$3.5 Million In Pokemon Cards Confirmed As Fakes
It looks like a supposed treasure trove of Pokemon cards, totaling $3.5 million, was confirmed as being completely and totally fake.
This article is more than 2 years old
Logan Paul, an internet personality and avid Pokemon fan, made the news last month after spending eye-watering $3.5 million on a box of allegedly sealed and authenticated first-edition Pokemon cards. Yesterday, however, the American YouTuber released a video stating that the box that supposedly contains multiple first-edition Pokemon cards is actually fake, meaning that Logan was scammed out of $3.5 million.
According to ComicBook, Paul bought the supposedly sealed and authenticated box containing first-edition Pokemon cards in late 2021. However, shortly after his announcement regarding the purchase, prominent members of the Pokemon memorabilia community pointed out several irregularities regarding the case and its labeling. The increased number of concerns pointed out by other Pokemon collectors prompted Paul to head to Chicago and have the cards checked by the sports card authenticator, only to find out that the box was filled with G.I. Joe cards packed in legitimate Pokemon booster card cases. Paul admits to losing $3.5 million on fake cards in the video but provides no further explanation whether he’s going to seek restitution from either the authentication company. Paul’s video, which you can check out below, explains the entire thing.
The box that supposedly contained several first-edition Pokemon cards was previously authenticated by a legitimate sports card grading company, so Logan might have some legal grounds to pursue restitution. In addition to the grading company’s (honest?) mistake, the original owner of the box provided several conflicting stories on how the box came into his possession, which raised suspicions in previous buyers, and the original asking price of mere $75,000. But what makes the entire thing more interesting is that Paul actually took the box to the company that originally authenticated its contents.
In his video, the representative of Baseball Card Exchange explained why they authenticate unopened boxes, pointing out that the packages are sealed and have appeared in mint condition, unopened, and untampered with. However, Paul instructed the BCE representative to open the boxes, and after the initial unsealing, it became obvious that the contents of the box and the packages contained within were wrong. We already know that Paul lost $3.5 million, but just how huge of a blow this is to the BCE’s reputation and how much money other buyers of BCE-authenticated goods have lost remains to be seen. Given the massive popularity of vintage Pokemon cards, we probably won’t have to wait long to find out.
Sadly, this is just another incident in the ongoing Pokemon card craze — a trend that Logan Paul had a prominent role in — that continues to sweep around the globe. As a result, there are plenty of scammers looking to take advantage of naïve buyers, people causing chaos trying to get their hands on the cards, and Walmart pulling the cards from sales — all caused by the skyrocketing prices of Pokemon cards. Considering that more than $6 million was spent on the purchase of this single box, it’s safe to say that we haven’t heard the last of this story. It just goes to show that the card memorabilia market and authentication companies are largely unregulated and that the market prices are clearly manipulated.
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