Logan Paul's $3.5 million box may be fake

Earlier this month, YouTuber Logan Paul announced that he purchased a first edition Base Set box set for $3.5 million. The news spread like wildfire on social media and was touted as the most expensive purchase in Pokémon TCG history. After all, it's incredibly rare for someone to discover six booster boxes from the original Pokémon game.

The Pokemon TCG community has come together to work together to find out if the boxes were fake or not. In this post we've compiled a lot of evidence and shown it to you.

Purchase history

He case of Base Set It first appeared on Canada's eBay website on March 29, 2021. Fans could place bids for 10 days. Seller "number1pokemonmaster" had almost no reviews and their listing was riddled with major grammatical errors. The seller also changed his username just before the auction started, as if to hide his history.

Many collectors in our community immediately assumed the auction was a scam. The seller advertised the box as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," so he clearly understood its value. However, someone who understands the value of this item would not sell it on eBay either and would send it to the winner for $30 via Canada Post. Typically, they will contact a reputable auction house or seller (or be recommended to do so). Aside from that, they will allow a buyer to fly out and inspect the item before taking it home.

The history or "story" of expensive items is also essential to their sale. Buyers should know how items changed hands to verify their authenticity and origin. But the seller told three different origin stories. He originally said he bought it in Canada from an elderly woman during an estate sale. Then, via DM, she told a potential buyer it was a gift for her 12th birthday. A third story emerged later, but we'll get to that in a moment.

The auction ended on April 9 with 86 bids; the highest bid was just $72,500. This indicated that more serious Pokémon collectors were not interested in the item. If they thought it was real, they would have bid beyond that amount. After all, the individual boxes of the Base Set from the 1st edition cost more than $430,000 each. A sealed case has six of them, presumably in near-mint condition, so the case would be worth a minimum of $2.6 million. The lukewarm response is enough to tell you that people thought something was wrong.

The seller accepted the highest offer, which was made by @psapikachu for $72,500. Both he and the seller agreed to cancel the eBay auction and continue their deal off-eBay for more than the winning bid. However, @psapikachu was rescued when the seller wouldn't let him fly away to inspect the box. Hiding the box from inspection was another red flag.

The seller then offered the box to @cardkahuna , who purchased it for an undisclosed price. The box was sent to the United States without insurance because as the saying goes, those who are afraid of dying should not be born.

@cardkahuna then made a video in the that he and his friends received the box. According to them, an authentication company called Baseball Card Exchange was present to authenticate the box. While his company has a significant presence and experience in the world of sports collectibles, its reputation is non-existent in the Pokémon community when it comes to authenticating anything other than individual booster packs. However, they said the box was real and then wrapped it in their company's shrink wrap.

But the company did not publicly display its authentication process. When a hot ticket item has so much controversy, companies usually go into detail about their process showing their evidence (for example, CGC publishes all kinds of forensic analysis for controversial items . Before the box reached this stage, some collectors predicted it would be authenticated by a relatively inexperienced company to give it legitimacy.

A third origin story was revealed during the video. The seller told the buyer that he bought a house in Canada and found the box in the attic. It's a running joke in collecting circles that there's always some sort of scam going on if a valuable item is found in a storage locker, abandoned warehouse, or through a former Wizard of the Coast employee. It's the JCC version of "my uncle works at Nintendo." Regardless, this was now the seller's third conflicting story.

From here, @cardkahuna sold the box for $2.7 million to sports card enthusiast @ shyne150 . He then sold it to Logan Paul for $3.5 million, as you can see in Paul's announcement video. Each time the box was turned over for a higher price.

Please note that in the video they mention that this is the only one case of Base Set that exists. This is not true, Gary Haase (The one with the charizards) has one. Some have also come up for auction over the years. It doesn't look like the sports collectors in the video knew what they were talking about.

I should note that some of this "timeline" was compiled from different sources and there may be missing information or insights. As usual, I will update this post if necessary.

Red flags in the box itself

Wizards of the Coast printed Pokémon products with a label containing the product code and corresponding barcode. All known boxes of Base Set that have been sold over the years have been seen with the product code “WOC06033”, whether they are 1st edition or not.

Paul's case has a label with the code "WOC06033" 1E ", which should mean "1st Edition".

However, there are no known examples of a case of base set of 1st edition that have "1E" in their product code. As far as we know, Wizards of the Coast started using "1E" on their first edition cases, starting with Jungle and Fossil .

If someone was trying to create a fake label, you might not know about it. After all, if you try to search for cases from any other 1st Edition set, you'll see the "1E" in the product code. Cases are extremely rare, so this information is not easy to find. Or it could have been the fraudster's attempt to emphasize that the case is a first edition in order to command a higher price.

