YouTube personality Logan Paul bought several first edition Pokémon cards for $3.5 million, but experts don’t believe these cards are authentic.
On Dec. 20, 2021, Paul stated that he was the proud owner of several ludicrously rare booster boxes containing first edition Pokémon trading cards. Given that the Pokémon Trading Card Game came out back in the late 1990s, it was a bit hard to believe that Paul’s set was genuine.
Now Pokémon trading card site PokéBeach, with help from YouTuber Rattle, is directly calling the card’s authenticity into question — with mountains of evidence to back up its claims.
the only known one in the world pic.twitter.com/UZEAavgD8e
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) December 20, 2021
The first sighting of these alleged booster boxes was on eBay Canada on Mar. 29, 2021. The seller had virtually no feedback, which made the overwhelming majority of hardcore collectors wary of shelling out money for the cards. Initially, the set sold for $$72,500 to — substantially lower than the $430,000 these booster packs typically go for. However, the initial buyer canceled the transaction after the seller refused any inspection of the boxes beforehand. Kind of a giant red flag, eh?
Another buyer eventually bought the cards, claiming that the Baseball Card Exchange (BBCE) company verified that the cards were authentic. However, PokéBeach and other enthusiasts claim that BBCE has minimal experience identifying Pokémon cards. The company didn’t even clarify what its verification process entails!
Eventually, the buyer sold the cards to a sports card enthusiast for $2.7 million, who sold them to Paul for $3.5 million, which is (obviously) a pretty significant amount of cash to drop on items shrouded in secrecy and weird history.
update on this: I’m flying to Chicago this weekend to verify the case with BBCE, the company who insured its authenticity
to be continued… https://t.co/grLMa92JCM
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 5, 2022
Since PokéBeach’s story went live on Dec. 31, 2021, Paul said Tuesday that he’s flying to Chicago to double-check with BBCE to see if the cards are real. Again, drawing skepticism from the Pokémon trading card community, as it would make far more sense to have a company better suited to verifying Pokémon cards.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.
