Trading card scams, scandals, and shadiness are as common in the hobby as base cards.
While many are relatively minor in terms of monetary value, some reach proportions that even the scammers could never have predicted.
Card trimming & shill bidding has been widely known within card communities. However the stakes have been raised due to the money involved and the level of deception that has taken place.
Things started to heat up in April, when a Blowout Forum post outlined Will “One Touch” Jaimet’s Heroes of Sport re-pack product scam.
This led to further revelations about the shady dealings of Brent “Mastro” Huigens PWCC auction house. Seems like Brent was hip to this card trimming and wanted to cash in.
Brent just spent millions (of other people’s money) building himself a “vault” to fondle cards. And that will grab the attention of the law more than the guy shouting Brandin Cooks to 99 in his mom’s basement.
In fact, as you will see below. The most powerful institutions dedicated to upholding the law in the United States are now looking at trading card scams that were first reported on an internet forum.
Article: Gary Moser & PWCC Card Trimming/Shill Bidding Scams
Viewed By:
- FBI Criminal Justice Information Systems
- The Supreme Court Of The U.S.
- U.S. House Of Representatives
- eBay Inc
Below are some trimmed screen shots of actual traffic data from sportscardradio.com. More interesting are the search terms or referral link the government agency’s used to find the site – but I don’t want Brent “Mastro” Huigens to lose any more sleep than he already has, so we’ll save those for another time.
Fairly amazing a scam that started with a post on an internet forum is being viewed by the United States FBI, Supreme Court, and U.S. House of Representatives.
Over the years Upper Deck, Ripping Wax, countless breakers, and most recently Leaf Trading Cards have threatened legal action against Sports Card Radio.
So while the industry has their lawyers reading what Sports Card Radio says – we have the FBI, US Supreme Court, US House of Representatives reading what YOU are doing.
Keep that in mind next time you want to make yourself look tough on our Twitter, Facebook or YouTube streams.
SCRUBS!
[…] The product exposed the shady world of card trimming, and eventually led to an FBI investigation. […]
Sadly, I think eBay is reading only to cover their own ass. In 2013 they started *Masking* bidder ID’s after it was brought to their attention cards were being bought, altered, and resold on their platform and bidding ID’s made it easy to track.
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