Running list of 2022 Hobby Scams

[swarmee]

9 scandals already in only three weeks. Two multi-million dollar losses! Solid pace.

Jan:
1) BBCE Authenticated Case of 1st Edition Pokemon sold for $3.5M revealed full of G.I.Joe packs.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1500649

2) Group Breaker backyardbreaks gives away free box to customer, pulls $20K Trevor Lawrence card, doesn't deliver.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1502441

3) Marx cards stiffs PSA on ~$1M bulk submission, files bankruptcy, strands customers. Card Collector 2 implicated for sending through 2nd bulk submitter without disclosure. PSA looks to be returning cards ungraded. Gems Only also seems to be another middleman who can't pay.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1503473

4) Merchantman cards still selling vintage fakes through various online auction houses.
https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=295520
5) Steve Grad says that many Panini Messi autos are counterfeit, but his employer BGS still grades them.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1502876

6) Carryover from 2021, hacked eBay accounts are posting hundreds of cards for sale at auction requesting you message them to BIN, but it's a scam. Whack-a-mole with these guys, since eBay deletes one account and another pops up in days.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1502167

7) Counterfeit slabs being passed at card shows in FL, NV, PA, TX. Suspects arrested in Dallas; one tased for trying to escape. Las Vegas Card Show, Industry Summit, Dallas, Bay Area Card Show Clearwater FL, Philly. Note: Latest news is that the Mike Baker sleeved Jordans are real and were graded by Baker in Dallas.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1502835
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsYXDVQA2eA

8) PWCC had a Premier auction end 1/22 and seconds before it closed, couldn't handle the traffic. Rather than extending the closing time an hour or so for people to get their last bids in, they extended for an entire day. This has been happening to a lot of online auction houses the past couple of years, getting hit by DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) hacks or just unable to even handle the traffic at the end of an auction. Goldin got hit by so many the last two years under their previous auction software subcontractor that they created their own new site, going through growing pains.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1503966

9) Goldin Auctions selling a 2001 PSA 10 Albert Pujols chrome rookie auto. Very likely to be wiped off and re-signed. Should be graded as a PSA AUTH card with PSA 10 auto, IMO. Currently at $97K with two weeks to go.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1502551
Update: PSA reviewed the card and gave it a PSA 10 with 10 auto.

[Johnny630]

Just the beginning

[conor912]

Rough start to the year, for sure. Card grading has become to the hobby what social media has to the world.....a few redeeming qualities, but overall a net negative.

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by conor912

Rough start to the year, for sure. Card grading has become to the hobby what social media has to the world.....a few redeeming qualities, but overall a net negative.

+1 agreed and as said early more to come

[Tyruscobb]

Does anyone know the Marx Cards backstory? Where did all the money go? If you receive $1M to submit cards on others’ behalf, how hard is it to earmark the funds and place them into a separate account?

Heck - all Marx Cards had to do was place the $1M into an interest-bearing account and leave it alone, until it was time to pay PSA, and it would’ve made free money off other people’s grading fee money. A 1% interest account would’ve netted Marx Cards $10,000.00 in free interest money.

[Johnny630]

Originally Posted by Tyruscobb

Does anyone know the Marx Cards backstory? Where did all the money go? If you receive $1M to submit cards on others’ behalf, how hard is it to earmark the funds and place them into a separate account?

Heck - all Marx Cards had to do was place the $1M into an interest-bearing account and leave it alone, until it was time to pay PSA, and it would’ve made free money off other people’s grading fee money. A 1% interest account would’ve netted Marx Cards $10,000.00 in free interest money.

That would have been the smart prudent move for sure.

What he prob did was like like a king for a year off his submitters money, kinda like a pyramid scheme, he was on top. So sad I feel terrible for the victims of his con job.

[Eric72]

Considering the influx of hobby newcomers over the past 18 months, it's not surprising to see the amount of scandals on the rise.

Seven in three weeks is a breakneck pace, though. Even the most paranoid among us were probably caught a bit off guard by the frequency with which these news stories are breaking.

I wonder if the new 1099 reporting rules were a factor, even if only indirectly. The timing is certainly uncanny.

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by Tyruscobb

Does anyone know the Marx Cards backstory? Where did all the money go?

Rumors so far is that they were opening up their own card shop and plowed funds into that. Another rumor is that they were overinvested in PSA base cards which are now dropping like rocks. Another rumor is that they invested in cryptocurrency at the peak, and it's now down about 40%.
I'll keep following it. I expect both criminal and civil liability due to the lack of escrow while operating in the capacity of a financial managers, and the lawsuits from submitters trying to get their funds back in bankruptcy court. (ed note: I am not a lawyer, so this is only my personal untrained thought.)

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Rumors so far is that they were opening up their own card shop and plowed funds into that. Another rumor is that they were overinvested in PSA base cards which are now dropping like rocks. Another rumor is that they invested in cryptocurrency at the peak, and it's now down about 40%.
I'll keep following it. I expect both criminal and civil liability due to the lack of escrow while operating in the capacity of a financial managers, and the lawsuits from submitters trying to get their funds back in bankruptcy court. (ed note: I am not a lawyer, so this is only my personal untrained thought.)

I wonder if this could this be a class action lawsuit waiting to happen.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Rumors so far is that they were opening up their own card shop and plowed funds into that. Another rumor is that they were overinvested in PSA base cards which are now dropping like rocks. Another rumor is that they invested in cryptocurrency at the peak, and it's now down about 40%.

I'll keep following it. I expect both criminal and civil liability due to the lack of escrow while operating in the capacity of a financial managers, and the lawsuits from submitters trying to get their funds back in bankruptcy court. (ed note: I am not a lawyer, so this is only my personal untrained thought.)

