Logan Paul’s $3.5 Million ‘Base Set’ Case May Be Fake: Pokemon Community Uncovers Significant Evidence

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Water Pokémon Master

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Earlier this month YouTuber Logan Paul announced he purchased a case of 1st edition Base Set booster boxes for $3.5 million. The news spread across gaming outlets and social media like wildfire and was touted as the most expensive purchase in the history of the Pokemon TCG. After all, it’s incredibly rare for someone to uncover six booster boxes of the original Pokemon set.

just dropped $3,500,000 on this sealed & authenticated box of 1st Edition Pokémon cards ? pic.twitter.com/rMY2bVnKV2
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) December 20, 2021

However, I did not report the announcement on PokeBeach because we had doubts about the product’s legitimacy. Now investigations by members of the Pokemon community have uncovered significant evidence that may show the product isn’t authentic.
YouTuber Rattle...
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Continue reading...
 
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Closing out the year on a high note. ?

Edit: I don’t believe in gatekeeping a hobby or franchise, but given how the previous year and a half have went for the card market due to this kind of exposure and ridiculous clout that comes with it, getting duped to this degree could ward off another frenzy and bad attention.
 
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Ooh, wow, those are some interesting goings-on in the world of ongoing goings! Sounds like LP was pretty careless with big purchases: he probably just got a recommendation for the best card-judging services or something. Stupid authentication companies... Sounds like they decided to just take the offer for the money.
I'm kind of surprised that someone with such a dubious profile on eBay would think to put this much into the barcode, and then to make that mistake.
 
Fantastic video Rattle and great writeup here as well.

My only remark would be in response to this statement:
The company that authenticated Paul’s box, Baseball Card Exchange, is not known for Pokemon authentication but has a large sports presence.
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I don't think it can be said that they're not known for Pokémon authentication. Whilst this statement may be true for unopened cases, Baseball Card Exchange has been grading booster packs for PSA since 2006. They are exclusively the company PSA use for this purpose.

At the beginning of 2021 PSA had just under 8,000 booster packs graded on their population report (see PokéMetrics: Foil Pack and PokéMetrics: Cello Pack) - so they had plenty of Pokémon experience at the time this case was deemed authentic.
 
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Honestly, screw him. He is very much a significant part of the reason there's so many scalpers/flippers here making product scarce and absurdly expensive on not just older stuff but even stuff JUST released cuz all these sort do is show off $$$.

I have no kind words for people like him.
 
It's an interesting case, and truthfully it's a credit to the community that people are able to call out this kind of nonsense almost immediately. Credit to Rattle for picking up on this.

LP has been the forefront of the Pokemon hype this passed 18 months, and I think it's also spurred on by people finding old cards during Lockdown and trying to make a few quid/bucks.

Any luck this goes a long way to quelling the craze, but I fear it will just teach scammers and scalpers how to do it themselves.
 
t’s a running joke in collecting circles that there’s always some kind of scam going on if a valuable item is found in a storage locker, abandoned warehouse, or through an ex-Wizard of the Coast employee.

So apparently you are not a big fan of Leonhart? Cause all but the warehouse thing, thats indeed how he got some cards.
 
Snowy Lilacs said:
t’s a running joke in collecting circles that there’s always some kind of scam going on if a valuable item is found in a storage locker, abandoned warehouse, or through an ex-Wizard of the Coast employee.

So apparently you are not a big fan of Leonhart? Cause all but the warehouse thing, thats indeed how he got some cards.
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not sure who that is but anyone claiming they got high-value cards in situations like this should be handled with a healthy dose of skepticism
 
This article makes me wonder if the potential for fake products to exist might keep the market down a bit more than it has been. However, this certainly bodes well for the new year!
 
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