It’s being called ‘the largest bust in the history of sports collectibles.’ An Indiana man was raided by police on Tuesday for selling counterfeit goods, with two locations searched and hundreds of millions of dollars of merchandise seized. Now it’s probably the time to have any sports memorabilia checked if you’ve bought anything in the last 25 years.
Your prized sports memorabilia could be counterfeit
Mammoth counterfeit sports memorabilia bust has the potential to break the industry.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Brett Lemieux was the owner/operator of “MisterManCave,” which had become one of the biggest sellers of sports collectibles in the United States. Lemieux admitted to selling forged merchandise through eBay and to other retailers in a now-deleted manifesto he posted to a collector’s group on Facebook. In it Lemieux said that since the year 2000 he has sold over 4 million individual items, with sales topping $350M over that time period.
“95% of the [Patrick] Mahomes and Aaron [Judge] on the market are sold by me. Basically every autograph sold in the last 25 years you should have it looked at. It’s fake and someone sold it to you other than me. I wish I had the exact dollar number of money taken in from this and I’ll go to my grave never knowing. I kept this secret from everyone.”
Lemieux characterized his selling of fake collectibles as an “addiction,” saying his business began as a legitimate money making venture, but transformed over time to being almost exclusively forged items after MisterManCave began mixing in faked items with legitimate originals.
If you think your item might be safe because of a security hologram or tag, think again. Lemieux said that he sourced counterfeit security measures direct from the manufacturer to make his fake items appear more believable. This extended to some of the biggest retailers in sports.
“We sold over 5 millions Fanatics holograms alone outside what we produced to the biggest vendors in the industry. JSA we made and produced over 3 million counterfeit stickers and holograms. Steiner sports. Wow. We made yellow cards holograms and then numbered sets in the millions. Panini. Oh yea almost forgot. We produced holograms and cards for their entire database. When Kobe died we put out 80,000 items into the market place. Sold over 500,000 counterfeit panini items.”
It’s unclear if everything written in Lemieux’s manifesto is accurate, but if true this has the power to do lasting damage to the sports memorabilia marketplace. If the company was indeed producing counterfeit goods and selling those on to legitimate retailers then potentially every single big-ticket sports card, authenticated jersey, or ancillary collectible could be compromised.
Lemieux went on to explain how he was able to produce so many signatures in a quick amount of time.
“You can buy a 150 auto pen on Amazon have people overseas vectorize signature and use ink scrape to auto pen.”
The ringleader of the scheme noted that none of his employees, or even his own family had any idea he was trading in fake memorabilia. Lemieux named a select few individuals who ran the scheme with him, adding that between $500-700M of fake goods were seized by police in the raid.
“It was a thrill having every athlete in every sport from every authentication company at your fingertips to produce the signature flawless, authenticate it with flawless bootleg holograms and then sell it for half of what a company does b y the 1,000s.”
In addition, Lemieux said he intentionally targeted some of the best-known companies in sports memorabilia, which was all part of the game to him.
“Every company I’ve touched is now my b****. That was my goal. Once you came at me or spoke my name I went after you and your company directly. Intentionally. I want to expose it all and how big of an operate you knew was going on but grasp how big it was.”
Local news in Indiana reports that police found a dead body at one of the locations which was raided, identified only as a man who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Law enforcement officials have not released the name of the deceased man at this time.
It’s important to note that Lemieux was not a small fish. This was not a modest, garage operation — but one of the best-known, and high-profile memorabilia sellers in the market. Steve Grad, an authenticator best known for his appearances on the TV show Pawn Stars said that those in the know had suspicions about Lemieux’s business, specifically in regards to autographed Tom Brady merchandise.
“People have known about this guy. They’ve known his work. They know what he’s been up to. He has been at it for years and years. And he’s driven down the price of things. You know, you look at a Tom Brady autograph and Tom Brady’s value is affected drastically by this individual.”
Those inside the collectibles world concede that MisterManCave flooded the market to such an extent, both directly, and through re-sellers, that thousands of items are likely still circulating despite the bust. The effect of this revelation could have a mammoth impact on the memorabilia market for decades, and it’s unclear if big players in the industry will spend the time and money to check their inventory, or if it will just be business as usual.
It’s a mammoth gut punch to anyone who has purchased sports memorabilia in the last 25 years. There is a very real chance your prized possession could be a fake, and the ripple effect of this raid will last a very, very long time.
See More:
