Blake Martinez made a name for himself many times over. Aside from gaining fame as an NFL star player, he also attracted attention by being one of the celebrities to dabble in selling collectibles online, who then became accused of being scammers.
Unlike most of his contemporaries, who made questionable fortunes in non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrency, Blake made his by selling physically collectible trading cards, including Pokémon and sports cards, through the streaming platform WhatNot.
His first sale during the early days of the pandemic netted him $108,000. This immense sum was obtained by simply auctioning the “vintage” cards that he obtained from opening a box of Pokémon cards while livestreaming. It is this first successful fundraiser that motivated Blake to launch Blake’s Breaks in July 2022.
The new company’s performance was impressive. According to The Athletic, its activities reselling trading cards online in less than 12 months raked in roughly $11 million.
Within that impressive short timeframe, it wasn't long before scam allegations started surfacing online. These allegations ultimately drive the final nail into the business’ coffin… or so it seems.
The controversy started hounding Blake’s Breaks when a former seller on WhatsNot accused Blake and the company of scamming him by not shipping some of the cards he pulled and paid for during a stream.
The seller had no choice but to seek out refunds for the entire pack, which allegedly allowed Blake’s Breaks to keep the high-value cards already paid for.
The former seller, whose username was Sakura’s Card Shop, posted screenshots of their exchange with Blake’s Breaks on Twitter.
Other accusations started appearing, including claims that staff members resealed opened packs and that they have also employed card mapping to rig the live stream results.
WhatNot eventually banned Blake Martinez’s business venture from pursuing its trade further in its platform. It also promised refunds to affected buyers, but there were no specifics. Nor were there any further actions from law enforcement to address these claims of fraud.
As for Blake Martinez? He is now back to playing in the NFL as of December 2023 as a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
What does he think of the allegations thrown at him? “[T]here’s a lot of things out there that aren’t true, a lot of speculations, a lot of false claims,” a Yahoo! Finance article quotes him as saying.
However, he indicated that he is actively trying to address these accusations.