Card Prices Are Being Faked. A Man Went to Prison for It.

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Become an ORGAN DONOR: https://www.organdonor.gov/sign-up A man went to federal prison for faking auction prices. eBay banned its biggest trading card seller over "shill bidding." And right now, a lawsuit alleges that some of the biggest card sales ever recorded were manufactured. In this video I break down how fake bids and fake sales poison the "sold" prices — the comps — that every collector trusts, what the verified cases actually prove, and the five checks I run before I believe any comp. Every price tool the hobby relies on — eBay sold listings, TCGplayer Market Price, PriceCharting, Card Ladder, Collectr — is built on one input: recorded sales. Shill bidding and wash trading forge that input. A fake sale costs the manipulator a marketplace fee. It costs the market a poisoned comp that reprices every copy of that card. This is part two of the manipulation series. Part one covered how buyouts fake the asking prices — this one covers how fake sales corrupt the sold prices. Together, that's both halves of every number you see in this hobby. To be clear: Bill Mastro's shill bidding is documented fact — he pleaded guilty and served federal time. eBay stated its reasons for the PWCC ban; PWCC denied wrongdoing. The Alt Platform lawsuit contains allegations, not proven facts, and Fanatics is not a defendant. No specific Pokémon seller is accused of anything in this video — the patterns are what matter. Please email me at: PokePulse150@gmail.com ⚠️ Disclosure: I buy, sell, and grade cards on these same platforms and hold sealed product and slabs whose values depend on these comps. No sponsor paid for this video. Follow the money before you follow the hype. Links: https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/chicago/press-releases/2012/william-mastro-and-two-other-executives-of-former-mastro-auctions-indicted-for-allegedly-defrauding-bidders-in-online-and-live-auctions-of-sports-memorabilia-and-other-collectibles https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/former-owner-mastro-auctions-sentenced-20-months-federal-prison-shill-bidding-scam https://www.nydailynews.com/2015/08/14/prosecutors-want-sports-memorabilia-exec-bill-mastro-to-spend-20-months-in-prison/ https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6323468/2025/04/30/alt-pwcc-lawsuit-sports-cards/ #pokemon #psagrading #ebay #charizard #pikachu #collectibles #cardgrading #slabs #cardparty #pokemoncards #pokemonmarket #pokemontcg