Customs officials at Shanghai's Pudong Airport made a massive bust after they uncovered over 7.6 tons of counterfeit Pokémon trading cards that were bound for the Netherlands.The Twitter account for Yicai Global, a news service of Yicai Media Group based in China, reported that 20 boxes of the fake Pokémon cards were on their way to the European country from a company based in the Qingdao province of China. Yicai Global states that this "is one of the biggest fake IP hauls in recent years."
The video from Yicai Global's post shows what appears to be a booster box adorned with the Pokémon Charizard, Gardevoir and Obstagoon. On closer inspection, the text on the booster box reads "espada e escudo voltaje vivido," the Spanish translation of Sword and Shield - Vintage Voltage. Sure enough, one can see "Sword and Shield - Vintage Voltage!" printed clearly in English on the back of the box at around nine seconds.
Pokémon's Sword and Shield - Vintage Voltage collection was released in 2020 and is the fourth expansion for the Sword and Shield series of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. This expansion continues the release of Pokémon V and VMAX cards, such as Pikachu V and Orbeetle VMAX. The set also boasts the inclusion of mythical Pokémon Celebi and Zarude, the latter of which has at least two V card variants. The Vintage Voltage booster box is currently listed at around $140 on the Pokémon Center website, while Amazon lists the set at $180. However, both websites note that either the booster box is currently out of stock or will be in stock soon. This lack of availability could well be the reasoning behind the forgers' grand attempt at moving such a horde of cards.
This is not the first time Pokémon cards have been in the news recently for nefarious reasons. It was previously reported that a man living in Dublin, Georgia was arrested for spending more than $57,000 on a rare Pokémon card with the assistance of COVID-19 support funds, which could see the man fined $250,000 and jailed for up to 20 years.
Pokémon cards are a valuable commodity in the collectibles scene. A Gem mint condition yellow cheeks Pikachu card sold for over $1,000 on Heritage Auctions recently. Elsewhere, prominent YouTuber Leonhart pulled a shadowless Charizard card worth $75,000 while doing an unboxing live stream of a previously unopened Base Set booster box from 1999. Shadowless Charizard cards are considered one of the most valuable Pokémon cards out there, with some copies having sold for over $100,000 at auction before.
Source: Twitter