'This was 1000x the value of what Derek stole from me': Guy gets epic payback on middle school ex-friend who owed him $40 by selling his Pokemon games

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Oct 18, 2023 4:00 PM EDT

All good things come to those who wait, even if what you're waiting for is epic payback on your middle school ex-friend. This kid ("Derek") spammed this Redditor's flip phone back when he had a limited data plan and was unable to block numbers. It was Derek's vengeance after an argument, knowing it would cost OP money. OP initially wanted Derek to pay him back for those $40, which at the time felt like a ton of money to him. His parents told OP to let it go.

Unfortunately, the art of letting go is not easy. Many years later, OP found himself visiting a garage sale in his hometown and realized he was at Derek's house. OP ended up convincing Derek's Mom (who did not recognize OP) to give OP all of Derek's precious Pokemon memorabilia, which apparently still meant a lot to him. OP not only took those materials, but he also resold them for about $40,000. Turns out your Pokemon cards and games might be worth something really valuable, folks!

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions in the comments. For more content like this, check out this post about a video store clerk's encounter with an impatient customer.

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  • 01
    Toy - Punch thrower ed to this Pokémon 16 TRAINER Pokédex Lure Switch of m his or her he of your opponenty can't retreat turkemon. The ched Pokens 430 g your oppe Active Discarda & Energy attached to thes Pokémon Fire Blast ment's next with mon 120
    via Thimo Pedersen
  • 02
    Font - Deliberately deplete my prepaid phone balance? You will pay for it one thousand times over. I went to middle school in the early 2010s, right before smartphones really took off. I got my first phone right before starting sixth grade, it was a slide phone with a pay as you go plan that cost $0.10 per minute for calls and per text message sent or received. Worse yet, sending or receiving photos cost $0.25 each. It was very expensive, and my parents only gave me $100 a year for this, if I ex
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 03
    Font - Everything was good until Derek joined the group in seventh grade. At first we thought he was funny, but we quickly got fed up with him as he was very unpleasant and exhibited many antisocial behaviors. He started drama within the friend group and also caused issues between us and other kids outside of the group. He was manipulative and always played the victim when others rightfully called him out on his , and he knew how to charm parents, so getting rid of him was easier said than done.
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 04
    Font - He very frequently texted me dumb memes, even though I told him multiple times to just email or skype them to me instead since picture text messages cost $0.25 each. Unfortunately, blocking phone numbers was a feature that was unavailable for this pay as you go plan, so there was nothing I could do as he spammed my phone. One day he got mad at me for some reason and spammed my phone with memes. He must've sent me over 100 lolcats over text, he kept sending them until I lost service since
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 05
    Font - I was extremely and demanded that he pay me the $40 he had cost me, and he refused and said it wasn't his problem. I got home from school really upset and told my dad about the situation, expecting him to go and tear Derek's mother a new one and demand the money, but my dad said that it wasn't worth the battle. I
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 06
    Font - even asked him about a small claims court but he said that not all battles are worth fighting, and that the effort wasn't worth $40. He took me to the carrier's store and loaded $50 onto the phone. The carrier changed my phone number, and they managed to block Derek's number. They had initially said that blocking phone numbers wasn't possible with this plan, but my dad insisted and would not leave the store until they did it. I was extremely paranoid about my phone number being leaked and
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 07
    Font - Nonetheless, I was at the $40 he essentially stole from me out of malice. Fortunately, not too long after, there was a big blowout between Derek and the rest of the friend group at the end of the school year and we permanently kicked him out of the group. He was an outcast the following year in 8th grade, nobody was tolerating his Oanymore, and he changed schools the year after and we never heard from him again.
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 08
    Font - Fast forward to a few years ago, I was back home for a few months between graduating college and starting a new job on the other side of the country. I went out to some garage sales one Saturday morning and I ended up at Derek's house. I recognized his mother, but I don't think she recognized me, I guess glasses and a beard is all you need.
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 09
    Font - I noticed some Pokemon napkins out for sale, and when I picked them up to look at them, Derek's mom said that her son had been obsessed with Pokemon for his whole life and that she was tired of Pokemon stuff occupying her home for so many years. I said that these napkins were for my younger cousin who is really into Pokemon,
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 10
    Font - and asked if she had any more Pokemon stuff. She said she didn't know people were still into that and that there were a few boxes in the attic with her son's old stuff. She actually took me inside the house (which I never imagined I'd set foot inside ever again), and let me climb up the attic ladder and take down several large boxes to look through.
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 11
    Font - The first one had Christmas ornaments in it and other junk, but I freaked out inside when she opened a box jam packed with Pokemon video games in the original boxes, though I kept my cool on the outside.
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 12
    Font - The whole reason I had agreed to go inside in the first place was because I was holding out hope of this exact scenario happening. See, I knew Derek was obsessed with Pokemon. Our friend group liked Pokemon back in the day even when other kids thought it wasn't cool, but Derek was on a whole different level. He bragged about his Pokemon collection all the time,
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 13
    Font - at the time he had every single main series game in the original box, and in "mint condition" as he always had to add in. I went to his house once and he was showing me his collection, he yelled at me for touching one of the games, nobody was allowed to touch them except him. He had many older Nintendo games in excellent condition but Pokemon was his favorite. He had had a couple of incidents with his mom damaging or throwing away his things, it wasn't out of malice but just ignorance, as
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 14
    Font - We opened all of the boxes she had me bring down. Within the boxes there was the beloved collection of Pokemon games, all very well preserved, as well as several Nintendo consoles, hundreds of games, two dozen binders full of Pokemon cards, and there was also a box of many Lego sets with the original boxes and everything, with many old Star Wars sets. When I saw Jango Fett I knew I struck gold.
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 15
    Font - I told her that I liked old Legos as well, and asked her how much for the five boxes of games, cards, and lego sets, and she thought for a second and said $100 a box, or $400 for all five. I told her I would take it all and hauled to get to an ATM. I loaded the five boxes into my dad's truck and immediately drove home. I knew there was potentially tens of thousands of dollars of goods here, this was the score of a lifetime and I finally felt vindicated for the $40 Derek had taken from me
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 16
    Font - I ended up giving all the stuff to my uncle, who's a hobbyist ebay reseller. He offered to sell it all, he was willing to go through the effort and sell everything individually, and despite my insistence he said he wouldn't take more than a 10% cut of the profits after all fees and taxes. We went through and logged every single item along with the estimated value, and the total of the whole lot was about $40,000.
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 17
    Font - 40,000 was a poetic number since this was 1000x the value of what Derek stole from me all those years ago. My uncle sold most of the lot before the end of the summer and ended up writing me a check, though it was considerably less than $40,000, it was still a lifechanging amount of money for me, I was able to pay off my remaining student loans and put the rest towards a down payment on a new car.
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 18
    Font - Technical_Lawbster. 1 day ago Marvelous! I just wanted to know Derek's reaction... 615 Reply Share
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 19
    Font - Opinionsare 1 day ago Petty revenge that yield a pro revenge payout.. I wonder if Derek actually bought any of the items?? 490 Reply Share
    via u/MintCondition77
  • 20
    Rectangle - the_queer_oracle. 1 day ago Now i feel bad for the mom. I can only imagine what happened after Derek finds out. I hope she's okay.
    via u/MintCondition77

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