When EVIL Pokémon Card Scammers Get CAUGHT IN 4K!

Collecting Pokemon cards is supposed to be a safe hobby, but sometimes scammers decide to ruin that for everyone. From fake PSA slabs and resealed booster boxes, to millions of dollars in fraud, these are times that evil Pokemon card scammers got caught in 4K. Starting us off with this vendor that was selling cards at a card show, until someone came up to him and told him about a scam operation going on right next to his booth. Who do I talk to about vendors selling fake cards? At this show, the table next to you, on the right, all those ponchos, look at the PSA slabs, ponchos, they're all fake. I need a, what do I talk to you about next time? Instead of brushing it off, he decided to investigate for himself, and the more he looked at the slabs, the less he could believe his eyes. So these are... They're proxy card slabs. So what does that mean? They're basically like fake custom cards. Seeing how many unsuspecting customers could be scammed by these display slabs, he made a clue to the vendor that this was not acceptable. The scary thing about that is like, it does feel like a real PSA slab. You know, you can tell in here the print quality is not quite right, but look, they even got the sparkle on the PSA. That's not, I don't love that. Like they've even got the hologram. Look at the slab itself, like other than the fonts, look at the inlay there, like the slab, like the outer rings, the little line there, the line there, the slab looks identical. It's just the label that does it. That's scary. And although this seller wasn't asking outrageous prices, he knew these slabs would eventually end up in the hands of scammers. But our next con artist was actually able to pull off his scam on these unsuspecting collectors because this couple bought a Pokemon 151 booster bundle from a vendor they thought they could trust and faced some unsuspected consequences. Here, how much will it cost? Oh my god, it was sealed in the plastic. But the inconsistencies would only get crazier from here. So yeah, this one's lighter and linear, so that's your real one here. It's this. It's got a catch. I'm all gonna catch. Oh yeah, even the writing's off on that one. We're opening one. Open it, there's way less stuff at the top. Alright. We got a Leafeon. Leafeon was not in the original 151, so I'm starting to get suspicious. Oh, bills transfer. Non-holo. And a backwards card on the gold energy. Oh, we're matching. Twinning. Fortunately, the victims were able to learn their lesson and haven't been sold fake products since this video. But this next scammer would be so obvious that even a little kid called him out. This vendor had just bought a Blastoise and Piplup alternate art card for $250, not suspecting anything could be wrong with it. But when a kid came up and looked at the card, he noticed something that instantly ruined this vendor's day. Oh my god, it is. Holy s**t. That's a waste of money. But this little guy wasn't done exposing the scam yet. Probably like not a whole bunch, but still, that's annoying. God, that sucks. Good catch though. Damn, that sucks. I'm gonna find out who sold me that too, because I record everything. However, the story only gets crazier as the vendor was sold the fake card by another kid at the convention. But he chose to not expose him online and decided to destroy the fake card instead. Now this next scam would have far more layers to it than anyone was expecting, as this guy made a horrible mistake by making a trade for a fake card that would end up costing him over $1,000. And once he began examining the card, he would start to peel back the layers behind this scam. As you can see, this thing is literally just a sticker on a tourist card. I gave the guy $200 cash and my Mega Dragonite SIR. We called the police and there was nothing they could do. Since the police didn't respond, he decided to take matters into his own hands and confront the scammer himself. But when the victim handed the card to the scammer to look at, he acted like he had no idea it was fake. But even after such a heated confrontation, the victim confirmed that the scammer is still at it to this day. Yet that's nothing compared to the devastating mistake that our next victim made, since this man was sold a $1,000 Pikachu Van Gogh card. But the way he discovered it was fake was absolutely tragic. And when the victim found the scammer at a card show, he laid out exactly how he found out the truth. Do you remember selling me the fake Van Gogh? However, this scammer wouldn't be able to handle the truth for long. Sadly, the scammer has not stopped to this day, with a few commenters sharing their own run-ins with this pokey thief. Next on our list, these vendors ended up losing thousands of dollars on over a dozen