Blake Martinez Pokemon card scam explained Why NFL players company was banned from Whatnot
Blake Martinez Pokemon card scam explained Why NFL players company was banned from Whatnot
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Blake Martinez retired from the NFL to begin selling Pokemon cards full-time. Now, he's back in the league after signing a practice squad contract with the Panthers.Why is Martinez back? Well, it appears that his main off-field avenue for revenue dried up.Prominent trading card marketplace Whatnot announced it would be banning Martinez's company, Blake's Breaks, from its site after an investigation into reports that he had scammed customers.Card trading has become a major market in recent years, with celebrities such as Post Malone and Logan Paul getting deeply involved in the industry. Martinez, in committing full-time to the proce s, had reportedly been turning quite a profit trading Pokemon cards. in July that he had made $11.5 million from his card-trading busine s in just under a year."He's an incredible talent building a million-dollar busine s," Whatnot general manager for trading card games Craig Jones told The Athletic in July. "Blake brings the same level of hype he had sacking a quarterback when he pulls a Charizard from a pack."MORE: Le s than a month after Whatnot's GM praised Martinez, the platform banned him from selling on their site.What led to the ban? Here's what you need to know.YouTube and Reddit users accused Blake's Breaks of swapping out high-level packs on streams for lower Jarrod Wilson Jersey -level packs. There were also reports that orders had never been shipped out to purchasers. And Martinez is also alleged to have manipulated live bets on his channel, fixing energy card packs to ensure no one betting would have a chance of winning. has been publishing a multi-part series on his channel called "Even Former NFL Players Will Scam You On Whatnot?" that has featured already nine videos, with several videos reaching or surpa sing 40 minutes in length detailing various allegations against Martinez's company.Whatnot reportedly conducted an investigation and found enough evidence to determine Martinez's company should be banned from the marketplace. Whatnot added that it refunded buyers impacted by his company, and left open a submi sion form for anyone to report further incidents.We really appreciate the communitys commitment to reporting trust & safety i sues. Our priority is ensuring a fair and honest Tyler Conklin Jersey experience for customers and upholding our community guidelines. After a comprehensive investigation into Blakesbreaks operations we have decided to Whatnot (@Whatnot) MORE: Before Whatnot's announcement of the ban, that he understood the optics of the allegations that had come out about him on Reddit and said he knows "the type of busine s I run." In the stream, he said he acknowledged there would be a staffing change made, but did not explain what happened.Martinez said he has spoken with Whatnot and explained his side of the story."I just want to say sorry to everybody that was out there. You have the right to feel the way you do because I know the optics acro s the board," Martinez said on the stream. "I never wanted to make this feel like a scam. I never wanted to make this feel any type of way. I didn't want to give any reason whatsoever."On his first day with the Panthers, Martinez addre sed the i sue briefly with reporters, saying "there's a lot of things out there that aren't true" and he is still "working through those type of things."Addre sing allegations he scammed buyers on Whatnot, new Panthers linebacker Blake Martinez says there are a lot of false claims out there. Joe Person (@josephperson) If you're a collector, chances are you've been on Whatnot. The marketplace operates differently than others in that collectors will purchase and sell items through live streams.Streamers selling items will discu s what they have on videos, and those in the chat room can either compete in an auction for particular items or buy them immediately at certain prices. All sales are conducted with Whatnot as the middle-man, helping to reduce the chances of scams.Whatnot streams will sell just about anything. Though Martinez was involved in the trading card market, other items sold through the site include jewelry, antiques, art, clothing, food, NFTs and other various products.MORE: Per Spotrac, Martinez Bryce Huff Jersey has made $28,948,893 to date during his career in the NFL. Martinez is entering his ninth season after signing with the Panthers' practice squad; he spent his first eight seasons with the Packers, Giants and Raiders.The bulk of Martinez's earnings came from a three-year contract signed with the Giants in 2020 after he finished his rookie deal with Green Bay.Following his time with New York, he spent the 2022 campaign with the Raiders on a one-year, $1.12 million deal.After starting all 64 games between 2017 and 2020, Martinez played in just seven total games over the 2021 and 2022 seasons final. He tore his ACL in Week 3 of the 2021 season, which ended his campaign early. He was initially on the Raiders' practice squad in 2022 and appeared in several games for the team before deciding to retire on Nov. 10.Martinez announced his decision to retire after he reportedly sold a rare Pokemon card, a Pikachu Illustrator card, for $672,000.Per The Athletic, Martinez began his company, Blake's Breaks, in July 2022 after he began to find succe s buying copyright and trading them to collectors. With his company, he bought warehouses and hired nearly 20 full-time employees to host live streams opening cards and selling them through Whatnot streams."I just asked myself, do I want to keep starting over from ground zero with football, and keep destroying my body, or do I want to start over from ground zero here, and do something I can actually sustain for a long time?" Martinez said, per The Athletic. "I loved football. But what I found out was I loved building and running my own team even more."But after Blake's Breaks Whatnot, it appears that Martinez is going back to what was previously his more lucrative career. Panthers fans may soon get a chance to see him on the field depending on when the team decides to elevate him (or sign him) from its practice squad.
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