault by Tom Brady, just ran into a serious problem at its newest location.

Brady’s new trading card store in Palo Alto had barely been open for a week when someone broke in and walked away with a five-figure haul, according to ABC 7 News Bay Area. Palo Alto police said one or more suspects smashed a window to get inside the 855 El Camino Real in Town and Country Village store, and then smashed several display cases. They made off with roughly 60 trading cards in total, valued at over $12,000.

The Palo Alto Police Department is continuing to investigate the burglary, and the suspects had not been identified publicly as of the latest reports. Police had not released additional information about the suspects while the investigation remained ongoing.

The company had announced the August 15 opening earlier this month. The opening had been a major success for the brand: collectors started arriving hours before the doors opened, with some waiting in line hoping Brady would make an appearance. He eventually did, spending a lot of time interacting with fans.

CardVault’s Palo Alto location was the company’s 19th retail store, and its third in California.

The retailer focuses on sports cards, trading cards and authenticated memorabilia, with its signature vault displaying items such as signed helmets, jerseys, bats and balls. The Palo Alto store was also planned as a place for trade nights, special appearances and product releases, giving it a role beyond simply selling cards.

“We wanted something part clubhouse, part gallery, part theater, a place where collectibles, culture and community could find each other,” CardVault co-founder Scott Heigelmann said.

The trading card business has grown sharply in recent years, with rare cards featuring some of the biggest names in sports reaching million-dollar prices at auction. That rise has also made the cards more tempting for thieves. In June this year, a store selling Pokémon trading cards was burglarized in a string of such attempts. The robbers stole cards worth $15,000, per ABC.

Before this incident, burglars also made off with $40,000-$50,000 worth of cards and memorabilia in New Jersey.

Tom Brady founded CardVault in 2024. He owns half the company, but has been a lifelong card collector. Brady told Front Office Sports he started with collecting baseball cards, and used to frequent a hobby shop in San Mateo. Since retiring, Brady has been a constant at The National Sports Collectors Convention and card auctions. He collects cards to this day: there’s a one-of-one autographed rookie card of Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza.

Chris Costa, one of CardVault’s co-founders, said it was the most expensive card sold by the company. The previous owner was offered a big sum in cash, along with a signed jersey from Tom Brady, to close the deal.

Costa told Front Office Sports that the company plans to have 100 stores someday, and wants to have 40 stores by 2028. This robbery is going to sting the company a little.

“People save up a lot of money to come in here like I did when I was a kid,” Brady told FOS. “And this is the one thing they really look forward to. I always talk to the team before I go in and say, ‘Guys, it’s not about us, it’s about the people that are coming in here. How do we serve them and make their experience great?’”

The focus now shifts to the investigation and recovering what was taken. The store had gone from a packed grand opening with Brady meeting collectors to dealing with a break-in just days later. For a business that had only just started serving the local collecting community, it is an unfortunate way to begin its new chapter.