S’pore man calls out 'confusing' Pokémon card seller, alleges she threatened to make dead brother haunt him

A dispute over a Pokémon trading card auction in a Singapore Facebook group escalated after a seller allegedly told a buyer to delete his post within 24 hours, saying her late brother might “haunt” him otherwise.

The buyer, Syairazi Haziq Kahar, posted about the incident in the Singapore Pokémon TCG Facebook group on May 9, after accusing the seller of not honouring the reserve price for a Pikachu Grey Felt Hat card and of cross-posting what appeared to be the same card in another group.

Checks by Mothership show that the seller's Facebook profile listed her as a marketing director at PropNex Singapore.

Mothership has reached out to Propnex for comment.

Card listed with S$1,588.88 reserve price

For readers unfamiliar with the Pokémon trading card scene, Syairazi told Mothership that local Pokémon TCG groups usually use several auction terms:

• SB: starting bid
• RP: reserved price
• BO: buyout

In the original auction post, Tan listed the sealed Pikachu Grey Felt Hat card with a starting bid of S$1, a reserve price of S$1,588.88, and a buyout price of S$2,088.88.

However, her post also stated that she "may not release" if it does not meet the reserved price or is too far from the buyout price.

Syairazi said that, based on his understanding of the group’s rules, a seller must release the item once the reserve price is met.

He said he felt the seller was “already breaking the rules” by suggesting that she might not release the card if bids were not close enough to the buyout price.

The group rules seen by Mothership on the Singapore Pokémon TCG Facebook group also state that the reserved price is described as “the price to hit to make the item mandatory to be sold by the seller”.

Buyer messaged seller to clarify

Syairazi said he messaged the seller privately to clarify whether she would still release the card at the reserved price.

The seller then offered to release the card at a higher price of S$1,888.88.

She later explained that she did not like the “slow bidding process” as she had to monitor the auction.

Syairazi questioned her, asking why she had not simply listed the reserved price as S$1,888.88 instead.

The seller replied that she had “already mentioned RP” but added that the bid was “not too far from BO”.

After Syairazi said the line was “very confusing”, the seller apologised for the confusion and told him to continue bidding, saying the market price had gone up again.

Same card allegedly posted in another group

Syairazi said he kept refreshing the auction post to see if anyone had outbid him, but no one had.

The next day, he said, he noticed that the same photos and videos of the card had been posted in another Facebook group.

This time, the card appeared to be listed as a fixed-price “claim” sale rather than an auction.

According to Syairazi’s May 9 Facebook post, the seller's actions of opening an auction in one group and selling the same card for a price in another group was considered going against the rules.

The seller later commented in the second post that the card had already been sold.

In the comments, the seller defended herself and said she did not break any rules as she allegedly had two different cards.

He told Mothership that he had asked Tan whether she had two different cards, but didn't present any proof.

Other Facebook users also questioned why the same photos were allegedly used if there were two separate cards.

Users questioned RP interpretation

Several users in the group weighed in, with many saying that the seller should have honoured the reserve price once it was met.

In response to the criticism, Tan said her description had already stated that she might not sell if the value was not close to the BO price.

Seller allegedly threatened dead brother would “haunt” him

The dispute resurfaced on May 16, when Syairazi posted a follow-up screenshot showing a private message allegedly sent by the seller.

The message appeared to show her telling Syairazi to delete the post within 24 hours.

She also allegedly threatened that if he did not take the post down, she would ask her late brother to “haunt” him.

Syairazi told Mothership that he had initially felt some sympathy when he read the part about her brother.

He said:

“When I read halfway and she mentioned ‘dead brother’, I actually pity her a bit, until I read the whole sentence.”

Syairazi said disputes do happen in local Pokémon card groups, though this was his first personal experience with one.

He said the incident was “not a big deal” to him, and that he mainly wanted to inform others that the seller had allegedly not wanted to release the card at RP and had reportedly cross-posted it in another group.

“I mean it's a nice community overall, most of us are respectful to each other and don't cause trouble. Just follow the rules lah haha.”