Playback/Logan Paul/YouTube
Imagine spending $3.5 million on rare Pokémon cards only to find out they’re fake? That’s what happened with Logan Paul – American YouTuber – actor and boxer.
In December, he said he had purchased the first edition Pokémon Trading Card Box. On Twitter, Paul posted that he “bought a sealed, certified box of First Edition Pokémon cards.”
Just $3,500,000 Dropped on This Sealed and Certified Box of First Edition Pokémon Cards pic.twitter.com/rMY2bVnKV2
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) December 20, 2021
The possibility that Paul had fallen into a “trap” was first picked up by Channel One. YouTube Rattle Pokemon, Content producers create a complete dossier analyzing the trajectory of the items purchased and how much they may be worth (since they are theoretically very rare items).
On 5 January, he announced on his Twitter account that he was “going to Chicago to verify the matter with the BBCE (Baseball Card Exchange), a company that guarantees the authenticity of the case”. “Continue,” he wrote.
It didn’t take long for the theory to be confirmed: the youtuber actually fell in for a scam. Paul posted a video on his channel with the headline “I Lost $3.5 Million on Fake Pokémon Cards,” which reveals itself.
In the video, Paul shows the whole process: from purchasing the card to opening the packaging in the presence of a BBCE representative (specialist in baseball card exchange, sports cards), who attested to the alleged authenticity. However, when he opened the box, Paul found GI Joe cards instead of Pokémon. Watch the video (in English).
It remains to be seen whether Paul will receive any sort of refund from the Baseball Card Exchange, which confirmed the box’s authenticity, or from the person who sold the product to him.
Some say the whole story was a marketing ploy by Paul to attract attention to his channel – if that’s the case, it seems to have worked: the video in which the scam is exposed has already been made. Has been viewed over 2.6 million times.
