Logan Paul and the $3.5 M Pokeman Case - 9/15/24 Update
ndleo
Posts: 4,138 ✭✭✭✭✭
ndleo
Posts: 4,138 ✭✭✭✭✭
ndleo
Posts: 4,138 ✭✭✭✭✭
Comments
Case is bbce wrapped now
Yes, I believe that is what is referred to in the article.
Yes I left that part out to avoid to avoid a posted quick reaction without someone reading the whole story. Many questions may come from this story. Should lead to some fun times.
Pretty shady provenance on that case.
This is Logan Paul not Jake. I consider this karma for his Vlog filming the suicide forest in Japan and laughing over viewing a suicide victim. Every collecting decision he makes is for social media clout.
Corrected. I only know Jake from his fraud fights. I was shocked to see that either of them had $3.5 M laying around to spend on Pokémon
Lot's of people look down on Youtubers and/or podcasters, but the really successful ones make some serious cash!!
Jake wouldn't care the case is real or fake, he just want more clicks and subscribers, he can easily make that $3.5M money back in a month.
UPDATE - I was watching SCR and it looks like this entire story was a pump and dump. Logan Paul didn't pay $3.5M for the case. It was part of a fractional investment scam. It looks like Steve was the patsy for authentication.
About 53 minutes in.
Agreed, however based on the results, Steve clearly lacked expertise in authenticating a Pokeman case in the first place. His error is indisputable, the lesson, perhaps, is akin to "don't believe your own press".
It's the singer not the song - Peter Townshend (1972)
53 minutes into a SCR video? You watched 53 minutes? How?
I skip around. I don't watch it live. I saw the Logan case on the vid and stopped to watch.
There are long sections when they have callers that I usually skip.
That makes sense. I try but my limit is usually like 5-10 mins before I get bored. I don’t know if they are very trustworthy but I would appreciate your take on it? I know the original story so I guess what I’m curious about is what ever happened with BBCE and whoever bought it? Did BBCE refund them?
I think Steve was paid like $5K to authenticate the case. I don't know if he refunded his fee since it looks like a lot of the people involved were in on the scam. The main point is that the case never really sold for $3.5M. The scam was going to be played on the fractional ownership buyers. The scam almost made sense since with a large ownership pool, it would be unlikely the case would ever be opened.
Ironically CT scanning would have prevented this.
The whole Liquid Marketplace thing was a disaster from the beginning. Creating BS tokens as part of fractional ownership screams scam. Hope the case in Canada ends with serious punishments. If you want to learn about how awful Logan Paul and his bevy of schemes are I recommend checking out Coffeezilla (who is being sued by Logan Paul) on YouTube. If interested on the Liquid Marketplace stuff Rattle Pokémon (who is being sued by Sean Bassik) on YouTube covered it extremely well. Reporting the truth is getting expensive as the scammers are now suing to scare people.
To the post above if anyone should invest in a CT Scanner it is BBCE or PSA if they chose to take authentication in house. Not having the leading authenticator in unopened use the best tech (assuming they don’t) is nonsensical.
Not sure I understand the scam here. The case was authenticated, then opened, and found to be fraudulent? Why was it ripped?
Also, I’ve been saying for a long time that these high end boxes/cases are a scammers dream due to the unlikelihood of them being ripped. Perfect storm for a repacker.
Pretty easy to understand imo. Create a fake case, create a fake sale of said case to establish a value... then lock it in a vault, to never be opened, and sell fractional shares of said case and price shares according to the fake value.
Not sure where the confusion is? Why was it ripped? Because as in most instances of fraud in our hobby, TRUE collectors did research and started to call BS on this case. Steve was a pawn used to help advance the scam... they knew Steve would never open the case, so they take a shot knowing worse case scenario, it just wouldn't get wrapped.
Sean Bassik is a name I haven't heard is quite awhile!
So Logan Paul purchased the Pokemon case for $3.5MM. Whoever else was involved in the purchase or what their intent was shouldn't matter.
The person it was purchased from goes by the name "Shine".
Shine purchased it from a guy - Card Kahuna - a.k.a Jacob and Meelypops for $2.7MM.
Meelypops had it "authenticated" by BBCE (Steve).
Logan Paul was not going to open the case until some internet sleuth RattlePokemon saw enough red flags to warrant an investigation. After this news came out, Logan Paul decided to open the case, with Steve and Shine present.
At this point they realized they had GI Joe packs. Shortly after BBCE issued a statement about how they would no longer authenticate Pokemon and would review their process for authenticating cases.
Shine quickly refunded Logan Paul the $3.5MM
Shortly after that meelyPops agreed (after Shine filed a lawsuit) to put the $2.7MM in escrow while they worked to recover the money from Card Kahuna. So that sounds like consignment.
Past that I can't make sense of it. The original seller may have originated in Canada. Card Kahuna wanted to have BBCE authenticate it and this was after there were already authenticity concerns.
Since then BBCE has basically added to their Terms and Conditions language that says.
"We don't know what we're doing!"
Here's the actual language.
Authentication involves individual judgments that are subjective and require the exercise of professional opinion. Therefore, BBCE makes no warranty or representation, and shall have no liability whatsoever to Customer, for the determination made for any submitted item should that determination later be found to be incorrect. BBCE’s opinion should be one of many considerations when evaluating the authenticity of an item, and Customer understands and agrees that Customer will not rely entirely on BBCE’s opinion in Customer’s transactions involving unopened boxes authenticated by BBCE. Moreover, after the submission and authentication of an item by BBCE, new information may arise or become available that was unavailable, or unknown to BBCE, at the time a determination of authenticity was assigned by BBCE to any item. An item determined by BBCE to be authentic might later be determined by BBCE to be inauthentic, and vice versa. BBCE shall have no liability to customer, and BBCE shall be under no obligation to change a determination of authenticity assigned to an item (unless such an item is re-submitted for authentication) to the extent new information arises or becomes available after a determination of authenticity is assigned by BBCE to any item.
SCR might be correct that there's two scams, but I don't see anything Logan Paul did as wrong.
The person who used magical unicorn tape to seal the case and fool authentication expert Steve Hart is almost as scammy as BBCE was. At least now they admit that we shouldn't trust their seal/brand.
I guess it was easy to understand after all.
The one good thing that came out of this (imho) is that Steve will no longer simply authenticate sealed cases without opening the case to verify the contents before resealing the case with each box wrapped as FASC within the then wrapped case itself.
Brad (baz518) is spot on.
Logan Paul involved in fraudulent dealings? Color me shocked.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
I don't see anything wrong with the above disclaimer. We live in a litigious society. Most professions commonly have to use disclaimers in their engagements to help mitigate risk. There are plenty of unscrupulous people out there looking for a free lunch.
I don't disagree with this. I'm just sour with regard to Steve. Protecting themselves is one thing, but I don't see their service touting it as their "opinion" either.
UNOPENED
AUTHENTICATION
OPINION