What is Piggy Banx?

[BrothBerger22]

i know this may not be a surprise to many of you, but some ebay sellers got together and deduced that piggybanx ceo BRAD PERLMAN was bidding up every single piggy banx auction on ebay. They pieced together all of the bidding histories, when the guy accidentally bid the items up too much and he won them. The name on the account was some random name, but when it went to ship to authentication, it was addressed to Brad Perlman, and the forward addressed matched the address of his studio.

I read these screen caps and nearly died. Someone said "I thought he was a celebrity, yet here he is sitting around all hours of the day bidding on his own "art"..." sic.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQ5DJ..._web_copy_link

that link goes to a video explaining how they followed these breadcrumbs. pretty hilarious. makes you wonder what these are really worth.

He just had huge auctions at Goldin... I'm sure he didn't bid on those.... or those 50k mega charity auctions he runs privately.... what a scam.

[GuacamoleCards]

I have one I need to sell, maybe I'll get lucky and he'll shill bid on mine!

[ninjacookies]

Originally Posted by BrothBerger22

i know this may not be a surprise to many of you, but some ebay sellers got together and deduced that piggybanx ceo BRAD PERLMAN was bidding up every single piggy banx auction on ebay. They pieced together all of the bidding histories, when the guy accidentally bid the items up too much and he won them. The name on the account was some random name, but when it went to ship to authentication, it was addressed to Brad Perlman, and the forward addressed matched the address of his studio.

I read these screen caps and nearly died. Someone said "I thought he was a celebrity, yet here he is sitting around all hours of the day bidding on his own "art"..." sic.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQ5DJ..._web_copy_link

that link goes to a video explaining how they followed these breadcrumbs. pretty hilarious. makes you wonder what these are really worth.

He just had huge auctions at Goldin... I'm sure he didn't bid on those.... or those 50k mega charity auctions he runs privately.... what a scam.

This was not totally predicted on page 1.


So what's the next step? Are any of these low IQ fleeced buyers going to actually pool together and press charges? Or just the usual 15 minutes of rage, amnesia, then back to impulsively overpaying on the next overtly obvious scam?

[GuacamoleCards]

Originally Posted by ninjacookies

This was not totally predicted on page 1.


So what's the next step? Are any of these low IQ fleeced buyers going to actually pool together and press charges? Or just the usual 15 minutes of rage, amnesia, then back to impulsively overpaying on the next overtly obvious scam?

Well, I'm one of them and no I'm not going to waste my time and try to press charges

In all seriousness, this thread was fun to read back through. I have some of these art cards from a handful of "artists". I liked them at the time, so I bought them. Now they just kind of sit in my closet and predictably aren't worth anything. I'll probably offload them for whatever I can get for them.

One thing that the guy who was getting piled on said... the packaging on these PiggyBanx really is awesome. The same is true with a lot of these artists, but PiggyBanx especially... the packaging does make you feel like you have something special.

Anyway... I'm a moron, don't be like me.

[ninjacookies]

Originally Posted by GuacamoleCards

Well, I'm one of them and no I'm not going to waste my time and try to press charges

In all seriousness, this thread was fun to read back through. I have some of these art cards from a handful of "artists". I liked them at the time, so I bought them. Now they just kind of sit in my closet and predictably aren't worth anything. I'll probably offload them for whatever I can get for them.

One thing that the guy who was getting piled on said... the packaging on these PiggyBanx really is awesome. The same is true with a lot of these artists, but PiggyBanx especially... the packaging does make you feel like you have something special.

Anyway... I'm a moron, don't be like me.

Lesson learned, dude. But seriously, nothing about these AI generated cards indicated they were of worth, much less $500 each? Absolute brilliant scheme by that shyster cashing in on the early AI art buzz. Eerily reminiscent of the junk that flooded when NFT's the big buzzword.

But if the price doesn't make sense and the so-called 'handmade art' is being churned out by the thousands per week, it's a general safe rule to stay far away.

You could commission actual artists on Fiverr that could make you better hand drawn art than that at a quarter of the price.

[BrothBerger22]

From what I understand, there is an artist at Piggy Banx who is fiverr quality. or they're hiring fiverr artists to knock off real artists.

