In sports cards, as in many things in life, big money can mean big problems.In June, accusations of a nearly half-million-dollar sports card deal gone bad became public.The salient issue for collectors is how to avoid being scammed when dealing with a private transaction outside of a reputable auction house, where both buyer and seller have protection. That goes for six-figure transactions, but every day there are many private deals done via social media platforms for far less money where the seller doesn’t want to pay fees to a third-party marketplace and payment is conditioned on proof of receipt of the item.The Athletic spoke to one of the biggest collectors in the hobby and also one of the country’s top criminal defense lawyers, New York-based Jeffrey Lichtman, on how to navigate these issues so that you’re less likely to get scammed.First let’s describe the nightmare scenario of an alleged $478,000 loss, according to the parties involved. The card in question was the one-of-a-kind 2012 Panini Prizm Tom Brady Black Finite, one of the hobby’s most coveted cards. The buyer, Steve Pocklington, in an appearance on a four-hour episode of Sports Cards Live, said he paid the seller, who was supposedly based in Mexico and may or may not actually exist, after a third-party broker vouched for the transaction. The broker also appeared on the show and said he had done hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of transactions with Pocklington before the Brady card deal, but when Pocklington sent the seller the massive sum for the card, the broker forwarded a FedEx box that had no Brady card in it. The broker claimed he had held the card, but the box was packed by the seller and he just added a label.The broker added that the deal happened over a year ago now and that FedEx denied the insurance claim on the package. Pocklington said he’s still working with law enforcement to try to recover his money, but the broker said he’s never been contacted by law enforcement.How could this alleged transaction have been managed better to mitigate this monumental risk? How do buyers protect themselves when not using an auction house or public marketplace as an intermediary? Lichtman says, the best way is using an auction house as a broker.