Logan Paul has discovered the 'only known' sealed box of first-edition base set Pokémon cards he bought in December are fake.
Experts had speculated about the cards' authenticity when Logan, 26, shared the news of his $3.5 million (£2.6 million) purchase on social media on 20 December, 2020.
The pack was thought to be the only known in the world, but one fansite and another YouTuber raised suspicions over doubts that so many cards would go to market at the same time.
The YouTuber finally decided to break open the box in front of experts and found that the individual packs actually contain G.I. Joe trading cards rather than the 'holy grail' of Pokémon cards he had hoped for.
Fansite Pokébeach and YouTuber Rattle recently investigated the source of the decks and decided their authenticity was unlikely.
They discovered the decks had been sold by an eBay vendor based in Canada using a dodgy-looking account without any reviews or feedback.
Rattle and Pokébeach also claimed buyers were unable to inspect the cards before agreeing to a deal.
Base sets can sell for about $400,000 (£296,557) each, according to some reports.
But this complete set, which Logan claimed to have bought, was once sold for only $72,000 (£53,380) instead of the $2.6m (£1.93m) Rattle and Pokébeach valued it at.
Logan picked up the set for over $3 million after consulting an authentication service.
YouTubers are known for spending ridiculous sums of money on absurd amusements and objects, and Logan more than many.
Last year, he spent $2 million (£1.5 million) on a set of unopened boxes of first-edition cards.
They're extremely rare and extremely difficult to find, so no surprises that Logan was able to sell the rarest of the 36 packs through an auction house for around $40,000 (£30,000) each in February 2021.
Charlie Metcalfe