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?

[steve B]

I also think it was handled poorly, with the exception that if the cards were in fact stolen and not just sold early by a legitimate seller then maybe.

Depending on what I figured mattered, and maybe if I had a deal with someone else to do the first breaking video of the new product,

Just let it go, it's free publicity, not that I'd need it but someone promoting my products for no money of even free stuff is only a positive.

Or, if Someone else had paid for the right to do the first video
Just have the guy take it down until after the official "first" video was released.

[BobC]

Something about this entire story stinks. You have a legitimate, supposedly ethical, large and well-known corporate entity hiring an outside group that is outside actual law enforcement, and apparently without any actual legal order and backing, showing up at people's homes and confronting them with lies as to their true intent, and then confronting the alleged "wrongdoers" at their personal residence with no advanced warning? It would also seem that the outside group in confronting the alleged "wrongdoers" used some tactic or form of influence to get the result they desired, and retrieve the allegedly stolen property. The entire story leaves a lot of questions unanswered, with many holes to it that may likely never be filled. The tactics used, if there was a true theft behind all this, seem way out of line, and should have been handled through proper legal channels and efforts, using the courts and proper legal authorities. I can possibly understand if the hiring of a non-law enforcement group to more quickly investigate and track down and locate the alleged parties thought to be involved in some wrongdoing was done so as to be able to move much more quickly and effectively than actual law enforcement would likely be able to do, but once you thought you had found the alleged wrongdoing party, all that info and potential evidence should have been immediately turned over to the proper legal and law enforcement authorities. Not have your hired (insert applicable term/word) suddenly show up on people's doorsteps unannounced. What was supposedly done sounds more like something that might have been on an episode of the Sopranos. I'd love to find out if, and when, an actual police report was ever filed for the alleged stolen items, as well as if the group going throughout a neighborhood and up to people's houses had the foresight and courtesy to go to local law enforcement first, to advise them of them of what they planned on doing and get their permission and approval of their activities first.

[D. Bergin]

A little more info here:

https://www.polygon.com/23695923/mtg...d-leaked-cards


Looks like there was either a screw up in shipping the product out and confusing with a similarly titled card release, or there was some sort of backdoor release, somewhere along the line.

Not the first time it's happened apparently.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

A little more info here:

https://www.polygon.com/23695923/mtg...d-leaked-cards


Looks like there was either a screw up in shipping the product out and confusing with a similarly titled card release, or there was some sort of backdoor release, somewhere along the line.

Not the first time it's happened apparently.

So Dave, do you think it was just a coincidence that the men showing up at that person's door were as described, or that it was a blatant and intentional effort to scare the crap out of some entirely innocent people that large "heavy hitting" guys can just show up on your doorstep to give you contact info to call someone at the company, and then stand there while you talk to the company rep who sounds all nice and apologetic while at the same time seems to have made at least veiled threats of you stealing items and jail time? Also, the comment about needing all the items back immediately to supposedly then be able to detect where the hole was on their end so they could then plug it sounds like total BS. If this outfit can hire and so quickly track down and confront these innocent people, one would think such a company should be able to easily and quickly figure out and determine the source of their own internal screw-up and shipping error. So why resort to such questionable methods on their part?

IF, these items had been stolen, then yes, I agree they should be returned to their rightful owner. But per the story, the company rep spoken to apparently claimed that they weren't necessarily stolen or that the party involved had done anything wrong. In that instance, the couple really didn't have any obligation to return anything to the "nice gentlemen" on their doorstep. And in return, this company had no right to intimidate and force/coerce them into taking down any videos about this product they appear to have legally purchased. In my eyes, this company essentially committed theft of this couple's property through threats and intimidation, unless there is even more to and behind this story that isn't known, or being made public yet.

I wonder if the men at this couple's door allowed the husband to contact this company rep using his own cellphone, or if they conveniently provided him with one they brought along? Had that been me, my first call to anyone would have been to the police, after having comforted my other half first, and very quietly advising her to excuse herself and then slip out the back and make her way to a neighbor's house and immediately contact the police from there as well. The supposed comments this company rep made, sound like nothing more than intentionally intimidating threats, using a hired third-party group to act as the on-site physical threat to backup what was being relayed by the rep on the phone. If there really were no accusations or harm intended or directed at this couple, why didn't an actual rep from the company at least try to contact them first by phone or otherwise, possibly via contact info available through the YouTube videos, or have a company rep knock on the door, or at least be present, instead of it being just some hired third party goons? This doesn't seem way different in principle than what was done to that Massachusetts couple that was harassed by Ebay employees a while back. Maybe this other company learned from what happened in that Ebay case, so they use non-employees to apply the more direct pressure and intimidation, and hopefully separate and keep themselves from possibly even harsher civil or criminal charges, if any at all. This whole story has a definitely unfavorable stench to it.