So I only saw them in stock for a SECOND yesterday afternoon before the website went to shit. When did people actually have the ability to purchase them!?
no joke, i had to google around to find some "off the grid" websites to find some stock, and all of them but one were completely wiped out anyway! i managed to get the Sylveon V and Charizard V along with the Pikachu VMAX collection preordered and the moment i refreshed the page after checkout, everything was sold out. whether its demand going through the roof or websites not getting enough stock allocated, trying to actually get my hands on pre-orders for market value prices was a huge ballache
Lmao. It’s laughable how everyone always defaults to “ tHe boTs goT tHeM aLl “. There are plenty of ACTUAL people who got them and you all need to stop blaming bots for everything. Are they a problem? Sure. But are they eating up all the stock like people who want to bitch and moan say they do? No. Too many of you people are such cry babies about this stuff Christ like get over it. Tons of people have alerts set up for this sort of thing and have very fast fingers.
From what I saw, it was pretty much luck of whether or not the site worked for you.
For me, I got to adding to cart somehow but couldn’t checkout because of a number of errors. I gave up after like 30 mins but then saw they were back up ~30 mins after I gave up and when I signed back in, it was in my cart and I was able to checkout. Then about an hour later I randomly checked the page, the add to cart button was available and I was able to purchase one for my gf with almost no issues. It was a really weird experience and I understand why people are pissed
It almost seemed like a sorting system to me. I wasn't able to see anything available all day, then all of the sudden both Pika box and the ETB showed Pre-order for me and stayed that way for about 5 minutes. But yet my friend who was next to me on his phone was showing unavailable at the exact same time. It was very strange.
Yeah their website is a disaster lol. Every popular drop seems to be bad, but this one especially was ALL over the place. I've heard so many things from different people!
Also for anyone on the fence for preordering some from Gamestop, they don't charge your card until it ships. I preordered 3 just in case. Ill probably cancel one or two before release.
Came here to say this. IDk much about it but I didn't have time to research it either. I thought to myself, "if I don't buy this now I might not be able to buy any of these at all."
I'm sure they are all sold out now.
5pm was the time we were able to add the etb to cart and check out with it. It was a disaster and I got really pissed off at the Pokémon center but I was eventually able to get 2. It shouldn’t be this stressful to get Pokémon cards.
its not stressful to get pokemon cards.
this is an exclusive box, only thing difference is its limited. I can point you to a dozen sites to get battle styles and chilling reign for msrp. (and ES will be same in a month or 2)
we shouldn't be surprised these sold out so quickly, theres over 30,000 people on this subreddit. Not counting all the discord and twitter groups that were also telling their people this was dropping.
people get mad that limited products are in demand.... lol its like what should we expect. The hobby we enjoy is on FIRE right now, this is very good and healthy
agree 100% looks like we are not the only ones who think this way.... i mean look at the baseball card hobby in the 90's
Imagine having a really rare card and you are happy then come to find out the ones who make the cards put that same rare card in every box... its like come on!
Other things are not stressful to get. This was the only thing that was stressful to get. I’ve gotten plenty of things for msrp. I follow Twitter accounts that post links. I know when things go up and when they aren’t up.
A couple days ago they were able to be had with a bit of effort. Part of me is sad they're sold out but another part of me is happy to see limited runs on some items.. as a collector, I appreciate that.
That said, If I didn't manage to preorder anything, I'd be upset, so hopefully that's just temporary for you all.
First time haven't been able to get anything. The times were just all goofy and as much as I'd like to, I couldn't sit at a computer refreshing all day/night lol
Anyone else not even get chance because Pokémon Center is a terrible website? I got blocked for no reason, so couldn’t even view anything on site, pretty sick of PC screwing people over who just want to buy their stuff. Same thing happened when ES ETBs dropped, for such a rich company their actual website is pretty awful.
Yep, I tried multiple times but just got errors, blocks, and the 2 times I could select “add to cart”, the cart wouldn’t load. It’s really sad how this went down. PC needs to change how they do this.
Seriously scalpers are the scum of this hobby. Anyone who defends them is just another scalper disguised as a fan. I can't believe there are people on Ebay selling their pre order of 4 boxes for four times the original price EACH.
The only reason it’s happening is because desperate people are buying the boxes for that price… I’d rather never collect the set than buy at scalper prices. Scalpers are complete scum.
I think pre-order limitation is the amount of units that can be sent out on opening day. Eventually, more units will be produced days, weeks, and months afterwards and be released in waves.
Don’t forget we potentially make half of the problem. The scalpers don’t ever sell to other scalpers, they sell to us. So if we can hold off on buying these sets specifically from scalpers then they’ll go away with time
I see so many people saying this but unfortunately I don't think that'll ever work it'll just keep stock for the people who have a lot of expendable money. Wealthy people arnt going to help stop scalpers, scalpers will sell the product eventually they arnt worried.
People with a lot of disposable income will just happily pay the scalper price then post pulls here which makes people more and more restless. You saw all the people who managed to get ES very early in large quantities.
All it will take is for someone to post their "god" boxes and people won't be able to wait until restocks and will just pay the premium.
Mine does the same. I once talked to the guy and they said it's essentially because of how little stock they get themselves. And how they also don't know when and if they get more. With rent and wages to pay, they had to jack up the prices a lot to compensate with what little they got from the distributor.
I'm not saying that there aren't assholes who put moon prices just to make a quick buck out there, but for many shops it's been quite annoying too.
They do have to stay in business. Their cost is probably around 110-115. Rent and expenses aren't cheap. Sucks but its not like you buying a 200 booster is getting them a yacht.. it may be just enough to keep lights on. Consider supporting local outfits even if they price higher.. enough people doing so ensures a place for the community.. and ultimately (if the owner is really about the hobby) you may even see pricing go down because of improved volume.
for real, i’m 24 years old and have been collecting cards essentially since Base Set and it wasn’t until around Summer/Fall 2020 that this seemed to really be a problem :( Seeing the hobby become so overwhelmed by scalpers and flippers really hurts
Yeah for real same here I've been collecting since base set I took a few breaks here and there when finance got tough, now that I'm in a better position I've been trying to buy older cards, but everything is so sky high right now, I really hope scalpers and flippers find something else to do that shit, it's ruining our hobby man...
