Collecting Pokemon cards may seem like a pointless hobby to some. But those people clearly have no clue about the money behind these collectibles. Some of these cards have been known to change hands for millions of dollars. One of those recent multi-million-dollar Pokemon deals involved none other than Logan Paul, and it has many within the card collecting community raising a red flag.
On December 20, 2021, Paul announced that he had made a massive purchase! Specifically, he bought a rare, sealed, authenticated case of Pokemon 1st Edition Base Set boxes.
He bought the card off popular card enthusiast @shyne150, who purchased it for $2.7-million off of @cardkahuna, who bought it earlier in the year off of what some are describing as a sketchy eBay seller.
And upon further review, there is reason to believe that the case is a fake…Several reasons, actually.
Some of them include the following (via Pokebeach):
- The case was first put up for auction on Canada’s eBay site by user “number1pokemonmaster”, who had very little feedback and his listing was filled with grammar errors. The seller also changed their name right before the auction went live. These are all red flags for most collectors in the community.
- The original seller has given three different stories regarding the manner in which they obtained the box: 1) from an old woman in Canada during an estate sale, 2) for his 12th birthday, and 3) it was discovered in the attic of a house he bought in Canada.
- After the box originally sold for $72,500 to @psapikachu on eBay, the deal fell through when the seller wouldn’t allow the buyer to fly in and inspect the case first hand.
- The case was authenticated by Baseball Card Exchange, who’s owner/authenticator admittedly knows little about Pokemon cards/boxes.
- There are numerous differences on the case to your typical authentic Pokemon 1st Edition Base Set case, like the barcode, the product ID number, the seal tape, and the lack of fading on the barcode label.
The people at Rattle Pokemon on YouTube put together a video about all of the red flags that have everyone in the community thinking this box is a clear-cut fake.
Some within the community are calling on Logan Paul to get the box authenticated by a legitimate authenticator. They even believe he should allow them to open a flap of his case to ensure that there are in fact some real 1st Edition Pokemon boxes in there.
Opening a sealed case may seem like a stupid way to authenticate it, but it may be Paul’s best bet to confirm the legitimacy of his case — which he’ll need to do if he wants hobbyists to take it seriously following the revelation of all these red flags. Opening a sealed case to authenticate it is not something new with these Pokemon cases, either. Gary Hasse, aka King Pokemon, who happened to own one of the few sealed cases in existence, allowed a flap of his case to be opened in order to authenticate it.
It’ll be interesting to see if Logan Paul follows suit, now that word of his fake case is spreading like wildfire.
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