After a million dollar scam, Ebay wants to ensure that buyers of expensive Pokémon cards are no longer fooled

On By Garmin Philip

In recent months there has been a lot of hype about expensive and rare Pokémon cards. Recently, however, a million scam made headlines, in which the prominent YouTuber fell for an Ebay scam. Now the company is taking action itself.

What exactly happened there? YouTuber Logan Paul purchased a box in December 2021, which he believed to be the “only sealed box full of first edition Pokémon cards.”

  • This box is “authenticated”, i.e. guaranteed to be genuine.
  • But he didn’t unpack it, otherwise it would lose value.
  • The box was sealed in 1998 and certified as “authentic”.
  • The fun cost him 3.5 million dollars or 3 million euros.
  • He had already bought a box for 2 million US dollars in February 2021.

However, the latest purchase turned out to be a scam. After there were already doubts about the authenticity of the cards, the YouTuber finally opened the box. In it, instead of the hoped-for first-generation Pokémon cards, he only found trading cards from GI Joe.

The case made waves and drew a lot of attention. Now the platform on which Logan Paul bought this box has reacted with Ebay and wants to take action.

Why the hype? Rare first-generation Pokémon cards are particularly valuable and coveted by collectors. As a result, there has been increasing hype about sealed booster boxes and rare specimens in recent years.

Well-known streamers jumped on the hype train and spent increasing amounts of money on card packs in the hope of snagging particularly rare cards live. In the meantime, streamers like Logan Paul are even investing millions in such boxes because they hope for an increase in value.

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Ebay introduces valuable goods verification program

This is how Ebay wants to prevent such million scams in the future: In the future there will be a special verification program that will check the authenticity of valuable goods. This should ensure that counterfeit goods do not even reach the buyer.

  • From a value of 750 US dollars, the goods should fall into the program and be checked for authenticity.
  • If the purchase is properly completed, the product will first be sent to a verification team.
  • If the goods have been classified as “genuine”, they will be sent on to the buyer.

Ebay states: “Your card is verified and authenticated through a multi-stage verification process and receives a counterfeit-proof sticker and a QR code that confirms the authentication.” (via invenvglobal.com)

Is there a program like this in Germany? Only the minimum price in US dollars is currently known. A price in euros has not yet been listed anywhere. Also on the German Ebay website there is still no reference to such a program in this country.

So it looks like the verification program will only start in the US. However, it is conceivable that sooner or later it will also be implemented in this country.

Dawn Block, VP Collectibles, Electronics and Home at eBay said:

Our trading card business has grown over the past six years, and the recent increase speaks to the immense cultural importance of this category […] . As hobbies turn into investments, authentication services in high value categories have become a priority for collectors. […]

With the introduction of the Trading Card Authenticity Guarantee, we are giving enthusiasts exactly what they want while increasing confidence in the market.

via prnewswire.com

Which goods are eligible? On the official ebay site In addition to categories for trading cards, the program also includes areas for sneakers, watches and handbags.

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However, this would also be very useful for electronic goods such as game consoles. Especially in the hype surrounding the latest generation of consoles, some people have fallen for scammers who are also asking absurd prices for their PS5 and Xbox consoles.

It remains to be seen whether this will be implemented in the future.

First of all, we have to wait and see whether the program actually works in practice and can reduce scams.

NFTs are also on everyone’s lips right now. However, among many critics, NFTs are mainly scams and rip-offs. An example of such an NFT scam is the case of the Twitch founder, who opened an NFT page and then ripped off €132,000 from the scammers.

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