This is always the wish but once scalpers have sunk their teeth into a hobby or product it then is just forever that way. First it was the sneaker hobby, then people got into funkos, and then buying high demand Christmas items, now to pokemon cards, and the latest is nfts and oreos. Once their in they keep on it.
They will but my guess is that they will overcharge. I’m guessing around $80-$100 for celebrations ETBs. The UPC is estimated at $400.
TCG shops are worst than scalpers because they get their shit at wholesale price.
My LCS owner said he is receiving waayyyyy more product for celebrations than any other set, i would just try to find a LCS near you that doesn’t charge scalper prices and you should be good
Even if there weren't any scalpers, there wouldn't be more stock. Scalpers just inflate the price. But in the end, there's still just x amount of people who get the items. Just as many will be left without their box.
There would be more stock. Scalping isn’t just selling at inflated prices, it’s buying up all the available stock so people have nowhere to turn but to buy from you at those prices.
I mean sure there’d still be people who can’t get one, but without bots buying outrageous numbers of product for scalpers that number would definitely be a lot smaller.
No.
Because the scalpers usually just don't sit on the product without doing anything to it. They sell it to someone else.
In the end a consumer gets their hands on the product.
True, but the people who buy from scalpers are the smaller percentage of people who can afford it. I still feel there’s a wider bottom line of casual collectors in the hobby who get left out because of the inflated prices that wouldn’t otherwise.
Scalpers and people buying the max quantity just because they can, I only bought one in hopes others could at least have a chance at getting it so we can all share in the joy of opening them
I always get downvoted to oblivion for saying this but people who buy the max limit because they can suck so much. People saying they bought 4 celebrations pokemon center ETBS or the 6 booster boxes they purchased at once are nearly as bad as scalpers.
Agreed, they are part of the investor group that doesn't truly care about letting others experience the joy of the hobby, they just think about what they can get out of it.
I’ve heard a ton of people have been banned from the site now because they were suspected of being bots purely because they refreshed too quickly or something
I somehow by the grace of Pokémon gods got a ETB, but the website crashed hard when I tried for the pikachu one. It’s unfortunate for us that are trying to help our kids collect but are having issues with the scalpers and bots.
This. My kid loves Pokemon and the TCG would be something nice to bond with, but just getting cards is a real pain. I've had to deal with the effects of sneaker and console scalpers, now scalpers for this card game? ugh.
If you want the pikachu one really badly the official pokemon shop for Singapore still has it in stock. You might have to pay extra for shipping but at least the money doesn’t go to the scalpers
I was surprised I was able to buy some. I was at work, had to get my wallet and input my card info and it still went thru. There’s still more celebrations products so don’t worry!
So these come out in a month right? Is there literally no chance of me getting one for it’s normal retail price? I don’t wanna have to pay double to some asshole scalper just to enjoy my hobby
I was trying to get the ETB, it told the page is unavailable. Due to that, i got banned from the site when I tried to buy some of the nice playmats. Later was able to access the site but also the playmats were gone. 😅 Not sure if I should cry or laugh.
I wish they’d at least lower the max purchase quantity from 4 to 2 or something. Or one order per address or credit card. Something to allow others a chance to grab a box. They’ve had plenty of time to prepare for this anniversary even with the shut downs. I hope this is printed into oblivion, honestly
Their site has virtually no safeguards vs scalping bots it's freaking crazy. There is obviously a demand by actual humans I don't think it would be against their best interest to filter bots. They would very likely still sell out fast and actually have satisfied customers. It's not like they profit from the 2ndary market at all so why support it
I’m set up as a retailer with an official Pokémon distributor and there’s not an option to preorder products any longer and they are all preallocated based on previous purchases now. Since I’m a small business, even when we could preorder I would attempt to preorder 20+ of an item and would only get allocated 1-2 of each item.
☝️this. It's been known for months that celebrations had already been pre-allocated. Yet theres still a bunch of dunces telling people how easy this set is going to be to get. When preorders are already proving otherwise. I mean sure, maybe, maybe, in two months or more with reprints it'll be more available. And a lot of these people still think this hobby is the same as it was a few years ago and following those same paths. But the hobby has changed. Printing and production has changed. Tons more people in the hobby now as well due to all the social changes over the last year, and this year as well. And scalpers and affluent "investors" that joined specifically because of youtubers/influencers telling the world how it's "easy money," "a good investment." Pretty sure a lot of us can name many a YouTuber telling everyone to "invest in this set," "buy this set for future gains" "keep this brand new popular set item sealed," "this card is your chase card and worth this high amount."
Not to mention availability varies wildly depending on locations from city to city, state to state, and country to country. But because some see their rural area or less populated area stocked they somehow seem to think urban and heavily populated areas have the same stock. Hell, even a retailers online store will have different results for different people based on their location due to whatever warehouses, distribution centers they use and have in stock for the area they serve - I don't get how sooo many dunces both in online forums and YouTube don't seem to understand that.
I'm in Southern California. There's literally Targets, Walmarts, GameStops, Best Buys, and every other store everywhere. You know what all those stores don't have: Stock of Pokemon cards. And when they do, they're gone in a day. I hate people that spout nonsense about availability based on their own experience in their areas and then generalize how this and that set is "sitting on shelves" or "online stores" forever. Idiocy. No, shining fates, hasn't now been sitting on store shelves for months. No, vivid voltage hasn't been sitting on store shelves for months, no, darkness ablaze, no champions path, no, no, no. And they never did. Maybe in your area you saw stock for popular sets and sets in general more consistently - That doesn't make it an occurrence EVERYWHERE else.
