Sports card marketplace Alt has filed a lawsuit against PWCC, the former sports card, memorabilia, and collectibles auction house owned by digital sports platform Fanatics, alleging fraud within the auctioning of its sports cards.
The lawsuit, filed with the New York Supreme Court earlier this week, alleges PWCC orchestrated an extensive scheme of shill bidding – using “internal and external sources” to place bids on high-value sports trading cards, to inflate the selling price artificially – between 2021 and 2023.
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The period in question was prior to Fanatics acquiring PWCC in May 2023.
According to court documents, Alt said it discovered that PWCC had access to confidential maximum bid information to drive up prices and mislead potential buyers.
Alt is seeking at least $13.7 million in damages, an amount the company said amounted to the “sustained total losses attributed to PWCC’s fraudulent conduct.” It is also seeking punitive damages to be determined at trial with “applicable interest on the foregoing amounts.”
The lawsuit follows Alt winning 707 PWCC auctions, acquiring 809 items between May 2021 and December 2023, paying more than $10.7 million to purchase the items.
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By GlobalDataHowever, in late 2023, the Alt alleges the PWCC leadership became aware of the activity and encouraged and allowed other external parties to place fake bids on certain auctions to artificially increase the price.
Alt also claims the PWCC would signal when high net work bidders, including Alt, were participating in auctions and arranged for shill bids to increase bidding.
The auction items Alt claims PWCC “engaged or was complicit” in inflating prices through shill bidding include:
- A 2017 Panini Prizm Gold rookie card of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes
- A 2018 National Treasures Rookie Logoman Patch Autograph card of NBA icon Luka Doncic
- A 2003 Exquisite Collection Kobe Bryant Limited Logos patch autograph card
- A 2018 Panini Prizm Josh Allen Gold Vinyl rookie card
In a statement, Alt's chief executive Leore Avidar said customers globally trusted PWCC’s assurances that its transactions were “fair, transparent and free from manipulation.”
He said: “Today’s complaint shows that those assurances were patently untrue. 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. Alt remains committed to building a marketplace where collectors and investors know their purchases are fair and free from price gouging at the whim of executives.”
However, a spokesperson for PWCC told news outlet The Athletic the accusations were “completely baseless” and lacked “any substantive evidence.”
They added: “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.”
PWCC was previously accused of shill bidding in August 2021 and had its listings restricted on the online selling platform eBay due to “individuals associated” with PWCC allegedly engaging in shill bidding.
PWCC denied the allegations and set up its auction platform after the restrictions were placed on it.
Fanatics acquired PWCC in May 2023, which saw the auction house brought under the Fanatics Collectibles division ahead of the company launching Fanatics Live, the live shopping and e-commerce platform for collectors in the latter half of that year.
PWCC joined trading card firm Topps under Fanatics Collectibles, which is led by chief executive Mike Mahan, with PWCC founder and chief executive Brent Huigens leaving the company two months later.
In July 2024, meanwhile, Fanatics announced it had dropped the PWCC brand to relaunch a new trading card forum called Fanatics Collect.
