Misleading And/Or Fake Ohtani Items On Ebay

Ohtani items continue to sell briskly on Ebay.  Besides the myriad of BBM, Epoch, Calbee and Topps issues, I've seen a couple home brew cards that people are attempting to claim are legitimate issues.  I thought I'd highlight a couple of the more egragious items I've seen along with an outright fraudulent listing.  I've reported all of these to Ebay but they don't seem to be interested in doing anything about them.

The first card is something that purports to be Ohtani's "2013 FIRST JAPANESE HIGH SCHOOL Rookie Card".  Here's the front and back of it:

The auction description says that "This is a rare opportunity for collectors to own a 2013 high school rookie card of Shohei Ohtani, the first Japanese high school player to receive such recognition. The card is made of 20 Pt. card stock and features the player's image, team name, and card number #. The card is part of the original high school insert set and is licensed by the manufacturer."

I'm not sure where to begin with this.  Let's start with the fact that Shohei Ohtani wasn't in high school in 2013, he was playing for the Fighters.  Remember the NPB draft is in October so he was drafted in 2012.  It's not clear to me whether the seller is claiming the card is Japanese but obviously the vast majority of Japanese cards actually have, you know, Japanese text on them and aren't printed in the USA.  The big thing is that the weight on the back of the card doesn't match Ohtani's weight from 2013 - according to his legitimate baseball cards from 2013, he weighed 86 kg or about 190.  He's bulked up a bit since then.

I'm also amused that the description says that the card has a number but it doesn't.

The second card is supposedly his "2017 Ham Fighters Unique Japanese Card Already A Legend Superstar", whatever that means:

The auction description says "This Shohei Ohtani 2017 Japanese card is unique and it totally rocks!! Featuring Ohtani in his Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters uniform!The reverse his personal info and some of his amazing fears! Card is older than any American card company!"

The first couple things I notice about this card are more issues with the description and not the authenticity.  That's obviously NOT his Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters uniform, it's his Samurai Japan one.  And I'll point out that Ohtani's first American card was from 2017 - it's the Chrome Prospects Mojo Refractor card from that year's Bowman set.

Again, wouldn't a Japanese card have Japanese text on it?  I mean, I've seen more than a few Japanese cards in my day and the only ones that only had English on them were the Broder, TCMA and Play Ball issues - all made by Americans.  

The thing that really stands out on the card, though, and kind of proves that it's not really from 2017 is the Fighter's team logo.  That's the one they started using in 2022 when Tsuyoshi Shinjyo became manager and redesigned the team's uniform and logo.  QED, mother-f*ckers.

I wouldn't have any real issue with either of these cards if the sellers were upfront that they were "art cards" but both of them appear to be trying to muddy the waters and imply that they're legitimate.  The "2013" card is selling for $9.99 and the "2017" card is selling for $19.99.  To be honest, I can see the attraction of the "2013" card as there's no legitimate cards of Ohtani in his high school uniform.  Just don't buy it as an investment.

The last item I want to talk about is outright fraud or, at the very least, intentionally misleading.  Here's a screenshot of the auction:

This is an auction for the 2016 BBM 1st Version Fighters team checklist.  Now, Shohei Ohtani's name appears ont the back of the card since, you know, it's a listing of all the Fighters cards in 1st Version that year and Ohtani was one of them.  But the implication of the listing is that that's Ohtani pitching on the card and it's not - it's Yuki Saitoh.  

The photo on that card was taken in Peoria, Arizona when the Fighters were doing their training camp there.  There were several photos in the 1st Version set that were taken in Arizona that year.  That particular photo appeared on the Fighter's web site.  It's not there any more but both the photo and the webpage that it appeared on are preserved in the Wayback Machine.  I suppose it's possible that Ohtani's the guy standing in the bullpen in the background but that's a long shot as he was batting third in the lineup as the DH in this game.  

The game the photo is from was played on February 8th, 2016 and, as you can see from the box score (well, half box score since it has no stats from the Lotte Giants, the Fighters' opponent that day), Ohtani didn't pitch.  I believe the only game he pitched in Arizona that spring was on February 10th, a game I happened to be at.  He wore the away uniform for that game while the card shows Saitoh in the team's home uniform.

I guess I'm going WAY out of my way to attempt to prove it's not Ohtani on the mound on the card.  But Ebay didn't care when I pointed it out and someone bought the card for $16.75 so what do I know.  I've bought from this particular seller before but I don't think I'll do it again in the future.