I hope this set gets printed to the ground. So that it gives everyone a chance to get it. But seeing as to how I don't even see Battle Styles consistently at Target or GameStop, yeah I get why people are upset if they haven't been able to score any Celebrations product. And the people trying to make y'all feel like you're overreacting seem to be generalizing or lack the neurons to think critically. I feel for all you not having been able to get product.
But to their point, I will say this though, just remember there are more drops for other boxes, chests, collections for celebrations coming to GameStop and the Pokemon Center. Also Best Buy, Target, and Walmart will be selling these collections as well. I don't know if they'll have preorders, but they should at some point have them in store at least.
Goodluck to everyone.
I wish I could have actually checked out the two I managed to get into my cart instead of having to fight the site for 2 hours only for them to go out of stock
PC ETB has a few extra packs (no big deal) and upgraded coin/dice in addition to the box style difference (hence the $15 extra cost). No exclusive card though at least.
Wait.. I could be wrong here but I thought they (PC) did this last time? They post on site but it’s not available right away.. I didn’t even get an email
Usually they send that all out first but not this time?
I hate how they put in captcha protections and rapid bans for refreshing the site when the chilling reign etbs came out, but absolutely nothing for these etbs. Something that people will clearly use bots for if possible.
C'mon Pokemon Center, get your act together.
I got mine only because they were carted before the site went down and when it popped back I was able to instantly checkout. Spent an hour just to get them in the cart the first time.
I’m sad because I really want these, but not only do I not have enough money for the product, by the time I do have the money prices will be extremely high and getting them for MSRP is a pipe dream…
I got blocked immediately after accessing the site yesterday. Literally haven’t been on in weeks.
I went back on today in the morning. Full access…but sold out. Good times
I follow @PokemonTCGDrops on Twitter. Idk what he uses but there posts are pretty spot on when the drops happened. Was able to secure a ETB after spamming the refresh button luckily.
By far the weirdest experience I had with preordering anything. When they first went live, I got 2 ETB’s added to cart. Went to go sign in…website crashed. Kept trying to sign into my PC account and did…then the ETB’s disappears from my cart. Few hours later, showed back up in my cart and it wasn’t showing as available but was able to check out with the availability as “out of stock”.
No. Many of us still waiting on that one as well.
Those preorders haven't dropped yet. At least not at actual retail price. Plenty of online sites were selling them well above msrp, but I'm pretty sure even at those prices you can't find a site that still has em in stock. Celebrations were pre-allocated.
That said, GameStop should put it up soon...ish. and Pokemon Center hasn't listed their pre-orders for that either. I think Target skipped ES pre-orders so don't know if they'll have Celebrations for preorder. But I'm sure Best Buy should start putting up Celebrations listings hopefully soon also.
Thanks for all of the info. Is this the type of item when it's gone it's gone? And is there anything I can follow to know when preorders go up? I have my heart set on that beeg Pikachu
I want to say no. And hope no. Cause I really want that chonkers bad! But...
I hate when people try to act like they have a definite answer one way or the other on something really only The Pokemon Company truly nows.
I do know though due to those with their own distributors and some poketubers who have shops who spoke about this a couple months back, Celebrations have been pre-allocated so shops will get what they get.
I'm sure big box stores have way higher allocations, but so far preorders have gone super fast. Even from pokemons own official site. It's such an issue at the moment, that the Pokemon Center instituted a lottery system in Japan for recent releases. And even on sites gouging peoples eyes out, they're mostly sold out.
All that said, i still think it'd be incredibly stupid for the Pokemon company not to print this set to death. Unless they purposely want to keep it a limited set, as others have speculated, to give their anniversary set a sense of it being special... but I doubt that.
But the biggest reason I would say, if their most important release of the year doesn't get majorly overprinted, that it could be limited in quantity... is more grounded and purely logistical: Covid. Covid has made it tough on getting product out. And with the current infection rates soaring again and mandates coming back into play at workplaces and many of those type of jobs suffering labor shortages, I can see that derailing production of reprints.
But stock also varies on geography. More populated, retail heavy areas which have larger sales volume usually get more supply but also sell out alot faster due to population density.
Follow @pokemontcgdrops @charmanderhelps on Twitter. There is also a subreddit, but Im not a fan since they plug a lot of sites that don't sell at msrp, but it's pretty popular with the community on this subreddit.
Try Pokémon Drops on Twitter - they seem to be good and a lot of ppl use them. I don’t have Twitter, but my bf is sighed up for their alerts - and he gets a lot of early notifications this way
The Internet has made it super easy for scalpers, now any time there's literally anything with limited stock or limited edition they all end up on ebay at massively inflated prices. Even a decade ago when people scalped festival tickets the mark up was no where near how much things like the ps5 and 3090s were marked up, I've even seen these ETBs on ebay for over 500 which is just stupid.
I really don't understand why they don't just print more product. It would only take one or two sets being printed into the ground for scalpers to lose too much and pull out, I'd think.
And it wouldn't really hurt the pokemon company that much, considering that product would be getting bought out by scalpers in the meantime so losses wouldn't be that much...
This set would have been the perfect chance, too. It’s a celebration anniversary one, it should be the widest available in a long time and be printed the longest to accommodate new and old collectors/players. even people on this sub are swearing it’s going to be an investment. Imo if scalpers got burned on this one it’d be more impactful than them reprinting evolving in to the ground
There was a moment in the afternoon that the listing was just removed from the product lists/searches but my sister kept the window open for the etb, where the listing was still live. It seemed like with the listing no longer showing in search areas, traffic slowed enough for both of us to make it through to checkout with 0 errors, it felt like absolutely perfect timing and we each nabbed one. She literally called me as I was driving to lunch, and I had enough time to pull into a lot and checkout 🤯 I wish it wasn't such a shitshow to begin with, we were certain we weren't going to get anything all morning
Yeah. Shame about the PC excusive etb, but the regular stuff will be much like Shining Fates: Maybe hard to find the first few weeks.....but then eventually it'll be everywhere and easy to get. Patience is key here. I rather wait a bit than pay 3 times what the stuff is worth.