resealed vintage booster packs. Meaning that this pack was likely resealed. But sadly, this wouldn't be the only pack that they were tricked with. And then this one. What makes this tragic is that the victim still hasn't posted any updates since releasing this video. Meaning that the scammer likely got away with it. And while these scams have been insane so far, make sure to watch to the end because they will only get crazier as the video goes on. Alright, I saw something recently that goes completely against how most trading cards work today. Usually, when a product gets popular, companies just print more of it. But, Base Trading Cards does the exact opposite. Because every set is capped at 21,000 packs, and once a set sells out, they never reprint it. Unlike other TCGs. Base's goal is to help people understand how Bitcoin works through collecting the cards. And if that sounds interesting to you, check out the link in the description and use code Thanks to Base Trading Cards for sponsoring this video. This next scammer managed to fool this vendor into trading a Charizard worth thousands for a fake PSA slab. While the seller seems friendly at first, he quickly tries convincing the vendor that the card is more valuable than it looks. If you look at the condition, and you compare this to the other ones in that condition range, they were very harsh on this. Like, even the centering, they were giving similar centering cards 8.5s and 8s. I don't know why they were so harsh. I mean, a PSA 6 just did 37, which is pretty close to a 7.5 for BGS. I know, but you know what? I'll be honest. A 6 is more close to rock bottom. This is near mint plus. I will say, like that card right there, it comes for a PSA 7 price. PSA 7 does more than a BGS 8. Yeah. So I think a 6 is pretty comparable for this card. I would at least see a 7. Well, PSA 8 did 6,000. PSA 8 did 6,000? Really recently. When was that? Really recently. Yeah, it's an old server. Let's see the back. I can click on it and see. Look at the back, and then compare it to this, and tell me it's comparable. I just want you to do it. Like, you can take a magnifying glass, look at this edge and how nice it is, and I promise you that's not going to be even. The number's higher than this. However, the vendor was not willing to take a lesser value Charizard that easily, and after 10 heated minutes of negotiation, the vendor traded his best card for three high value Charizards. This card do not offer you anything. 700 bucks, this card is sick. I would offer you like 800 on that. It's a nice card. And so what's your number if you do those two in 3,000? If I do this, it's 3,000. Is it cash? Yeah, how do you want the money? I have 400 cash, and I have the rest I can sell you. Oh, good deal. I appreciate you. Crazy deal. But once the vendor had a chance to check the card's authenticity, he realized far too late that it was a fake slap. Even more tragic, he had traded off his coveted BGS-8 First Edition Charizard, one of the most valuable cards in his collection. However, this next scammer would prove far bolder, as he would make a move that nobody else on our list has tried yet. This vendor tried to undersell this new collector, who was already in the middle of a trade. I mean, I think I paid at least like 50 bucks for it. I mean, not terrible. But this vendor's attempts to steal the deal for himself were exposed instantly. How much? 45. 45 bucks? No, no, no, no. I was going to pay you like almost 200 for that. Let me see. Is that the First Edition? Yeah. Yeah, the First Dead is like 200 bucks, dude. No, no, no. That's the regular. That's the unlimited. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't do that. I'm trying to help you out, man. Trust me. I'm trying to help you out, man. I mean, I put the value at that for like, I think it was like 200. Like this. Like that right there. Oh. I know that's not like, I know that's not 100 bucks. I know that's not like 100 bucks. Look it. Dark Blastoise First Edition. I just scanned it. Like I said. Look, right there. It's like 200 raw every day. 50. 45. Yeah, but 45 is way, way low. Fortunately, this shady vendor left not long after his plot was uncovered. And the collector worked out a $1,500 deal with the right vendor. But that deal was nothing compared to the five-figure disaster this next buyer would face. As he decided to buy this Facebook seller seal collection for $10,000. However, when he tried later reselling some of the products to a shop, he was told that many of the boxes were fake. And not believing that at first, he decided to open one for himself. But he could hardly believe his eyes at what he saw. No promos. Wow. Not even the actual packs that come in. No actual packs. Are you freaking kidding me? While the victim confirmed that actions were being