Pokemon XP trader denies stealing boy’s legendary after viral claims

Trading cards with strangers always carries some risk, but a dispute between a father and the man his son traded with at Pokemon XP escalated into a public back-and-forth over what actually happened at the table.

The card at the center of it was later identified by the boy’s father as a PSA 9 Rayquaza VMAX #218 from Evolving Skies, a card he said his son had spent years saving up and trading other items to obtain.

Eric Bahn set the story off on August 29 when he posted that his son had been scammed during a trade in the second-floor trading area of Moscone South. “My son got scammed big time in a trade at @Pokemon XP,” he wrote. “Lost his most valuable cards in a fraudulent trade by some guy in a booth… Sucks to see an adult take advantage of a child.”

He followed up with a longer post aimed directly at the trader, accusing him of stealing his son’s most valuable card and relaying what he said was a message from his son: “Please stop hurting children. I love this community, and I don’t want other kids to lose trust of people at these kinds of events.”

The story spread fast and pulled in offers of support and replacement cards from other collectors.

Trader denies stealing the card, then agrees to reverse it

A user posting as Paul, who identified himself as the trader Bahn’s son had dealt with, replied directly underneath the post.

“Hi Eric, I’m the one who trade with your son, if you want I’ll reverse the trade i still have the slab, DM me,” he wrote, adding that he’d explained his setup, which he described as three separate binders including an Indonesian high rare collection, to everyone who stopped by his table that day.

According to Paul, the boy approached him first about a card from that binder. “I gave him my price (which was very far from english version price), he give value for his slab,” he explained, saying the boy then talked him down on that card and asked for an extra one thrown in, an offer Paul said he considered before agreeing, letting the boy pick between several copies before they “close the deal with a handshake.”

Paul denied taking advantage of anyone and pushed back on the idea that he’d skipped town. “The reason that i left the table is because the staff only give us 2 hour for the table and i must leave after 2 hours and queue again,” he wrote, adding that the line to get back in was too long, so he went to lunch instead.

He closed his thread defending that: “I never steal nor scam from your son, but instead you accuse me and my country.”

The two later arranged to meet in person. “UPDATE: WE GOT THE CARD BACK!!” Bahn posted the following day, calling it “an unexpected and nice turn of events” despite what he described as “an unpleasant confrontation.”

Paul confirmed the same outcome from his side, writing that he’d asked for an apology and gotten none: “We’ve met and cancel the trade, there are some confrontation, I asked for an apology, no apology was given. Just come to take the card and went home.”

Bahn closed things out by thanking those who’d reached out while pushing back on critics who accused him of chasing attention.

“We never desired for clout in the Pokemon community; we don’t desire to be Pokemon influencers; nor did we expect any gifts or free things,” he wrote, adding that any gifts sent to his son would be valued and matched with an equivalent cash donation to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

It isn’t the first Pokemon trade to spark this kind of fight over what counts as fair. Earlier this year, Pokemon singer Jason Paige faced similar accusations from a vendor over a kids’ trade, while a Thai boy separately lost over a million baht chasing a rare card that never arrived.