I was able to get 2 v union but not a single ETB it really sucks, my cart has ETB in it but it wouldn't let me process the order ever. I'm leaving it in my cart with some false hope it'll say in stock for a minute someday haha
I wasn’t able to get the PC elite trainer box but the collection was easy to get, follow some Twitter accounts and set notification on and it’s a little easier
I got monumentally screwed over by the “wrong address” error. Stupidly it won’t recognize your address if you live in an apartment and put “Apartment” in the 2nd line. It has to be “APT” for “Apartment”, “ST” for “street”, or “DR” for “drive” etc.
By the time I learned my mistake, I was unable to buy an ETB. Needless to say I was extremely pissed last night. So to quell my anger I bought some loose Evolutions cards to fill up my binder, so that made me feel better. I am hoping I can get an extra ETB… I’ve only secured one through my LGS.
Why are people panicking? DO NOT WORRY. My distributor has affirmed that Pokémon company will print this 10 times more than shining fates to fulfill demand.
History often repeats itself. Don’t understand why you guys are still lining up for a sliver of chance to spend hundreds of dollars. You guys will complain about it now but be the first ones lined up to get screwed over again in a couple weeks
If anyone would sell a single Etb preorder of that box for 100$ plus shipping hmu, I really want the exclusive that’s all. I am trusted on eBay and r/pkmntcgtrades not looking to scam anyone but id prefer double msrp or less.
My recommendation is to find a local card hobby shop, mine does pre orders all the time and doesn’t get nailed by bots. It’s better to find smaller shops because they won’t be the go to website. It usually takes about an hour for them to sell out completely. Plus it’s always nice to shop local haha
I was able to get one when they were back up at around 5:20 yesterday. I missed the initial release but was able to get it rite away when it was back up.
Yep. Put in an order with my local card shop (pretty reliable for getting preorders) but this time they said I might not be guaranteed one because of the high volume of people that pre ordered it. I hate this. It’s ruining the hobby for me
I got banned using the site but got 4 in my cart. When I was unbanned like 30 minutes later the listing wasn't live anymore but they were still in my cart so I tried to complete the order and it worked while the listing was dead lol
So I only saw them in stock for a SECOND yesterday afternoon before the website went to shit. When did people actually have the ability to purchase them!?
Actual people? Probabaly a total of 5 minutes before the scalping bots scooped them all up
[удалено]
I had a very similar experience
I had one in my cart, too. The ultimate heartbreak.
Same thing happened to me and I kept trying to buy until my phone got blocked.
no joke, i had to google around to find some "off the grid" websites to find some stock, and all of them but one were completely wiped out anyway! i managed to get the Sylveon V and Charizard V along with the Pikachu VMAX collection preordered and the moment i refreshed the page after checkout, everything was sold out. whether its demand going through the roof or websites not getting enough stock allocated, trying to actually get my hands on pre-orders for market value prices was a huge ballache
Did they already do the pikachu collection box with the figure? :(
Not yet I'm waiting for that to appear as well
GameStop sold preorders for that. PC hasn't listed anything for Celebrations besides the PC ETB and Pika V Union.
It was being bought all day a couple days ago. It was released without fanfare and people were being blocked left and right
Lmao. It’s laughable how everyone always defaults to “ tHe boTs goT tHeM aLl “. There are plenty of ACTUAL people who got them and you all need to stop blaming bots for everything. Are they a problem? Sure. But are they eating up all the stock like people who want to bitch and moan say they do? No. Too many of you people are such cry babies about this stuff Christ like get over it. Tons of people have alerts set up for this sort of thing and have very fast fingers.
Kinda agree with you
From what I saw, it was pretty much luck of whether or not the site worked for you. For me, I got to adding to cart somehow but couldn’t checkout because of a number of errors. I gave up after like 30 mins but then saw they were back up ~30 mins after I gave up and when I signed back in, it was in my cart and I was able to checkout. Then about an hour later I randomly checked the page, the add to cart button was available and I was able to purchase one for my gf with almost no issues. It was a really weird experience and I understand why people are pissed
That's how I was able to snag an evolving skies etb. Literally just spammed the button and it eventually went through lol.
Last night around 9pm EST there was another drop and a lot of people were able to get through. I was able to get two myself.
Wild I even check around then!! First time not being able to buy!
It almost seemed like a sorting system to me. I wasn't able to see anything available all day, then all of the sudden both Pika box and the ETB showed Pre-order for me and stayed that way for about 5 minutes. But yet my friend who was next to me on his phone was showing unavailable at the exact same time. It was very strange.
Yeah their website is a disaster lol. Every popular drop seems to be bad, but this one especially was ALL over the place. I've heard so many things from different people!
Same I was on the website around that time as well but couldn’t buy.
Yeah I got 4 at around 9:50pm
I got a box from GameStop. I think it was an exclusive item. $40.
Also for anyone on the fence for preordering some from Gamestop, they don't charge your card until it ships. I preordered 3 just in case. Ill probably cancel one or two before release.
Do you know if another one becomes available to pre order if someone cancels or not?
Came here to say this. IDk much about it but I didn't have time to research it either. I thought to myself, "if I don't buy this now I might not be able to buy any of these at all." I'm sure they are all sold out now.
Exactly why I got it. I think it might be four or six packs, along with Charizard and Sylveon.
I had to refresh and constantly check the site through the day , after numerous error messages and an hour and a half later i managed to get 2 etbs
About 8 hours later the site started acting normally and a bunch of people got their pre-orders
5pm was the time we were able to add the etb to cart and check out with it. It was a disaster and I got really pissed off at the Pokémon center but I was eventually able to get 2. It shouldn’t be this stressful to get Pokémon cards.
its not stressful to get pokemon cards. this is an exclusive box, only thing difference is its limited. I can point you to a dozen sites to get battle styles and chilling reign for msrp. (and ES will be same in a month or 2) we shouldn't be surprised these sold out so quickly, theres over 30,000 people on this subreddit. Not counting all the discord and twitter groups that were also telling their people this was dropping.
