Two prominent names in the sports card world are involved in a huge Pokemon controversy.

UPDATE: THE CASE IS FAKE

Jameel Mohammed, who owns The Meelypops Shop in Gainesville, FL, helped purchase what he thought was a case of 1st Edition Pokemon cards back in April 2021.

The story is documented in a two-part series that Meelypops released.

Pokemon's Most Historic Sale Pt 1
Pokemon's Most Historic Sale Pt 2

The same day Meelypops took possession of the Pokemon case, he brought it over to Baseball Card Exchange (BBCE), to get it authenticated and "wrapped."  

BBCE is the only company to provide this type of service, and the owner Steve Hart, is also the unopened pack authenticator for Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA). 

Update: BBCE Facebook Post

Despite a solid reputation in the sports card world, this was the first ever Pokemon case to be authenticated by BBCE. 

One day after getting the case wrapped by BBCE, Meelypops sold it to Matt Allen (Instagram/Shyne150) for what Allen says was $2.7 million.

8 months after buying the case for $2.7m, Allen flips the case to celebrity Logan Paul for $3.5m.

Once Paul started flexing the purchase on social media, Pokemon experts started digging deeper into the origin of the case. 

Pokemon expert Rattle Pokemon started putting out YouTube videos that the Logan Paul case was fake. Turns out there is a known case in existence and there are key differences. 

• The actual cardboard box is different
• The "Stop" tape is different
• The bar code is different
• The stamps on the box are different
• The label is different

Making things more sketchy, the story on how the case came about has changed multiple times. 

Many believe Meelypops purchased the case from a known Pokemon scammer out of Canada. 

If the case is indeed fake, Paul could turn to his friend Allen for a refund. Allen could then turn to Meelypops for a refund. Things could get messy. 

BBCE does not offer insurance or buyer protection if one of their authenticated products is found to be fake. BBCE isn't obligated to refund, Paul or Meelypops. 

Paul said on January 4, 2022 he was going to take the case to Chicago and have BBCE check the authenticity. 

On January 13, 2022 - Paul released a video showing the case was fake and the boxes has GI Joe packs in them. 

On January 13, 2022 - BBCE posted on Facebook about the fake case. 

A sports card insider that goes by the name Cardporn says that Meelypops has already lawyered up and refused to refund his portion of the case, $515,000, to Allen. 

 A red hot sports card market in 2021 saw many new companies spring up and attempt to woo collector interest. 

Sports card grading company Hybrid Grading Approach (HGA) is one of them, and it's been a bumpy ride so far.

Here are the greatest mistakes so far in HGA history.

Articles Ripping on PSA
- Anonymous PSA Trimmer List
- PSA CEO Nat Turner Hasn’t Been Gem Mint

 On November 30, 2020 it was announced that PSA, the leading provider of authentication and grading services of sports cards, was purchased by a group led by card collector Nat Turner.

Turner was billed as a savior to the grading industry. It's almost impossible to find a negative word about the acquisition. But in the one year since, what has he really done?

The company still has suspended it's most popular, and cheapest grading service, effectively pricing out many of their potential customers. 

New Fanatics Trading Card CEO Josh Luber partially blamed the PSA shut down for the decline in value of cards over 2021. 

A backlog of over a million cards still hasn't been fully cleared, as collectors are still waiting on orders from January 2021. 

PSA has acquired two companies recently, Goldin Auctions and Card Ladder, neither of which help aide in the speed or capacity growth at PSA. 

The saving grace for PSA is the incompetence of other grading companies. 

Many hobby newbies and former sneaker heads can't believe that a few short years ago, Beckett's grading company, BGS, was the place to send your modern cards to get graded. PSA was the old man's company, used mainly for vintage. 

Beckett is primarily a faceless company that has handled their backlog of orders even worse than PSA. 

Despite the ineptness of grading companies, popularity of sports cards started to explode in 2020 and lesser grading companies started to emerge. There is now a backlog of orders at grading companies SGC and HGA.

Card collectors have become so stupid, they'll trust just about anyone to slab a card for them. 

PSA is still 11 months behind on many of their orders even after shutting down their most popular service level.

Turner clearly hasn't been able to execute on ideas very quickly.

But collectors and dealers will wait and give more time to PSA because they have to. Cards in PSA holders still carry a premium over BGS, SGC, CSG, HGA and every other acronym. 

If cards continue to decline in value heading into 2022, we'll see if collectors still give Turner a passing grade. 

PWCC, the Oregon based sports card consignment seller, has been hit with a lawsuit seeking class action status that claims damages from their illegal shill bidding on eBay exceeds $25,000,000.

Gregory Latham filed the lawsuit on September 17, 2021 in Oregon. 

READ FULL LAWSUIT

A lawyer for Latham did not return a message seeking comment. 

Online marketplace eBay banned PWCC, one of its largest customers, from selling on its website in August 2021. eBay alleged that PWCC was involved in shill bidding. 

In 2019, Sports Card Radio published an exclusive story on PWCC and shill bidding. 

The lawsuit is seeking:

• An award of actual damages in an amount to be determined at trial
• An award of statutory damages of $200 for each reckless or knowing violation of
  the Unlawful Trade Practices Act, ORS 646.605 et seq.
• Pre-judgment interest
• Post-judgment interest
• Attorneys’ fees, costs, disbursements, and expenses of suit, including expert
  witness fees
• Punitive damages

Latham is seeking a trial by jury.

More details to come!