Ebay suspends PWCC for shill bidding

[kyle1707]

Originally Posted by auburn35

Shill bidding allegations continue for PWCC.

Are the PWCC Pokemon Card Auctions Being As Shilled As They Look?

Shocking !

Personally I don’t believe 50-75% of all sales from pwcc golden etc

Huge pump and dump manipulation of the market

There are no rules for selling 100s of millions of dollars of cards

And they all know it

There is a reason why the stock market is so strict

[auburn35]

With a new lawsuit on the topic, thought this would be a good thread to bump.

Alt files lawsuit against PWCC alleging fraud in Patrick Mahomes, Kobe Bryant card auctions

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/632...-sports-cards/

Court documents, if anyone wanted to look through the complaint.
https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nys...JTmduWtbJ6hA==



- For those blocked, behind the paywall.

Sports card marketplace Alt filed a lawsuit against former auction house PWCC — now owned by Fanatics — alleging fraud and breach of auctioneer’s duty, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York Supreme Court.

The complaint alleges PWCC conducted a widespread, years-long scheme of shill bidding, using internal and external actors to artificially inflate auction prices for high-value sports trading cards. Alt alleges PWCC retained access to confidential maximum bid information to drive up prices and mislead buyers.

Alt is asking for at least $13.7 million, which is the total losses the company estimates it sustained attributable to PWCC’s alleged fraudulent conduct. Alt is also seeking additional compensation for punitive damages.

Between 2021 and 2023, Alt said it spent more than $10.7 million on PWCC’s platform while winning 707 auctions and obtaining 809 items. In late 2023, Alt alleges to have learned that PWCC’s leadership knew about shill bidding and directly encouraged and allowed other external parties to place fake bids on certain auctions, boxing out the authentic bidders and artificially inflating prices.

Alt also alleges that PWCC flagged when high net worth bidders, such as Alt, were participating in PWCC auctions, and arranged, solicited and encouraged shill bids to increase the bidding.

“For years, customers around the world trusted PWCC’s assurances that when they made a bid on a sports card on their site, that those transactions were fair, transparent and free from manipulation — today’s complaint shows that those assurances were patently untrue,” Alt CEO Leore Avidar said in a statement to The Athletic. “PWCC’s leadership knowingly engaged in fraudulent practices, inflating auction prices and skewing the fair market value for the entire collecting community, including against one of its biggest competitors, Alt.

“This lawsuit is about more than just one company, it’s about ensuring the integrity of the trading card market as a whole and holding bad actors accountable.”

A PWCC spokesperson said both sides had conducted discussions for months before Wednesday’s lawsuit, including evidence for Alt’s claims. The spokesperson said Alt provided none and this is attempt at a “payday.”

“Alt has filed a completely baseless lawsuit against PWCC that lacks any substantive evidence,” the spokesperson said. “Even though the accusations they are claiming occurred before PWCC changed ownership in May 2023, we carefully looked into their allegations and found zero evidence to support their claims.”

This isn’t the first time PWCC has been accused of shill bidding. Leading online marketplace eBay suspended PWCC from selling items on its platform in August 2021 after eBay determined PWCC had engaged in shill bidding on auctions.

“eBay’s policies and standards were designed to ensure a trusted marketplace where our community can transact with confidence,” eBay said in a statement sent to customers in 2021 when explaining the PWCC ban. “If we determine that a buyer or seller is not acting in good faith, eBay takes this seriously and takes action.”

PWCC began its own auction platform after the eBay ban. Fanatics announced the purchase of PWCC in May 2023. The company launched its own auction platform, Fanatics Collect, replacing the PWCC brand soon after its launch in July 2024.

In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, Alt claims that PWCC “engaged or was complicit” in bid manipulation in auctions that included the following cards Alt purchased through PWCC:

- 2017 Panini Prizm Patrick Mahomes Gold rookie card, numbered to 10, Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) grade 10: $528,000
- 2003 Exquisite Collection Kobe Bryant Limited Logos patch auto, numbered to 99, PSA 10: $360,000
- 2018 Panini Prizm Josh Allen Gold Vinyl rookie, numbered to five, PSA 10: $264,000


Alt also questions the legitimacy of a PWCC auction surrounding the Luka Dončić 2018 National Treasures Logoman patch autographed one-of-one BSG 9 graded rookie card that sold for $3.12 million in 2022. The same card sold in a private sale for $4.6 million in March 2021, via Card Ladder.

Alt dropped out of the bidding for the card, but alleges “(a) a member of Group 1 (a group of approximately six individuals Alt alleges fraudulently and collusively bid up items in PWCC auctions) was the seller, and other members of Group 1 submitted shill bids to drive up the price of this card, (b) the winning bidder did not complete the auction sale by paying the winning price to PWCC, (c) PWCC nevertheless publicized this ‘sale’ as if it had actually been consummated, and (d) PWCC discussed with members of Group 1 a private sale at a different price from the ‘winning’ auction price.”

[SaveMeTheGum]

Salt of the earth...

[Rooftop]

Betsy got a new boyfriend?

[seanbros55]

If PWCC was still alone on their island of massive corruption, they’d be farged. Now that Crapnatics owns them, Rubin will grease the right palms make this go away.

[NYRE2PECT]

Originally Posted by Rooftop

Betsy got a new boyfriend?

Couldn't happen to a better group.

[Gem10collection]

who are the 6 people in this shill bid group chat? would love to hear some names getting dropped.

[auburn35]

Originally Posted by Gem10collection

who are the 6 people in this shill bid group chat? would love to hear some names getting dropped.

Not sure if there's a good link to the video (youtube and pwcc links are dead), but this seems to match up with the Mahomes and pwcc video referenced in the complaint.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showpo...18&postcount=1

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...E2pZF_ADasmtgN

[kyle1707]

Large amount of money and no rules

Just an average day in the card world imo

Cesspool.. we all laugh. But it’s a perfect description

Jokes a side. Always funny to read about these things

I’m average card guy and I screamed from the rooftops for years and I know many others did also

You could see the leading bidders on every auction had a bid rate with pwcc or 50-100%

It was going in for years. Screwing 1000s of people on eBay worth extra millions of dollars

Nobody cared for ever

[Gem10collection]

Originally Posted by auburn35

Not sure if there's a good link to the video (youtube and pwcc links are dead), but this seems to match up with the Mahomes and pwcc video referenced in the complaint.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showpo...18&postcount=1

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...E2pZF_ADasmtgN

thanks for the links. the first one is private. btw, thank you for all the great work you have done over the many years for the collectors.

[pspa123]

At least they weren't knowingly selling altered cards or anything like that.

[auburn35]

Originally Posted by pspa123

At least they weren't knowingly selling altered cards or anything like that.

Never stopped and PSA was quick to resume their partnership, as soon as the PWCC name was changed to Fanatics.

[KhalDrogo]

Poor Leore lost a bunch of Alexis’ money, and now they want Rubin to pay for it. What a great story.

[Cards and 401K]

Sold cards with them years ago no one shilled for me. They always listed well and paid in time but Karma is a b—-h…


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[PuddleMonkey]

Manny gonna Manny and PWCC gonna PWCC.

[Bruins1993]

Originally Posted by kyle1707

It was going in for years. Screwing 1000s of people on eBay worth extra millions of dollars

I don't believe there are any laws regarding "Painting The Tape" in this hobby related to online bidding like the stock market so it's the Wild West. That is just as bad if not worse than shilling in my opinion. Buyers take the bait on the way down from the high thinking they're getting a 'deal'... or just buying into that upward curve thinking it will continue to rise...