taken to bring the scammer to justice, it remains unknown what the outcome ended up like. However, this next clip shows how some scammers are willing to raise the stakes even higher. Because this store owner would get fooled out of over $17,000 from one of their most trusted suppliers. While the boxes of ETBs the owner received looked normal at first, another glance made him realize that something was off about this product. Sealed. The original tape. It is not double taped or anything. It says SV3.5. For some reason, there's a blank label on that side. But these ones are all the same. We sold them to somebody. They opened up one case. The contents were shouted fable. How does that make sense? You buy a sealed case of Pokemon Center ETBs. You remove the label. And then you print your own label and put it on. Sadly, this was only the beginning of the scammer's deceit. Got a cool little light. Really makes it pop. OK. See how it pops really well. And then on this, not so much. So if you peek in the corner right here, there's an opening. You can see already that it does not look white. You shine the light. It is not glowing like this. It is a black ETB in the case. Unfortunately, even after the owner tried contacting their bank for a refund, they only got worse news. Because the scammer sneakily used the friends and family option on PayPal, which made any refunds impossible. But the second place on our list would lead the victim into a devastating scam that lasted years. As this man had owned what he thought was a first edition Base Set Booster Box. But when he finally decided to open it up, he began to feel insanely suspicious about the packaging. Right behind where this energy is, I was able to see some other type of red that looks like this. In fact, I had two packs I was comparing it to. It looked like a dark pack. And it looked like I could see the very tip of an A, a piece of red and a blue. And which that means that pack on the left side there should be unlimited, which is kind of devastating because this box is very expensive right now. I mean, you're talking well over $50,000. And his suspicions were confirmed when he began to look through the box. There we go. As we thought, the first pack is actually, it is shadowless. Let's look at the one on the right. The one on the right is also shadowless. And look, it's even been taped together so it couldn't be shaken apart. I guess over the years, that was something that was, man, they've even been opened. Oh, that's a bummer. Yes, this wouldn't be the end of the evil tricks from the scammer. Now, this is kind of surprising. These look like shadowless packs. Have they been? Yeah, these have all been resealed. So you know what? I don't think those two are resealed, but these definitely have been. So I mean, it looks like not only did we get a fake pack, but it's going to have a bunch of fake resealed stuff. So let's just go ahead and check out what's inside of these packs. Looks like they didn't even bother to put back shadowless cards. They filled it back up with unlimited. If you look at it, it's actually $19.99, $2,000, which again is another red flag to me. Sadly, this guy wasn't able to track the scammer down as he had bought this booster box years before the video was recorded. But not every scam affects only one person. As this final scam fooled the entire Pokemon community. Because the first place spot on our list goes to the worst Pokemon scandal in history. Scamming collectors for millions of dollars. The scheme kicked off when a former designer at Pokemon began selling what looked to be early renders of the first ever Pokemon cards. Not long after, CGC even graded many of these renders as tens, giving them legitimate backing. However, it was only after millions of dollars had been spent on these cards that one talented Pokemon forum member brought the truth to light. After meticulously scanning the cards, the forum member discovered tiny dots all over each of the renders. Which meant that all of these alleged prototypes had been printed on a household printer. An incredibly unlikely tool for a massive corporation like Pokemon. But the lie doesn't stop there. The dots also revealed that the cards were printed in 2024, right when these cards were first sold. In a matter of hours, these images would be seen online by millions. But unfortunately, this groundbreaking realization was made months too late. Collectors lost a ton of money, while CGC and multiple major auction houses faced backlash for authenticating forged cards. The former employee was banned from all selling activity and has not attempted another scheme since. Which might make this the most insane Pokemon scam in history. Check out this video on screen next to see even crazier Pokemon moments. Trust me, these are insane.