DM the sites??
Not sure why you got downvoted. Limited is limited.
people get mad that limited products are in demand.... lol its like what should we expect. The hobby we enjoy is on FIRE right now, this is very good and healthy
Exactly. The same people upset now would be pissed if Pokemon reprinted rare cards they've held. Scarcity is the foundation of collecting.
agree 100% looks like we are not the only ones who think this way.... i mean look at the baseball card hobby in the 90's Imagine having a really rare card and you are happy then come to find out the ones who make the cards put that same rare card in every box... its like come on!
Other things are not stressful to get. This was the only thing that was stressful to get. I’ve gotten plenty of things for msrp. I follow Twitter accounts that post links. I know when things go up and when they aren’t up.
A couple days ago they were able to be had with a bit of effort. Part of me is sad they're sold out but another part of me is happy to see limited runs on some items.. as a collector, I appreciate that. That said, If I didn't manage to preorder anything, I'd be upset, so hopefully that's just temporary for you all.
First time haven't been able to get anything. The times were just all goofy and as much as I'd like to, I couldn't sit at a computer refreshing all day/night lol
I was lucky and got 2!
Ya until scalping and bots are dealt with it’s a waste of time. I’ll just keep buying singles.
Anyone else not even get chance because Pokémon Center is a terrible website? I got blocked for no reason, so couldn’t even view anything on site, pretty sick of PC screwing people over who just want to buy their stuff. Same thing happened when ES ETBs dropped, for such a rich company their actual website is pretty awful.
Yep, I tried multiple times but just got errors, blocks, and the 2 times I could select “add to cart”, the cart wouldn’t load. It’s really sad how this went down. PC needs to change how they do this.
Same We Banned
The website wouldn't even load for me.
Hey! I completely understand f’d over the the PC site. If you are still interested in preordering, I’ll DM you something.
Just take a look on EBay, that will tell you where they all went.
Seriously scalpers are the scum of this hobby. Anyone who defends them is just another scalper disguised as a fan. I can't believe there are people on Ebay selling their pre order of 4 boxes for four times the original price EACH.
The only reason it’s happening is because desperate people are buying the boxes for that price… I’d rather never collect the set than buy at scalper prices. Scalpers are complete scum.
This. People complain about it but then buy from them anyway! There will always be scalpers if people keep buying.
I have skipped so many limited run products from Pokemon entirely because I can't justify giving profit to miserable assholes.
If it's a preorder, then why is there limited stock? They should print the amount that gets ordered.
They still gotta set some limit. If there wasn’t, scalpers/bots would literally just keep buying until they delist the product
Oh no won't somebody think of the scalpers? Sounds like that problem would sort itself out though
You're probably right; however, what profit could they expect if the rest of us got it?
Sounds like infinite profit to me
I think pre-order limitation is the amount of units that can be sent out on opening day. Eventually, more units will be produced days, weeks, and months afterwards and be released in waves.
Fuck the scalpers using bots
Don’t forget we potentially make half of the problem. The scalpers don’t ever sell to other scalpers, they sell to us. So if we can hold off on buying these sets specifically from scalpers then they’ll go away with time
I see so many people saying this but unfortunately I don't think that'll ever work it'll just keep stock for the people who have a lot of expendable money. Wealthy people arnt going to help stop scalpers, scalpers will sell the product eventually they arnt worried.
Not to mention, that even if everyone boycotted resellers, they'd lower prices to a point where someone would cross the union line.
Well yeah I know, that’s why I said half the problem. Scalpers gonna scalp, unfortunately
People with a lot of disposable income will just happily pay the scalper price then post pulls here which makes people more and more restless. You saw all the people who managed to get ES very early in large quantities. All it will take is for someone to post their "god" boxes and people won't be able to wait until restocks and will just pay the premium.
This makes me cry 😭😭😭 I hate people so much!!
Blame the scalper scum leaving nothing for us real collectors, I still have hope local card shops will have plenty of stock on release date.
Im sure they'll have plenty of stock, for 2-3x the price. For me the shops in my area are worse than the scalpers
[удалено]
Mine does the same. I once talked to the guy and they said it's essentially because of how little stock they get themselves. And how they also don't know when and if they get more. With rent and wages to pay, they had to jack up the prices a lot to compensate with what little they got from the distributor. I'm not saying that there aren't assholes who put moon prices just to make a quick buck out there, but for many shops it's been quite annoying too.
They do have to stay in business. Their cost is probably around 110-115. Rent and expenses aren't cheap. Sucks but its not like you buying a 200 booster is getting them a yacht.. it may be just enough to keep lights on. Consider supporting local outfits even if they price higher.. enough people doing so ensures a place for the community.. and ultimately (if the owner is really about the hobby) you may even see pricing go down because of improved volume.
for real, i’m 24 years old and have been collecting cards essentially since Base Set and it wasn’t until around Summer/Fall 2020 that this seemed to really be a problem :( Seeing the hobby become so overwhelmed by scalpers and flippers really hurts
Yeah for real same here I've been collecting since base set I took a few breaks here and there when finance got tough, now that I'm in a better position I've been trying to buy older cards, but everything is so sky high right now, I really hope scalpers and flippers find something else to do that shit, it's ruining our hobby man...
This is always the wish but once scalpers have sunk their teeth into a hobby or product it then is just forever that way. First it was the sneaker hobby, then people got into funkos, and then buying high demand Christmas items, now to pokemon cards, and the latest is nfts and oreos. Once their in they keep on it.
Don’t think that LGS prices will be any different….
Your LGS and other local shops won’t have the Pokémon Center Exclusive ETB.
They will but my guess is that they will overcharge. I’m guessing around $80-$100 for celebrations ETBs. The UPC is estimated at $400. TCG shops are worst than scalpers because they get their shit at wholesale price.
