McNeilly of DSS Sports Cards joins ‘The Chase’

VP off DSS SC describes fake box ripped at National

By David Yarger

Co-Host “The Chase”

Now, we’ve all heard stories about people receiving fraudulent cards or getting jipped on a deal, but for Jacob McNeilly of DSS Sports Cards, the unthinkable of unthinkables happened to him at National.

While preparing to rip open some 2012 NBA Prizm, McNeilly was overly ecstatic to break the mere $10-14,000 box. As he continued his glee while opening the box’s plastic wrap, his glee quickly turned to shock and disappointment once he opened the product.

Inside, it wasn’t the NBA Prizm packs he expected, but it was Austin Powers packs.

Yep, the box was a dud. Fake and fraudulent.

Monday, live on “The Chase,” McNeilly got the chance to talk more about the disappointing incident.

McNeilly said, even weeks later, it still feels unreal and he can’t believe it still happened.

“Honestly, I mean, I’m still embarrassed. I think embarrassed is the best way I could describe it. But, it’s only embarrassing if you fall down a flight of stairs with a bunch of books in your hands and you let go of the books. I didn’t do anything to cause it, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t embarrassing for me,” he said. “It’s definitely a little bit of frustration too. I don’t think it’s fair that any of us have to work around that. I don’t think anyone should have to fear they’re going to get scammed or that they’re going to have any sort of hiccup in an event that large.”

As far as the 2012 NBA Prizm box, McNeilly said, approximately five to six months ago, he began collecting old wax. He purchased the Prizm box around March or April from a dealer in the midwest. He originally stated he didn’t have many plans for the box, but eventually decided to open it on the grandest stage at the National.

“We really want to make a splash in this industry. We’re still a fairly new business, but I’ve been doing sports cards my whole life. DSS Sports Cards is still fairly new. … We spent a few months hyping it up, getting everyone excited and we decided we were going to do it on Netwrk and we had sold all the spots, except for three … and then we sold the remaining slots at the National. So we were getting really, really hyped,” McNeilly said.

McNeilly added, there’s a lot of good cards that come from the 2012 Prizm box, such as Damian Lillard rookies, Klay Thompson rookies, Anthony Davis rookies and more. He also called it his generation’s ‘86 Fleer’s.

Once the time was ready to break the box, McNeilly said he opened the box, lifted the tab and he saw the Austin Powers packs. He said he looked towards his boss to see if it was a prank, and it most certainly was not.

“He looks down towards the box and he looks just as shocked as me and then I’m like ‘Oh, my Gosh. That just happened.’ We probably had 50 people watching us on Netwrk, we were in front of the CEO of Netwrk, we were at the National. It was really embarrassing,” he said.

The thing about the fraudulent box that made it so stunning, is how the box looked in perfect shape and like it had been untouched. McNeilly even added, following the dud break, he opened a mega box, another hobby and a blaster box. From there, he took the wrapping and mixed it up and couldn’t tell any of them apart. McNeilly had experts check the difference of boxes, too, and they couldn’t tell any differences.

“I never once had an inkling that it would be tampered with,” McNeilly said. Who admitted, he almost sold the box at a Dallas show. “I’m still shocked to this day. I’ve opened boxes more expensive and cheaper and it looked like the exact same Panini wrapping. And I think that’s what’s scary for other breakers or just people who are trying to have some fun and rip some product moving forward.”

McNeilly also had to deal with people in a break who paid for spots specifically for the 2012 NBA Prizm. He was able to keep his cool, offered refunds to anyone who wanted one, but also gave them the opportunity to still go home with something fun.

“I decided we were going to do our best to replace that box,” he said. “Obviously, I can’t open the Austin Powers cards and give them out, because there’s not any benefit in that. … I happened to have two boxes of 2009 Topps basketball, which, ironically, I was going to be opening on WhatNot several hours later. … I was like, let’s just open that box. Let’s see if they want this box instead. We’ll take a small hit if no one wants refunds and if they want refunds, we’ll take a big hit, but at least we tried. I thought that was the best way we could go about this.”

In the end, McNeilly said everyone but one person requested a refund, which was fine to him.

“I don’t regret it one bit. I think I needed to do that for me, because I’ve been scammed before, I’ve been in situations where someone didn’t make it right and I refuse to be that party that didn’t make it right,” McNeilly said.

McNeilly added, he tried to make some fun of it and is even making a shirt that says “I got scammed by Austin Powers.” He said someone is sitting in their garage proud of themselves when they shouldn’t be, so he’s not going to let them enjoy all their fun and the company will move on from it. With a laugh, he said he has never seen the Austin Powers movies.

One thing that should be pointed out is that this could’ve happened to anyone, and anyone could’ve reacted very negatively to the matter, but in this instance, McNeilly kept his cool and looked to stay positive, keeping up a good look for himself and DSS in general – something he was personally, very proud of.

As a young kid, McNeilly said he was sent to Juvie for anger control. While in juvie, he said a corrections officer got him into cards if he would behave. Ever since then, he’s been hooked.

“I’ve been wanting to work in sports cards my entire life,” he said. “Sports cards got me out of juvie. Sports cards got me out of situations that were bad in my life and now I have a full time job and I have a sports cards shop in Omaha, Nebraska. So it was very important to, in that situation, feel that this entire thing that I’ve been working to my entire life culminated in this giant moment at the National Sports Card Convention in New Jersey. And I needed to be able to realize how important that was that you don’t get to be upset here. You don’t get to be a bad example, you have to be a good example. You owe it to the 9-year-old you were back then and you owe it to every kid moving forward.”

To find more on McNeilly and DSS Sports Cards go to the @dsssportscards Instagram here, or also the @dss_enterprises Instagram here. Additionally, McNeilly is on YouTube and WhatNot.

Also on “The Chase” …

– Monday morning, the boys ripped open the new Leaf Lumber baseball product. The product features some game used bat relics and even an auto here or there. Today’s rip included a Bo Jackson bat relic auto out of four. To win these cards, comment on the YouTube video who you think has or had the best batting stance in baseball. Winners will be revealed on Wednesday’s episode of “The Chase.”

– For more information on everything Dave & Adam’s Card World related, visit dacardworld.com or visit all the social media platforms here.