Bleacher Breaks is back in the news, this time there are customers who claim that Bleacher was shill bidding their own break spots on selling platform WhatNot.
Shill bidding is intentionally fake bidding by a seller on his/her own auction to inflate the final price.
A customer noticed a certain WhatNot user name, Jammasterjames, kept jumping in late to outbid him during a basketball break.
The customer had previously sold some cards on eBay to a similar user name, jammaster232, and it just so happens the name and address matches that of Bleacher Breaks.
This was all posed on the Sports Card Scammer Tracker private Facebook group. In the comments, a user left these pictures that certainly raise more questions.
In April, controversy surrounded Bleacher Breaks when it was discovered they were selling cards that were previously hit by customers in their breaks.
Notably, a 1/1 Jaylen Waddle card was pulled by Bleacher Breaks, never sent to the customer, but ended up being re-sold by Bleacher.
Bleacher Breaks were temporarily suspended from WhatNot for the Waddle controversy. This was posted on IG after the Waddle news broke.
WhatNot and Bleacher Breaks have not commented on the shill bidding matter.
Shill bidding may be considered a form of wire fraud, which is a federal offense under 18 U.S. Code Section 1343.
You have the same account literally shilling prices on almost every single desirable card/set. I noticed desirable rookie ticket autos auction prices were spiking lately for cards that should only be half the price then id see them relisted. Then after, this same dude wins an auction for my card & doesnt pay. Lol so i looked a bit further only to realize this dude bids on EVERYTHING at the last couple minutes but of course with enough time left to be “outbid” but sometimes wins on accident & will not pay. Always with smaller accounts cuz the bigger one like dcsports or comc blocking him would ruin his plans. i literally searched a couple other random card versions like DTs & there he was again. In 10 minutes i found 50 auctions this dude had did that on & a few that he bid up 2-3x its value then were relisted just in the last couple weeks or so lol not sure exactly what his plan is but seems like hes trying to raise values on specific sets/versions/players of cards.
He just did the same to me on Monday. He outbid someone by a dollar at the end of the auction and now won’t pay. 9-20-2023
Me too tonight on my sale, no payment yet but looking like I won’t get one…
Wow. Just wow.