The recently released this landmark design (or so they claim) of rolex pieces that come together to look like a heart... and then they did it with pieces of a porsche to look like a heart.... the issue is they completely stole this design from a russian artist;

piggybanx:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DPCHjaSCSIA/

original:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DPd767yDF6H/

she even did a rolex heart, a lamborghini heart...

It's funny when piggybanx collectors attack other collectors and tell people to stay in their lane. Peak hypocrisy lol.

[jcardstore]

Originally Posted by BrothBerger22

i know this may not be a surprise to many of you, but some ebay sellers got together and deduced that piggybanx ceo BRAD PERLMAN was bidding up every single piggy banx auction on ebay. They pieced together all of the bidding histories, when the guy accidentally bid the items up too much and he won them. The name on the account was some random name, but when it went to ship to authentication, it was addressed to Brad Perlman, and the forward addressed matched the address of his studio.

I read these screen caps and nearly died. Someone said "I thought he was a celebrity, yet here he is sitting around all hours of the day bidding on his own "art"..." sic.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQ5DJ..._web_copy_link

that link goes to a video explaining how they followed these breadcrumbs. pretty hilarious. makes you wonder what these are really worth.

He just had huge auctions at Goldin... I'm sure he didn't bid on those.... or those 50k mega charity auctions he runs privately.... what a scam.

people with a brain aren't wondering. They're worth basically nothing.

This was the most obvious shill job ever but people still fell for it.

It would be hilariously ironic if this guy was served for real after sending that fake cease and desist to someone who parodied his cards

[Beavers98]

Shocked I tell you. HAHA, I think I responded in here saying this stuff was trash, but just left after all the defenders jumped in. Quite the scam and hopefully a lesson learned.

[BrothBerger22]

The funniest thing of all is that Goldin Auctions did a promo with him highlighting some of his cards on the Goldin Platform...

Ohhh little did Ken know, the artist was probably the one bidding them to stratospheric levels. They probably came from the studio, too.

But hey, at least Ken made that buyer premium.

Will be interesting to see how the other guys who partnered up with him respond, Steve Aoki, etc.

[jcardstore]

Originally Posted by BrothBerger22

The funniest thing of all is that Goldin Auctions did a promo with him highlighting some of his cards on the Goldin Platform...

Ohhh little did Ken know, the artist was probably the one bidding them to stratospheric levels. They probably came from the studio, too.

But hey, at least Ken made that buyer premium.

Will be interesting to see how the other guys who partnered up with him respond, Steve Aoki, etc.

Nobody is going to respond because nobody cares. Another day, another scammer.

They will exist as long as there are stupid people to take advantage of

[GuacamoleCards]

Originally Posted by ninjacookies

Lesson learned, dude. But seriously, nothing about these AI generated cards indicated they were of worth, much less $500 each? Absolute brilliant scheme by that shyster cashing in on the early AI art buzz. Eerily reminiscent of the junk that flooded when NFT's the big buzzword.

But if the price doesn't make sense and the so-called 'handmade art' is being churned out by the thousands per week, it's a general safe rule to stay far away.

You could commission actual artists on Fiverr that could make you better hand drawn art than that at a quarter of the price.

Oh yeah, I'm not really too concerned about it. I didn't spend any money I can't afford to lose, and I didn't really buy them as investments. I genuinely like(d) the ones I bought, I just don't really as much anymore. Not a big deal.

I will say the printing quality of some of these various artists cards is very good. It makes me wonder what someone with a more artistic mindset (not AI generated garbage knocking off other people's TMs) could do. Even if Topps just incorporated some of the variations into their sets, it would be pretty cool.

Anyway, like you said, lesson learned.

[BrothBerger22]

Submissions are open, $750.00 or $5000.00 which one are you taking?

https://piggybanxinc.com/

[ninjacookies]

Originally Posted by GuacamoleCards

Oh yeah, I'm not really too concerned about it. I didn't spend any money I can't afford to lose, and I didn't really buy them as investments. I genuinely like(d) the ones I bought, I just don't really as much anymore. Not a big deal.

I will say the printing quality of some of these various artists cards is very good. It makes me wonder what someone with a more artistic mindset (not AI generated garbage knocking off other people's TMs) could do. Even if Topps just incorporated some of the variations into their sets, it would be pretty cool.