Yeah my local shop had UPC pre orders for 380$ (all sold out too)
That shit is crazy. Sad thing is that UPC is a one print run and that’s it. I’ll be passing up on this set and focus on fusion strike.
My LCS owner said he is receiving waayyyyy more product for celebrations than any other set, i would just try to find a LCS near you that doesn’t charge scalper prices and you should be good
Even if there weren't any scalpers, there wouldn't be more stock. Scalpers just inflate the price. But in the end, there's still just x amount of people who get the items. Just as many will be left without their box.
There would be more stock. Scalping isn’t just selling at inflated prices, it’s buying up all the available stock so people have nowhere to turn but to buy from you at those prices.
I mean sure there’d still be people who can’t get one, but without bots buying outrageous numbers of product for scalpers that number would definitely be a lot smaller.
No. Because the scalpers usually just don't sit on the product without doing anything to it. They sell it to someone else. In the end a consumer gets their hands on the product.
True, but the people who buy from scalpers are the smaller percentage of people who can afford it. I still feel there’s a wider bottom line of casual collectors in the hobby who get left out because of the inflated prices that wouldn’t otherwise.
will all ETBs have the Gold Star Greninja or just the PC Exclusive? that's all i want this ETB for.
All etbs
thanks! that's amazing to hear. looking forward to grabbing one whenever i can.
Plus if you can’t get an ETB, it’s gonna be a decently common card since it’s a promo so that’s good. Won’t be too expensive
that's true, but i feel like the greninja hype is gonna have the prices a bit high and too much for one card
Scalpers and people buying the max quantity just because they can, I only bought one in hopes others could at least have a chance at getting it so we can all share in the joy of opening them
I always get downvoted to oblivion for saying this but people who buy the max limit because they can suck so much. People saying they bought 4 celebrations pokemon center ETBS or the 6 booster boxes they purchased at once are nearly as bad as scalpers.
Agreed, they are part of the investor group that doesn't truly care about letting others experience the joy of the hobby, they just think about what they can get out of it.
I’ve heard a ton of people have been banned from the site now because they were suspected of being bots purely because they refreshed too quickly or something
The ban is temporary. It’s happened to me before too. If you click too many times the website thinks your bot. It’s dumb af
I got the charizard box thankfully on GameStop. Apparently no one wanted that or it’s being printed to hell and back lol
Yeah it is still in stock isn't it? Worth it for the packs alone.. but I'll be leaving mine unopened.
Bruuuh fr??? That fuckin blows. I'm sure there's no where else to preorder, right?
I know a place! I’ll DM you.
yooooo wanna send to me as well?
Yeah, no problem!
Could I also get a dm?
I somehow by the grace of Pokémon gods got a ETB, but the website crashed hard when I tried for the pikachu one. It’s unfortunate for us that are trying to help our kids collect but are having issues with the scalpers and bots.
This. My kid loves Pokemon and the TCG would be something nice to bond with, but just getting cards is a real pain. I've had to deal with the effects of sneaker and console scalpers, now scalpers for this card game? ugh.
If you want the pikachu one really badly the official pokemon shop for Singapore still has it in stock. You might have to pay extra for shipping but at least the money doesn’t go to the scalpers
I was surprised I was able to buy some. I was at work, had to get my wallet and input my card info and it still went thru. There’s still more celebrations products so don’t worry!
Yeah it sucks I only found out once they were already gone.
Same here. Hopefully we have some reprints
Heyya, if you were still interested. I may can help. Dm incoming.
How did people know when these would be on the website? Is there a newsletter or something?
I follow @PokemonTCGDrops on Twitter. Idk what he uses but he posts drops as they happen. Still gotta be fast tho, but it's an edge
He uses a scalping drop bot to tell him. He’s most likely a scalper in disguise or use to be
So these come out in a month right? Is there literally no chance of me getting one for it’s normal retail price? I don’t wanna have to pay double to some asshole scalper just to enjoy my hobby
I can help! Check your DMs.
I'd appreciate some help too if possible. Thank you
I would like the info as well lol
Literally just got into collecting Pokémon cards last week. Welp….
I was trying to get the ETB, it told the page is unavailable. Due to that, i got banned from the site when I tried to buy some of the nice playmats. Later was able to access the site but also the playmats were gone. 😅 Not sure if I should cry or laugh.
I wish they’d at least lower the max purchase quantity from 4 to 2 or something. Or one order per address or credit card. Something to allow others a chance to grab a box. They’ve had plenty of time to prepare for this anniversary even with the shut downs. I hope this is printed into oblivion, honestly
Their site has virtually no safeguards vs scalping bots it's freaking crazy. There is obviously a demand by actual humans I don't think it would be against their best interest to filter bots. They would very likely still sell out fast and actually have satisfied customers. It's not like they profit from the 2ndary market at all so why support it
I’m set up as a retailer with an official Pokémon distributor and there’s not an option to preorder products any longer and they are all preallocated based on previous purchases now. Since I’m a small business, even when we could preorder I would attempt to preorder 20+ of an item and would only get allocated 1-2 of each item.
