A big livestream event was meant to capitalize on a recent Youtube trend, but ended up exposing an entire box of fake Pokemon cards. The channel Dumb Money worked out a deal to scoop up a box of First Edition Pokemon cards - ones from the very first set. They meant to film the $375,000 exchange, verify the cards by opening on stream, and auction them off for charity. Instead, they found a bunch of fakes.
Pokemon card openings are the new hip thing (or maybe the return of an old hip thing?). It could be the pandemic halting new content and making livestreaming one of the few safe forms of entertainment. Or it could be that millennials are more nostalgic than ever during what many consider an genuinely awful year. Whatever the reason, old Pokemon cards are making the record sales people thought Beanie Babies would. Even famous rappers are getting in on building a First Edition collection.
These constant financial gains made Dumb Money want to invest in Pokemon cards. They made a deal with "blockchain entrepreneur" Jake Greenbaum, who calls himself Logan Paul's "personal Pokemon consultant." The deal, as reported by The Guardian, was for Dumb Money to purchase a First Edition box for $375,000. They would buy the box in person for an actual briefcase full of cash after opening it to verify its legitimacy, all live on YouTube. It was during this stream that the box's true nature was revealed.
It didn't take long for the crew to realize that the booster packs within the box were either off-color or opened. It seemed that someone took the valuable cards out, replaced them with commons, and tried to reseal it to pass it off as a pristine First Edition package.
The Dumb Money guys hadn't handed the money over yet, so they weren't totally scammed. As for Greenbaum, his words to The Guardian show that he's most worried about his reputation. “The amount of clout and respect I’m going to take a hit for selling a box that turns out to be fake, it’s going to be massive,” he said. He also promised that he would find an actual First Edition box for Dumb Money soon.
The plan, once they actually get a true First Edition box, is to open them on stream to verify their legitimacy. Then they plan to store the cards away for a year. Once the world is back to normal and people can gather, Dumb Money wants to hold a huge live auction and donate the proceeds to charity. Until then, you can watch TheGamer TheGamer open up some real cards here.
Source: The Guardian