Interest
Man Nabbed After Selling Counterfeit Yu-Gi-Oh! Card for US$3,600
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Both the Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon trading card games have some serious collectors after ultra-rare cards. Many of these hot commodities are championship prizes. Take for instance this version of the Blues-Eyes White Dragon card. Only one in the entire world exists, and it was up for sale in a card shop in Akihabara this year for 45 million yen (about US$400,000).
One 20-year-old female collector in Kyoto thought she hit the jackpot when a Lorelei, the Symphonic Arsenal Yu-Gi-Oh! card appeared on an auction website. Only six of the cards exist in the world, and they were given out to winners at the 2008 Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship in Germany. The seller asked for 400,000 yen (about US$3,600), and the collector agreed, awaiting her new rare item.
But when the card arrived, it didn't appear like the genuine article. There were color discrepancies, the holographic background was different, and some of the text didn't match. The collector notified authorities, who tracked down 29-year-old seller Shunki Iwasaki. Kyoto Prefectural Police arrested Iwasaki, a self-employed man living in Kitakarasuyama in Tokyo's Setagaya ward, for suspected fraud and violation of Japan's trademark laws.
According to authorities, Iwasaki sold the counterfeit card on an auction website around February 14. Iwasaki reportedly admitted to selling the card although he suspected it might have been fake. He reportedly admitted to the charges and said "There's no mistake" with regard to his actions.
Sources: Sankei Shimbun, MBS News