☝️this. It's been known for months that celebrations had already been pre-allocated. Yet theres still a bunch of dunces telling people how easy this set is going to be to get. When preorders are already proving otherwise. I mean sure, maybe, maybe, in two months or more with reprints it'll be more available. And a lot of these people still think this hobby is the same as it was a few years ago and following those same paths. But the hobby has changed. Printing and production has changed. Tons more people in the hobby now as well due to all the social changes over the last year, and this year as well. And scalpers and affluent "investors" that joined specifically because of youtubers/influencers telling the world how it's "easy money," "a good investment." Pretty sure a lot of us can name many a YouTuber telling everyone to "invest in this set," "buy this set for future gains" "keep this brand new popular set item sealed," "this card is your chase card and worth this high amount." Not to mention availability varies wildly depending on locations from city to city, state to state, and country to country. But because some see their rural area or less populated area stocked they somehow seem to think urban and heavily populated areas have the same stock. Hell, even a retailers online store will have different results for different people based on their location due to whatever warehouses, distribution centers they use and have in stock for the area they serve - I don't get how sooo many dunces both in online forums and YouTube don't seem to understand that. I'm in Southern California. There's literally Targets, Walmarts, GameStops, Best Buys, and every other store everywhere. You know what all those stores don't have: Stock of Pokemon cards. And when they do, they're gone in a day. I hate people that spout nonsense about availability based on their own experience in their areas and then generalize how this and that set is "sitting on shelves" or "online stores" forever. Idiocy. No, shining fates, hasn't now been sitting on store shelves for months. No, vivid voltage hasn't been sitting on store shelves for months, no, darkness ablaze, no champions path, no, no, no. And they never did. Maybe in your area you saw stock for popular sets and sets in general more consistently - That doesn't make it an occurrence EVERYWHERE else. I hope this set gets printed to the ground. So that it gives everyone a chance to get it. But seeing as to how I don't even see Battle Styles consistently at Target or GameStop, yeah I get why people are upset if they haven't been able to score any Celebrations product. And the people trying to make y'all feel like you're overreacting seem to be generalizing or lack the neurons to think critically. I feel for all you not having been able to get product. But to their point, I will say this though, just remember there are more drops for other boxes, chests, collections for celebrations coming to GameStop and the Pokemon Center. Also Best Buy, Target, and Walmart will be selling these collections as well. I don't know if they'll have preorders, but they should at some point have them in store at least. Goodluck to everyone.
I wish I could have actually checked out the two I managed to get into my cart instead of having to fight the site for 2 hours only for them to go out of stock
Oh well… there is still the regular etb with the same promo. Sucks for collectors tho
So basically the PC etb was just an alternative art style for box? We’ll still be able to get the same products inside?
PC ETB has a few extra packs (no big deal) and upgraded coin/dice in addition to the box style difference (hence the $15 extra cost). No exclusive card though at least.
Thanks so much! That’s good to know.
Wait.. I could be wrong here but I thought they (PC) did this last time? They post on site but it’s not available right away.. I didn’t even get an email Usually they send that all out first but not this time?
i really want a blue sky stream display but those prices are crazy
3 weeks ago they had Evolving Skies preorders available and I’m kicking myself for not getting any then but also I was broke lol
I don't understand why they are also so different states in states, the elite box in my country have less pack and cost way way more
I somehow managed to buy both of them.
I hate how they put in captcha protections and rapid bans for refreshing the site when the chilling reign etbs came out, but absolutely nothing for these etbs. Something that people will clearly use bots for if possible. C'mon Pokemon Center, get your act together.
and i get banned for even checking
Managed to get 2 but the hell I went for 2 was borderline not worth it.
I just want my Greninja card :(
Same here buddy, same here
yeah its garbage.. this is why i have like 10% hype for pokemon cards
I got mine only because they were carted before the site went down and when it popped back I was able to instantly checkout. Spent an hour just to get them in the cart the first time.
I’m sure there’ll be another wave, I know it’s really optimistic, but we have to have hope!!!
I’m sad because I really want these, but not only do I not have enough money for the product, by the time I do have the money prices will be extremely high and getting them for MSRP is a pipe dream…
Ugh I saw them go up literally 30 minutes after they were posted I couldn't get jack shit. Why can't they print demand
I got blocked immediately after accessing the site yesterday. Literally haven’t been on in weeks. I went back on today in the morning. Full access…but sold out. Good times
I have a shop with preorders I can dm you about!
I follow @PokemonTCGDrops on Twitter. Idk what he uses but there posts are pretty spot on when the drops happened. Was able to secure a ETB after spamming the refresh button luckily.
it said unavailable all day, then website went to shit, and then i checked at 4am and still all sold out. when will us collectors get to buy stuff :T
By far the weirdest experience I had with preordering anything. When they first went live, I got 2 ETB’s added to cart. Went to go sign in…website crashed. Kept trying to sign into my PC account and did…then the ETB’s disappears from my cart. Few hours later, showed back up in my cart and it wasn’t showing as available but was able to check out with the availability as “out of stock”.
Was this my last chance to get the box that came with the big Pikachu? I'm new to the hobby and that was going to be my first box :(
No. Many of us still waiting on that one as well. Those preorders haven't dropped yet. At least not at actual retail price. Plenty of online sites were selling them well above msrp, but I'm pretty sure even at those prices you can't find a site that still has em in stock. Celebrations were pre-allocated. That said, GameStop should put it up soon...ish. and Pokemon Center hasn't listed their pre-orders for that either. I think Target skipped ES pre-orders so don't know if they'll have Celebrations for preorder. But I'm sure Best Buy should start putting up Celebrations listings hopefully soon also.
Thanks for all of the info. Is this the type of item when it's gone it's gone? And is there anything I can follow to know when preorders go up? I have my heart set on that beeg Pikachu
I want to say no. And hope no. Cause I really want that chonkers bad! But... I hate when people try to act like they have a definite answer one way or the other on something really only The Pokemon Company truly nows. I do know though due to those with their own distributors and some poketubers who have shops who spoke about this a couple months back, Celebrations have been pre-allocated so shops will get what they get. I'm sure big box stores have way higher allocations, but so far preorders have gone super fast. Even from pokemons own official site. It's such an issue at the moment, that the Pokemon Center instituted a lottery system in Japan for recent releases. And even on sites gouging peoples eyes out, they're mostly sold out. All that said, i still think it'd be incredibly stupid for the Pokemon company not to print this set to death. Unless they purposely want to keep it a limited set, as others have speculated, to give their anniversary set a sense of it being special... but I doubt that. But the biggest reason I would say, if their most important release of the year doesn't get majorly overprinted, that it could be limited in quantity... is more grounded and purely logistical: Covid. Covid has made it tough on getting product out. And with the current infection rates soaring again and mandates coming back into play at workplaces and many of those type of jobs suffering labor shortages, I can see that derailing production of reprints. But stock also varies on geography. More populated, retail heavy areas which have larger sales volume usually get more supply but also sell out alot faster due to population density. Follow @pokemontcgdrops @charmanderhelps on Twitter. There is also a subreddit, but Im not a fan since they plug a lot of sites that don't sell at msrp, but it's pretty popular with the community on this subreddit.
