Millions of Dollars of Prototype Pokemon Cards May Be Forgeries, Retired Creatures Employee Involved

Akabane messed up real bad, and CGC was grossly incompetent if not malicious in the handling of these cards. The amount of money people spent on these considering the limited (not nonexistent) information regarding their production is also obviously kind of wild.

And yeah, as with any other rare selection of trading cards, more than a few whales were in it purely for the money. Shocker

But the way people are so quick to dismiss anyone who bought these as people looking for a quick buck with no knowledge of the hobby is just silly. A lot of people bought these specifically because they love the hobby a lot and wanted to own a piece of its history. They bought these because they knew Akabane was one of the creators of the TCG, gave his word, and had his own '96 copies to show from his time at Creatures. There are many, many fans on Elite Fourum who know more about the TCG than anyone in this comment section. A good number of them made a poorly thought-out financial decision, and if you want to fault them for that, that's completely fair. If you don't feel particularly sympathetic because they're not a common collector... I'd say that's sour grapes and a bit arbitrary.

Props to PFM for doing the work that CGC completely and utterly neglected.


Screenshot 2025-01-27 202337.png

comment from E4 that I thought presented a level-headed view
 
Last edited:
ShinxieDim said:
View attachment 20414
Click to expand...

The fact that the guy who broke the story is in the hole for hundreds of thousands of USD makes me laugh slightly less at this. He obviously had loads of frivolous spending power, and chose to spend it on this, which, ehhhh I wouldn't. But he is clearly also a passionate collector, who did the right thing.

I'm firmly in the "make fun of investors" camp but I agree that this whole thing ought to be addressed in legal proceedings to the fullest possible extent. TPCi ought to weigh in as well. Completely insane development, hope we hear more.
 
Why is seemingly no one talking about the fact that Takumi Akabane was explicitly involved with this scam? Sure, there's lots of blame to be thrown everywhere, but considering he was mentioned in the 2nd sentence of this article, I'm surprised to see so few people directing ire towards his way, when he deserves just as much blame as CGC, if not more so, since he started this whole thing to begin with.
 
tol89 said:
Whats dumb about it? Hold your horses here a moment - they were authentized cards. Just because you can’t afford them, doesn’t make the people who do dumb.
Click to expand...
If your retirement is tied up on cardboard, you're basically already fucked. Get a real retirement plan, stop gambling.

EmmaTheBest said:
Why is seemingly no one talking about the fact that Takumi Akabane was explicitly involved with this scam? Sure, there's lots of blame to be thrown everywhere, but considering he was mentioned in the 2nd sentence of this article, I'm surprised to see so few people directing ire towards his way, when he deserves just as much blame as CGC, if not more so, since he started this whole thing to begin with.
Click to expand...

is he? It's really hard to tell how much of a hand he had in this based on the report.
 
EmmaTheBest said:
Why is seemingly no one talking about the fact that Takumi Akabane was explicitly involved with this scam? Sure, there's lots of blame to be thrown everywhere, but considering he was mentioned in the 2nd sentence of this article, I'm surprised to see so few people directing ire towards his way, when he deserves just as much blame as CGC, if not more so, since he started this whole thing to begin with.
Click to expand...
Many will dismiss this as copium, but I've seen quite a few people suggesting that Akabane was taken advantage of. More specifically, he sold full sets to bad actors, who then copied them and made the counterfeits. CGC got the thumbs up from Akabane to slab these prototypes, and when a small handful came back around to be signed by Akabane he could not tell that the majority (or all of them) were fakes. This doesn't make perfect sense to me but then again neither does this whole situation.

In the unlikely event that Akabane wasn't cognizant of the scam, he still horribly, horribly fucked up, but it's a real possibility. So some people are waiting for more concrete information on how this all went down before dragging his name through the mud.

Compared to CGC, where their one (1) singular job was to ensure that these were the real deal, which they objectively failed to do in spectacular fashion.
 
Last edited:
CaptTrippz89 said:
Unbelievable some of the things that take place in the Pokemon community. It's unfortunate for the ones who paid good money with the understanding that they were getting a piece of history and ended up with something fake instead. Hopefully they get to the bottom of it all.
Click to expand...
Who cares about them? They claim it was a piece of history, no its just a glorified trophy, they just say that so someone can feel sorry for them.
 
Japanese Alpha cards: go to a printer, make it look super super legit, get a PSA10 despite being 30 years old and in a binder somewhere probably getting slightly worn and bent and discolored.

WoTC Jamboree cards: sharpie on a blank yellow card, Dr. Lava is like "Neat, can I have it?"
 
GCG at it again. The've had previous incidents with for example grading "miscuts" made with scissors. I can't believe how anyone trusts their service anymore.
 
We really need more transparency in these "authentications", and the authenticating companies really need to ensure they have the expertise necessary to actually authenticate something.

I would love to one day have enough money to buy something of this caliber and historical/sentimental significance, but how could I ever really trust anyone's word? Anyone with a financial interest at least. But to be fair, I don't even understand how people are willing to buy this stuff remotely (assuming they are); I would need to inspect it myself in person first.
 
Dozens of flawless test alpha Pokemon cards popping up for sale nearly 30 years after the franchise’s inception is a red flag among red flags.

Someone tried this with 8 flawless copies of 1952 Mickey mantel rookie card by submitting it to PSA, they found out real quick they were all fake.

This had to have been an inside job, I refuse to believe CGC didn’t bother to check the 20 or so test cards that surface in the last year.
 
@Water Pokémon Master
Just a thought, I almost missed there were updates. Is it possible to change the title to “title **updated*”* or something like that?
(Def would be interested in something like this if we see the same sort of story update on the 2024 prints of the trophy cards)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top