Pokemon card collectors think Logan Paul’s $3.5m box could be “fake”

The Pokemon Trading Card Game community claims that Logan Paul’s latest big purchase may not be worth what he paid. According to several prominent collectors, the 1st Edition Base Set box the YouTuber dropped $3.5m on is possibly fake. 

The 26-year-old YouTuber went viral in December 2021 when he revealed he had dropped an eye-popping $3.5 million dollars on a 1st Edition Base Set Pokemon card sealed case. The influencer announced that the collectible was the only one known in the world to be sealed since 1998 and authenticated.

According to the Pokemon TCG community, however, the expensive retro item may be fake. Prominent collectors in the hobby have stepped forward to raise concerns about the record-breaking pack of cards and claim that the Impaulsive host may have been tricked out of millions.

Logan Paul paid $3.5 million for fake Pokemon card box?

Questions of the box’s authenticity were first raised on December 31, 2021 in a story published by popular Pokemon TCG site PokeBeach. “Logan Paul’s $3.5 Million ‘Base Set’ Case May Be Fake: Pokemon Community Uncovers Significant Evidence,” the outlet tweeted. The publication then broke down the history of the item in online auctions such as eBay as well as the evidence that has collectors believing it to be fake.

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According to the site, Paul’s Pokemon card box is unusually numbered. “All known cases of Base Set that have sold over the years have been seen with the product code “WOC06033,” whether they were 1st edition or not,” PokeBeach explained. “Paul’s case has a label with the code “WOC060331E,” which should stand for “1st Edition. However, there are no known examples of a 1st edition Base Set case having “1E” in its product code.”

The story then points out that the barcode on the YouTuber’s 1st Edition collectible doesn’t actually match and instead lines up with the 6033 code without the 1E on the end. Finally, the outlet argues that the tape that Wizards of the Coast used in the 90s is different on Logan Paul’s item. “The font and spacing do not match. The text on Paul’s box has no period at the end of the sentence and “Seal” isn’t capitalized like on authentic boxes,” they wrote.

The TCG outlet also raised concerns about the box’s authentication. Primarily, the expensive Base Set product was authenticated by a smaller company with little experience in Pokemon cards and with a lack of information usually present in hot ticket items of this value.

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According to PokeBeach the only way to truly verify the collectible is to peek inside the box. Renowned collector Gary ‘King Pokemon’ Haase who also owns a sealed 1st Edition Base Set Box had to use this method to get his item authenticated.

While it’s not been confirmed that Logan Paul’s $3.5 million dollar collectible is fake, many collectors in the hobby are now questioning its legitimacy. On January 4, the YouTuber tweeted that he’s flying to Chicago to verify its authenticity with the BBCE.

H/T: PokeBeach