Pokemon Trading Card Haul 'Worth $375,000' Turns Out To Be Fake

A huge Pokémon deal worth $375,000 (£290,000) has ended in disaster after the haul of first edition cards turned out to be fake.

Chris Camillo, a 'social arbitrage investor', was hoping to get his hands on the batch of rare playing cards, and was ready to part with a briefcase full of cash in order to get them.

The collector was due to buy the box, which was supposed to contain 36 unopened 'booster' packs and a total of 396 cards, from Jake Greenbaum, a 'blockchain entrepreneur' who led a team of three sellers who had themselves bought the box from a third party.

Greenbaum uses the Twitter handle JBTheCryptoKing and is apparently Logan Paul's 'personal Pokémon consultant'.

The idea was for Greenbaum to be paid in cash and the cards would be sold again next year to raise money for charity.

However, alarms bells started to ring for Camillo, who had been interested in the market for the iconic trading cards for some time, when he opened the deck - labelled with the phrase 'Gotta Catch 'Em All'.

The excruciatingly awkward moment was filmed by the organisers of the 'Dumb Money' event, and posted on Twitter.

As the collector opens the 'treasured box' during the live streamed exchange, one person says: "The colour's different on that one and that one."

Camillo then says bluntly: "That's not a first edition card."

Picking out a pack, he adds: "This is an unlimited pack, look, they're open."

Greenbaum then says: "Yeah, that's an issue. Yeah, now, that's a major f***ing problem."

"This is a resealed box," Camillo points out disappointedly.

Someone to Camillo's side then says: "Time to call the seller."

To which Greenbaum adds: "Hmmm, no. Money back on that."

Dumb Money

Greenbaum and Camillo claimed the botched sale was not a set up.

Speaking to The Guardian, Camillo said he was still in shock.

He told the publication: "We took extreme precautions. I feel worse for the seller. This is going to shake up the Pokémon collector world."

Earlier this year, retired rapper Logic reportedly bought a first-edition holographic Charizard Pokemon card for $220,574 (£170,018).

According to reports, the card was rated PSA 10 - the highest rating offered for collectible trading cards.

Logic purchased the rare collectible at an auction earlier this month for $183,812 (£141,682), which when the 20 percent buyer's premium was added became $220,574.

He also previously bought a $23,000 base set box in which he also pulled out a holographic Charizard card - though it was not as rare as the one above.

Topics: Entertainment, Money, cash, US News, Twitter, US Entertainment

Dominic Smithers

Dominic graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History. Like you, Dom has often questioned how much use a second language has been. Well, after stints working at the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express, along with never setting foot in France, he realised the answer is surprisingly little. But I guess, c'est la vie. Contact us at [email protected]

@SmithersDom