Well, couldn't there be a later print run of Base Set that we don't know where Wizards of the Coast started using "1E"? These products were printed 23 years ago, so our information may be incorrect or incomplete.

The following evidence is the most damning. A product's barcode is generated from the product code. Scans a barcode and then translates the bars into alphanumeric code. For example, this is the barcode for the box Fossil of the first edition above, which I was able to easily replicate with a code-to-barcode tool:

But the barcode on Paul's box matches perfectly to a box with the product code "WOC06033". Since the product code on your box is "WOC06033 1E ", the barcode on your box should be different. It is not, which almost certainly proves that the label is fake or modified. There is no reasonable explanation why the barcode on your box does not match the printed product code.

Wizards of the Coast used thermal printing for their labels, like the receipts you get at big box stores. The text on these fades over time and eventually turns white. When you see TCG labels from the 90s, the text has usually faded to a light brown. However, the label of Paul's case has not faded at all. This is especially amazing if the box is located in an attic. The font is also different.

The tape in the Logan Paul case is different from the tape used in all WOTC cases. The font and spacing do not match. The text in Paul's box does not have a period at the end of the sentence and "Seal" is not capitalized as in the authentic boxes. It appears the tape was added after the fact in an attempt to make the case look legitimate.

Questions about authentication companies

The above inaccuracies are what serious collectors pay authentication companies to investigate and research. It's literally his only job. Because official companies rarely authenticate their own products, it is up to authentication companies to create a "standard" that serious collectors will adhere to. After all, if serious collectors see so many red flags, they won't invest their money in what they and other collectors would consider a fake product. They would lose their street cred, yo.

The company that authenticated Paul's box, Baseball Card Exchange, has a big sports presence, but isn't known for Pokémon authentication. In an email to correspondents in June 2020, the company's owner and authenticator, Steve Hart, admitted that he didn't know much about Pokémon. He also couldn't name the Base set when referring to a first edition booster box that had been circulating online.

“People have asked me to […] give my opinion on that $50,000 box of Pokémon with clear packaging (I don’t know much about Pokémon, but there is an early box for that price, right?). And all you have to do is a simple shrink wrap. I told them there was no way I could put my opinion/word behind that."

It is common knowledge that the boxes of the Base set of the 1st edition They have clear transparent wrapping (later boxes had the Wizards of the Coast logo on the shrink wrap). The fact that you don't know this as an authenticator is concerning. Basic Google search would reveal this. Most collectors know this.

He further went on to say in the email that he would not authenticate the booster box because anyone could have wrapped it. But if I couldn't authenticate a booster box from the Base set , I couldn't even name the set a year ago, and I didn't know that these boxes have clear wrapping, why would I now be qualified to authenticate a sealed box of Base set? that no one has physically opened?

In a recent announcement on its website, it stated:

Factory sealed cases can be processed quickly as they All I need to do is check that they are still originally sealed . Then they can go straight to packaging/shipping. However, if the case is not yet factory sealed, please wait to send it in. In this case, it is necessary to check each package in each box.

For serious collectors, this is a cautious statement. It implies that your authentication process is nothing more than checking if a box is closed, which completely negates the point of authentication. For something as rare and valuable as a case of Base Set , an authenticator must use reference photos, review labels, contact experts, and interview previous owners.

We don't know for sure what Baseball Card Exchange did to authenticate the Logan Paul box, so we can't say for certain that they didn't do their due diligence. However, his previous statements are incredibly worrying.

Conclusion

"WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!"

Well, we don't know. They can be paper boxes that weigh the same as a legitimate case. They could be reinforcement boxes of the Base set with some legitimate packages on top and some resealed ones underneath, which is not uncommon. It could be a legitimate case of boxes of base set unlimited , but with a modified label to make it look like they are the first edition.

The only way to know is to allow trusted authenticators or collectors to get to the box. For example, Gary Haase (Pokémon King) allowed to open the flap of his box Base Set of the first edition so that authenticators could reach inside. But it seems Logan Paul's intention is to keep the box sealed for now.

Unfortunately, the Pokémon TCG is still in a hype phase right now. Reports of counterfeit products and resealed items have never been higher. Scams are rampant. Some companies are trying to get in on the hype to make a quick buck. Some people's morals and logic have also gone out the window.

If Logan Paul's boxes turn out to be fake or misrepresented, reversing the transactions will be a huge mess for everyone involved. At the very least, no real collector considers this product to be legitimate at this time due to its dubious history and the inconsistencies we have pointed out. We can't really blame Logan Paul here because he was relying on other people who should have been doing their jobs and raising red flags. However, this is probably the second time you have purchased a product of Base Set fake . "You fooled me once..."

If we receive additional information on this story, corrections or further clarifications, we will be sure to update this post.

Source and information: Pokebeach