Don't worry we have plenty of lawyers on here they will correct you.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[BobC]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Rumors so far is that they were opening up their own card shop and plowed funds into that. Another rumor is that they were overinvested in PSA base cards which are now dropping like rocks. Another rumor is that they invested in cryptocurrency at the peak, and it's now down about 40%.
I'll keep following it. I expect both criminal and civil liability due to the lack of escrow while operating in the capacity of a financial managers, and the lawsuits from submitters trying to get their funds back in bankruptcy court. (ed note: I am not a lawyer, so this is only my personal untrained thought.)

Regarding Marx Cards, all of these could have played a factor in what happened, and then resulted in not so much a failure of a pyramid scheme, but more like the failure of a kiting scheme.

Pure guess on my part, but can see the aforementioned various factors putting a pinch on cash profit from operations, so they dip into funds being held to actually pay the grading fees, and figure they'll get caught up in the future. They don't worry about it when it comes time to actually pay grading fees to PSA in the interim as they become due because they expect to keep getting more continuing orders and grading fee deposits in. Well, then along comes the pandemic and all the PSA issues where they basically shut down new submissions for a while, and significantly jack up up the grading fees. So as a result, the continuous ongoing new submissions ends up taking a big hit, and with it, the influx of grading fee deposits they need to keep covering all the bills coming into Marx Cards, including the grading fee bills from PSA. Think about the timing of when all of this has been happening, and how PSA is finally starting to get caught up and billing people for those grading fees. Chances are Marx may have started doing the math and realized they weren't getting enough new deposits coming in to get them over the hump, realized all these PSA grading fee bills would soon be rolling in, and played the bankruptcy card now to try and get out of this.

Not sure on the legal side if the people can come back at them. Don't know exactly how the contracts people entered into with Marx Cards (assuming there is some written document or agreement) are written and what they may say. I'll leave that to the attorneys on here if they want to weigh in. Wouldn't be completely shocked if the Marx Cards people end up not being personally liable, assuming the company was set up in an appropriate corporate or LLC form, which can then afford the owners protection from personal liability from company debts.

[jjp3rd]

Originally Posted by conor912

Rough start to the year, for sure. Card grading has become to the hobby what social media has to the world.....a few redeeming qualities, but overall a net negative.

+1


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Tracking it over at Blowout. 7 major scandals already in only three weeks. Two multi-million dollar losses! Solid pace.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?p=17942920

Taking the liberty of reproducing the links so people don't have to do this twice if they are interested.

1) BBCE Authenticated Case of 1st Edition Pokemon sold for $3.5M revealed full of G.I.Joe packs.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1500649

2) Group Breaker backyardbreaks gives away free box to customer, pulls $20K Trevor Lawrence card, doesn't deliver.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1502441

3) Marx cards stiffs PSA on ~$1M bulk submission, files bankruptcy, strands customers. Card Collector 2 implicated for sending through 2nd bulk submitter without disclosure. PSA looks to be returning cards ungraded.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1503473

4) Merchantman cards still selling vintage fakes through various online auction houses.
https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=295520
5) Steve Grad says that many Panini Messi autos are counterfeit, but his employer BGS still grades them.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1502876

6) Carryover from 2021, hacked eBay accounts are posting hundreds of cards for sale at auction requesting you message them to BIN, but it's a scam. Whack-a-mole with these guys, since eBay deletes one account and another pops up in days.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1502167

7) Counterfeit slabs and Mike Baker RCR Jordan RCs being passed at card shows in FL, VA, TX. Suspects arrested in Dallas; one tased for trying to escape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrCIIsbYpGU

[swarmee]

PWCC had a Premier auction ending tonight. With 1 second to go in the auction, they extended it another day and are still accepting bids.

Knew it wouldn't long before they made the list.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1503966

Follow along live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0A8_befZrI

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by swarmee

PWCC had a Premier auction ending tonight. With 1 second to go in the auction, they extended it another day and are still accepting bids.

Knew it wouldn't long before they made the list.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1503966

Follow along live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0A8_befZrI

We can count on PWCC always being a hair away from a scandal. Nice list you put together, by the way.

Count me in as one, however, who feels the only scam associated with the Pokemon case was the stunt that Logan Paul played on the general public. I will never be convinced he did not know the case was bad before he claims to have paid 3.5 for it. Not exonerating Hart for his part in authenticating it but I don't think any real money was ever at risk here.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

7) Counterfeit slabs and Mike Baker RCR Jordan RCs being passed at card shows in FL, VA, TX. Suspects arrested in Dallas; one tased for trying to escape.

As it turns out Mike Baker's RCR Jordan's were legit, though it is quite possible they were the cards that were removed from slabs to make room for the counterfeits.

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

As it turns out Mike Baker's RCR Jordan's were legit, though it is quite possible they were the cards that were removed from slabs to make room for the counterfeits.

Do you have a link or source. Initial reports were that Mike never sealed them in his cases, and the stickers themselves were counterfeit.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Do you have a link or source. Initial reports were that Mike never sealed them in his cases, and the stickers themselves were counterfeit.

Mike himself confirmed they were indeed his stickers and the cards were legit

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Mike himself confirmed they were indeed his stickers and the cards were legit

Just saw the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsYXDVQA2eA

Corrected the list to say:
7) Counterfeit slabs being passed at card shows in FL, NV, PA, TX. Suspects arrested in Dallas; one tased for trying to escape. Las Vegas Card Show, Beckett Industry Summit, Dallas, Bay Area Card Show Clearwater FL, Philly. Note: Latest news is that the Mike Baker sleeved Jordans are real and were graded by Baker in Dallas.

Here's another link with one of the scammed guys on Jordan RCs who then tried to sell them on eBay last November. Sounds like Genamint software at PSA may not be catching resubmitted cards like they're expected to.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1494918