My Brother-in-law Sold My Husband And I Fake Mtg Cards And Is Saying We Are Lying For Free Money.

Location: VA, USA

My husband and I have been into the game Magic the Gathering for a long time now, him starting in 2013 and myself in 2018. My brother-in-law was facing some hardship pending his military separation and post-divorce. He had texted me telling me he was wanting to sell his collection of cards, many of them being very expensive cards. Some card examples include at least one copy of each dual land (Volcanic Island, Tundra, Badlands, etc.), three Time Twisters, Mox Diamonds, Lion's Eye Diamonds, and more. I have all of the cards still in the original binder he sold them to me in, sans one we gifted to a friend later. The whole collection, if real, should've costed over $35,000, but he sold everything to me at $27,000. I paid him via Cash app, Venmo, and check. I used the first two because he was in another state attempting to iron out his separation details and accomodations with the VA. When I purchased the cards, I lived in Delaware. I have since moved to Virginia.

Well, not too long after we gave one of the cards to our friend, I believe a dual land card, he went to trade it in at his local game store as he had fallen on hard times after a house fire. He contacted us a little while later to tell us the card was rejected by the shop as it was a fake. So, my husband and I recently went to a couple of our local Tabletop gaming stores to have the cards tested and every single one is fake. They did the green dot test, checked the lettering on the cards, and even tore one of the more expensive ones in half to reveal a black core when they're supposed to be blue. We even have video of the manager of the shop saying her full name then saying, "I am willing to stake my professional reputation on the fact that every single one of these cards are fake."

We contacted my brother-in-law and he is trying to say that we are lying because we have "bought more cards since." We haven't purchased any of the cards we had initially purchased from him and I have receipts to prove that. He does have an extensive track record of lying, which I also have evidence of and was only made aware of recently, post transaction. The other issue is, he has since moved across the country to Washington State.

That was a large sum of money to drop for the product to turn out fake. I still have every text message from him about the cards. Right down to his changing story of where he had the cards authenticated at. First it was in Australia, then it was in California, now it was in Washington. First, he said he bought them from some guy at a garage sale, now he's saying he got them from a reputable gaming shop.

What are my options moving forward? Should I obtain a lawyer? What state should I look into filing anything in?

I know he's family, but it's not like I loaned him $20 and he hasn't paid me back. I already feel dumb and have been losing sleep over it. I want to try to fix this situation. Please do try to be helpful and not negative.