IG account "banet_1965" is NOT Takumi Akabane

This account popped up a couple months ago, but in the past couple of weeks, has emphasized the “prototype” cards more and more, with the last seven posts containing one. It was a strange move for him to delete his old account, start a similar one, and emphasize a particular type of Pokemon item so much.

I asked Mr. Akabane if this was him, and he said no. This is a fake account.

From what I’ve been told, the majority of the prototype cards we’re seeing have not come from Mr. Akabane at all, so it’s suspicious that this account is showing so many in the context of being Takumi Akabane, pointing to provenance where there may be none.

Prototype cards give me so much hesitation. Be careful out there.

68 Likes

Thank you so much for sharing

3 Likes

0 stories about hospital/doctor visits gave it away tbh

13 Likes

It’s almost seems like someone is trying to deceptively generate some provenance :thinking:

If you didn’t know, this account (without underscore) was actually owned by Akabane where he would infrequently post some interesting Pokemon stuff

21 Likes

So this IG account was created just in time when all the prototypes hit the market for auction. :face_with_monocle:

8 Likes

Dissapointing to hear. Hopefully the rumors about his health status isn’t true as well.

1 Like

Now we play this stressful game.

  1. The prototypes are fake and this fake Instagram was made to support their alleged origins.

  2. The prototypes are real and this fake Instagram was made to support their alleged origins.

Which will it be? :thinking:

25 Likes

It’s unclear who the audience is intended to be. CGC? The collecting community? Is it just for fun? Unclear.

But it just raises so many questions.

4 Likes

Unfollowed them. Somethings shady

But where’s the provenance the real Alec talked to the real Takumi Akabane :thinking:

23 Likes

Orrrrrr what if only a couple were verified to be from Akabane… and the rest are from another source, piggybacking off that verification, but don’t have their own concrete proveance?..

19 Likes

I messaged banet_1965 and they are trying to sell their prototypes

6 Likes

Ask for pics

1 Like

What’s your line of contact to Mr. Akabane?

I’m really not surprised at all if this is true, its just par for the 2024 Pokemon course anymore.

2 Likes

& F. being pushed by an account pretending to be someone else for credibility (allegedly)

10 Likes

the plot thickens!

Are we gonna skip over that supposedly the fake account is trying to sell “prototypes”?

Anyone have any info or thoughts related to this? I feel like it kinda got lost in the CGC debate.

4 Likes

And we know a figure who has been caught selling Fake slabs (allegedly) in the past has been involved in these prototypes…

The plot thickens.

4 Likes

Instagram user steady.collect has shared a photo of himself and Takumi Akabane in a post briefly describing his visit with him.


Pretty cool to see, but what’s interesting is he tagged the fake Akabane Instagram (banet_1965). And then a little bit later the fake account reposted the photo on their story.

I guess steady.collect doesn’t know that account is fake? Does anyone know if steady.collect is a user on the forum?

11 Likes