From fans and gamers to hobbyist collectors and genuine investors, Pokémon‘s continued status as the most successful entertainment franchise on Earth has attracted all sorts of people for wildly different reasons over the years, though it’s certainly those belonging to the latter group who have been generating headlines over the last few weeks or so. Following on from a series of high profile Pokémon card sales at auction, new and lapsed fans alike have caused the prices of vintage as well as more recent sets to skyrocket to all-new heights due to massively increased demand and unchanged supply.
YouTuber Logan Paul and celebrities such as Justin Bieber and retired rapper Logic have collectively dropped millions on sealed and/or graded Pokémon cards from yesteryear, contributing to a spike in investors eyeing up fancy cardboard. It’s in this climate, then, that YouTube channel Dumb Money recently purchased an extremely rare sealed 1st edition booster box of the first-ever Pokémon TCG Base Set for a jaw-dropping $375,000.
While the channel’s co-creators, Chris Camillo, Dave Hanson and Jordan Mclain, had originally intended to sit on the box and let it accrue value, the trio ultimately decided to crack it open to discern whether it was, in fact, genuine, or a resealed counterfeit intended to scam unknowing buyers out of thousands. Sold to them by Logan Paul’s so-called Pokémon consultant, experts present at the opening quickly discovered the box to be filled with resealed or completely incorrect packs, resulting in several shocked reactions, to say the least.
You can watch the entire live stream for yourself (link below) and, if nothing else, let it serve as a potent reminder that investing in items such as these always carries with it a very real risk.