Anyway, like you said, lesson learned.

That 'great printing quality' can be obtained by any $500+ level consumer printer. But I suppose user perspectives can be skewed if they're used to the $8.99 homemade ACEO specials from spam hoarding Ebayers...




And there is nothing that proves that any of their 'art' was/is authentic. I do not believe for one second that they even commissioned any true artists to do their work, because they don't need to. Until they release a full time lapse video or actually sell paint-to-canvas originals, it's a good bet that all their work were simply made via locally hosted or online image generators. Which require zero skill. Just patience to finally get the outcome you desire.


Nobody here cares for updates outside of a good daily source of chuckles.

[BrothBerger22]

oh for sure.... i chuckled good and low when i saw the website prices.

[GuacamoleCards]

Closing the loop on my experience with these, which just ended in a paid auction.

I don't know if there is shill bidding going on or not... but I put my one and only Piggy Banx piece up for a 7 day auction starting at $1. I'm a top rated seller, but by no means a "big" eBay account (less than 1000 feedback score).

292 views on this auction, 31 bids received from 11 unique bidders. There were a couple of bidders with suspiciously low feedback (one with 10, another with 20, another with 22) but the winning bidder has a feedback score of of 368 and paid promptly.

End up getting $1,247 for this card and the associated original packaging materials, which is significantly more than I paid for it. I originally offered this up on IG where I have few followers who collect this sort of thing, and on the Piggy Banx Discord (which I do not read, but I'm a member of for the sole purpose of trying to sell this card). No takers. I would have taken significantly less than this.

I'm now done with this. There are apparently a few people who still collect these, I guess. Would I do it again? Nah, not really... but I at least I escaped alive. This will ship out to eBay authentication (I'm not sure what exactly they are authenticating... hopefully no issues there, we'll see).

[BrothBerger22]

For the sake of transparency can you post a screenshot of the bidding activity? I know a bunch of people are tracking the names of the bidders and have put together a network of guys working together to bid up the piggy auctions.... they bid them up to around $750, and then lay off. Curious to see the names on the bids.

Originally Posted by GuacamoleCards

Closing the loop on my experience with these, which just ended in a paid auction.

I don't know if there is shill bidding going on or not... but I put my one and only Piggy Banx piece up for a 7 day auction starting at $1. I'm a top rated seller, but by no means a "big" eBay account (less than 1000 feedback score).

292 views on this auction, 31 bids received from 11 unique bidders. There were a couple of bidders with suspiciously low feedback (one with 10, another with 20, another with 22) but the winning bidder has a feedback score of of 368 and paid promptly.

End up getting $1,247 for this card and the associated original packaging materials, which is significantly more than I paid for it. I originally offered this up on IG where I have few followers who collect this sort of thing, and on the Piggy Banx Discord (which I do not read, but I'm a member of for the sole purpose of trying to sell this card). No takers. I would have taken significantly less than this.

I'm now done with this. There are apparently a few people who still collect these, I guess. Would I do it again? Nah, not really... but I at least I escaped alive. This will ship out to eBay authentication (I'm not sure what exactly they are authenticating... hopefully no issues there, we'll see).

[GuacamoleCards]

Originally Posted by BrothBerger22

For the sake of transparency can you post a screenshot of the bidding activity? I know a bunch of people are tracking the names of the bidders and have put together a network of guys working together to bid up the piggy auctions.... they bid them up to around $750, and then lay off. Curious to see the names on the bids.

I will DM you. Personally I'm not sure how I feel about outing usernames like this...

Here is a link to the auction. Since it's now ended (and paid, and shipping off tomorrow morning) I feel more comfortable sharing it as to not be accused of pumping. I'm definitely not pumping these things (I'm actively trying to exit this space and have had mixed results with some of my other stuff). Just sharing info for posterity's sake.

https://ebay.us/m/ayc3fw

Like I mentioned in my DM, if you want to take a look at the masked list of bidders and let me know if anything stands out, I'm happy to cross-reference whatever names you have and tell you whether or not there is a connection. But I don't think it's right to just tell you usernames of people who bid on my item (I wouldn't necessarily mind someone doing that to me... but I'm not sure if others would).

