Hasbro/WoTC sends Pinkertons to a breaker's home...

[JustinD]

First let me say I do not collect Magic cards and I am just adding this for the discussion as it is interesting as a story about card manufacturers. Also for the internet lawyers I will label the entire story with the Magic (get the pun?) word ALLEGEDLY for all items.

Youtube Magic card breaker 'oldschoolmtg' legally (per their statements) bought from a seller two boxes of new product for Magic that have yet to be released. The release date was to be a couple weeks from the date he posted the breaking videos.

After posting the break, the manufacturer Wizards of the Coast a subsidiary of Hasbro, sent the Pinkerton Detective agency to his home to demand them back as stolen property. Yes, that Pinkerton Agency of union busting, outlaw shooting fame, that is federally banned from US government employ forever. These agents first went door to door to their neighbors to question them on the breaker before contact stating he “missed an appointment” with them, then came to the door first thing in the morning a sent the poor guys wife into tears as they discussed the possible jail time of theft of property. The breaker surrendered all the items to these “agents” for return to Hasbro.

While I question his actions as I would have laughed at the situation and hoped for a personal payday coming for pressed charges as well as a laughing policeman in my area, what kind of crazy overreaction to the situation was this? I can’t believe that anyone was stupid enough in the company to use this as a first option of resolution prior to just trying to contact the guy. Maybe just a cease and desist for taking down the videos? As the situation was more than likely confusion on the manufacturers part as they could have just packed and sent the items to the initial seller in the first place, I would think that the breaker should lawyer up and see what he can get for his silence as they would probably want this to go away.

I just found this an incredibly interesting story in a very closely related area to our sports cards and will be following this little saga. Seems like an egregious path of comedic errors by the company at each and every step.

Has anyone else seen this story in the collector discussions and what do you think of how it was handled?