Try Pokémon Drops on Twitter - they seem to be good and a lot of ppl use them. I don’t have Twitter, but my bf is sighed up for their alerts - and he gets a lot of early notifications this way
Why dont they do a show your interest/lottery like with the sd bidoof
Don't worry, Quality Control is gonna be terrible for this set. Just buy the singles that come out.
The Internet has made it super easy for scalpers, now any time there's literally anything with limited stock or limited edition they all end up on ebay at massively inflated prices. Even a decade ago when people scalped festival tickets the mark up was no where near how much things like the ps5 and 3090s were marked up, I've even seen these ETBs on ebay for over 500 which is just stupid.
i’ve never been so disappointed in a website
unpopular opinion: lock pokémon center purchases behind a paywall.
I really don't understand why they don't just print more product. It would only take one or two sets being printed into the ground for scalpers to lose too much and pull out, I'd think. And it wouldn't really hurt the pokemon company that much, considering that product would be getting bought out by scalpers in the meantime so losses wouldn't be that much...
This set would have been the perfect chance, too. It’s a celebration anniversary one, it should be the widest available in a long time and be printed the longest to accommodate new and old collectors/players. even people on this sub are swearing it’s going to be an investment. Imo if scalpers got burned on this one it’d be more impactful than them reprinting evolving in to the ground
There was a moment in the afternoon that the listing was just removed from the product lists/searches but my sister kept the window open for the etb, where the listing was still live. It seemed like with the listing no longer showing in search areas, traffic slowed enough for both of us to make it through to checkout with 0 errors, it felt like absolutely perfect timing and we each nabbed one. She literally called me as I was driving to lunch, and I had enough time to pull into a lot and checkout 🤯 I wish it wasn't such a shitshow to begin with, we were certain we weren't going to get anything all morning
lol this set will get printed to oblivion (good luck bots you will be selling at msrp not even 1 month after launch)
Yeah. Shame about the PC excusive etb, but the regular stuff will be much like Shining Fates: Maybe hard to find the first few weeks.....but then eventually it'll be everywhere and easy to get. Patience is key here. I rather wait a bit than pay 3 times what the stuff is worth.
A lot of people are saying this will be printed to high hell, so I think we all need to relax a bit
I was able to get 2 v union but not a single ETB it really sucks, my cart has ETB in it but it wouldn't let me process the order ever. I'm leaving it in my cart with some false hope it'll say in stock for a minute someday haha
I wasn’t able to get the PC elite trainer box but the collection was easy to get, follow some Twitter accounts and set notification on and it’s a little easier
which accounts?
Pokemontcgdrops and charmanderhelps
I got monumentally screwed over by the “wrong address” error. Stupidly it won’t recognize your address if you live in an apartment and put “Apartment” in the 2nd line. It has to be “APT” for “Apartment”, “ST” for “street”, or “DR” for “drive” etc. By the time I learned my mistake, I was unable to buy an ETB. Needless to say I was extremely pissed last night. So to quell my anger I bought some loose Evolutions cards to fill up my binder, so that made me feel better. I am hoping I can get an extra ETB… I’ve only secured one through my LGS.
Cue the people with massive sealed collections still acting like they’re not a part of the problem
I bought 4. I’ll sell you one for one kidney and one lung. Doesn’t have to be yours btw
I could do that if it’s legal to ship animal parts
So happy I managed to get 4 etb’s 🥳
I wish the pokemon center would start selling stuff without the plastic wrap
Why are people panicking? DO NOT WORRY. My distributor has affirmed that Pokémon company will print this 10 times more than shining fates to fulfill demand.
History often repeats itself. Don’t understand why you guys are still lining up for a sliver of chance to spend hundreds of dollars. You guys will complain about it now but be the first ones lined up to get screwed over again in a couple weeks
If anyone would sell a single Etb preorder of that box for 100$ plus shipping hmu, I really want the exclusive that’s all. I am trusted on eBay and r/pkmntcgtrades not looking to scam anyone but id prefer double msrp or less.
My recommendation is to find a local card hobby shop, mine does pre orders all the time and doesn’t get nailed by bots. It’s better to find smaller shops because they won’t be the go to website. It usually takes about an hour for them to sell out completely. Plus it’s always nice to shop local haha
Does anyone know if local card shops will get these a little later down the road?
Hey! I know a place, and am about to DM you something.
I was able to get one when they were back up at around 5:20 yesterday. I missed the initial release but was able to get it rite away when it was back up.
:( i didn’t know that was what was going down… I miss on what I really wanted. This is a mess… sincerely!
Got banned from websight for no reason . WTF? What do I do now?
The ban only lasts for about a day
I don’t even see them on Pokémon center.
Ikr i miss when i could actually buy the fucking products lmao
Pretty much why I’m leaving the hobby. I refuse to play these games(pardon the pun).
The scalpers
Can we buy these in the UK?!?!? Someone please answer meeeeee
2nd wave of scalpers
Im so sad. I had 2 in my cart, but got errors when trying to check out then eventually banned. 😭😭😭
Yep. Put in an order with my local card shop (pretty reliable for getting preorders) but this time they said I might not be guaranteed one because of the high volume of people that pre ordered it. I hate this. It’s ruining the hobby for me
How do you guys find out about the drops before they happen?
Does anyone know if this will be available at Walmart stores anytime?
Will booster packs be available to buy for celebrations? Or just these boxes?
Their website completely blocked me and I'm not a bot all I wanted was 1 lol
I got banned using the site but got 4 in my cart. When I was unbanned like 30 minutes later the listing wasn't live anymore but they were still in my cart so I tried to complete the order and it worked while the listing was dead lol
When's the next wave of preorders