[BrothBerger22]

did this guy bid -

https://www.ebay.com/usr/collec_1823...p2471758.m4792

Originally Posted by GuacamoleCards

I will DM you. Personally I'm not sure how I feel about outing usernames like this...

Here is a link to the auction. Since it's now ended (and paid, and shipping off tomorrow morning) I feel more comfortable sharing it as to not be accused of pumping. I'm definitely not pumping these things (I'm actively trying to exit this space and have had mixed results with some of my other stuff). Just sharing info for posterity's sake.

https://ebay.us/m/ayc3fw

Like I mentioned in my DM, if you want to take a look at the masked list of bidders and let me know if anything stands out, I'm happy to cross-reference whatever names you have and tell you whether or not there is a connection. But I don't think it's right to just tell you usernames of people who bid on my item (I wouldn't necessarily mind someone doing that to me... but I'm not sure if others would).

[GuacamoleCards]

Yes, that user had some early bids, looks like they exited the bidding at $480

[BrothBerger22]

That is one of Piggybanx burner accounts that he bids up auctions with. If you look at his feedback, he has been busy buying up auctions on DCSPORTS. They have a network of accounts they use to bid up auctions and feign interest. Pulls people in.

Some guys are working with DCSPORTS and it looks like he might be sending his own pieces there, bidding them up, hoping people will jump on and buy them. And quite a few times him and his buddies are bidding too high, but they pay them, because it sets a "comp" and "protects his market floor".

Nothing is what it seems with them. You're smart to be exiting.

Originally Posted by GuacamoleCards

Yes, that user had some early bids, looks like they exited the bidding at $480

[BrothBerger22]

They know a few of their burners have been made, so they're going to be smarter about it now... but they are making up this lie that "of its about protecting the floor"....

If that was true, they wouldn't be using fake names on their ebay accounts ;p

[GuacamoleCards]

Piggy Banx or even this particular market aside... philosophically speaking, if there was someone "protecting the floor" by bidding up every card of a certain player to a certain amount... would this be a problem?

For example, if I went out and said I'm going to bid up every single Wemby silver and numbered Prizm to $1000 to protect a floor of $1000... would that be bad? So long as I actually paid for all of them, isn't that just the market at work?

Let's now say that it was Panini themselves doing that... would we have a problem with this? I'm not sure how I'd feel... it's an interesting thought experiment for me.

With all that said, it should all be done transparently of course.

[BrothBerger22]

It's market manipulation. Not everyone knows this is happening. It's called a bait tactic. An illusion that your money is safe. Panini won't even be around next year....

So there's that.... What happens when Piggybanx disappears? Ever heard of rug pulls?

Originally Posted by GuacamoleCards

Piggy Banx or even this particular market aside... philosophically speaking, if there was someone "protecting the floor" by bidding up every card of a certain player to a certain amount... would this be a problem?

For example, if I went out and said I'm going to bid up every single Wemby silver and numbered Prizm to $1000 to protect a floor of $1000... would that be bad? So long as I actually paid for all of them, isn't that just the market at work?

Let's now say that it was Panini themselves doing that... would we have a problem with this? I'm not sure how I'd feel... it's an interesting thought experiment for me.

With all that said, it should all be done transparently of course.

[GuacamoleCards]

Originally Posted by BrothBerger22

It's market manipulation. Not everyone knows this is happening. It's called a bait tactic. An illusion that your money is safe. Panini won't even be around next year....

So there's that.... What happens when Piggybanx disappears? Ever heard of rug pulls?

If you want to go out and set a floor for every single Wemby Silver Prizm PSA 10 at $1000, because you have a handful of Wemby Silver Prizm PSA 10s, you have the right to. But if you get stuck buying a bunch of them because the true market price is lower - that's your own problem.

It might be a rug pull, but these are willing buyers for a *collectable*, not a bunch of old people getting scammed out of their social security.

[GuacamoleCards]

I was also confused for a minute... because about the same time that you asked if that user bid on the auction, eBay user "PiggySpanx" - who I thought was hartmansports, messaged me on eBay with the same question...

So... are you just hartmansports' Alt?

Personally, I'm not interested in this gotcha game about Piggy Banx. I had one card, and now I've thankfully exited that card. I was posting my experience in case someone was researching them and wanted info on them. Leave me out of the drama.