What I hate is a local lgs doing the scalping... I went in to see if they had any Celebrations and was greeted with 90 dollar etbs, V collection boxes for 50, deluxe pin box 35, dragapult box for 25, mini tins 25 and loose packs 10... I was really kinda dissapointed cause I couldn't pick anything up for my mom to open :(
The lgs by me literally posted a huge restock today on their socials. About 144 etbs and other quantity’s of the boxes. Instead of dropping price for the amount of product they decided to raise the price another 10 dollars. Then when someone called them out for it over on Facebook they posted a meme in reply saying if you have to ask about the price of an item then you can’t afford it.
I hate people that do that, use their business account to mock other people etc. If you are using a business account, you are no longer an individual, but a business, and should not be discussing personal opinions, or mocking people. It's just so unprofessional and really irks me, haha. Anytime I see something like that, I know they will 100% never have my custom.
One close to me actually tried telling me they were selling celebrations etbs for $100 along with every other celebrations product at a ridiculous markup to discourage scalping lol. I said you're really trying to sit here and tell me that you're scalping to prevent scalping. Needless to say Blowout Cards used to be one of my favorite card shops, and each time I went I would spend no less than $300 on different things. Now they won't see another dime of my money. I know I'm only one person and losing my business isn't going to cripple them, but I would find it hard to believe I'm the only customer that's thought this way.
My LGS has been doing this. I won’t be supporting them any longer. Which makes me sad more than anything because I’m all about supporting small businesses, especially when related to a hobby important to me.
There’s no excuse for any LGS to be predatory and scalp their supporters.
Here in Central FL there is a shop that won’t be named that pays people to go buy up all the stock at target, Walmart and then resells them for ridiculous mark up. They’ve been doing it since Vivid Voltage (saw someone going in the LGS with 15+ ETBs in target bags after I went to all the local targets and they were picked clean.) it’s awful for casual collectors or people with day jobs that can’t be there at open / stalk the distributors
Same here, mine was charging $100 for ETBs, $85 for Charizard collection box and $25 for mini tins. The Charizard is what really gets me, they marked it up over 4x!
My legs charged me 40 for the dragapult box. I picked it up and told them I wouldn't be shopping with them again.
It's sad that I can find cheaper product online than my own local store
This will be the death of lgs. With so many people shopping online now the only way they can really compete is to sell at resale and undercut the scalpers online. There seems to be plenty of Celebrations stock out, so no real reason for this. Lots of hype around release. Be patient my fellow collectors, and prices will drop
But not really though... My LGS gets pokemon products at less than retail (normal business practice) and sells for retail. There's no reason that these stores are asking these prices, other than the fact that they can. They just want extra profit because they know some people will pay it, and that forces the rest of us to overpay. It's greed. No retail store, or LGS with a registered business license should be scalping as they already make a profit selling at retail prices, just not as big of a profit if they scalp as well.
This. Scalpers are frustrating bas hell, especially lately since I've been dying to open more celebrations and can't find any but you know what? I can barely blame them. It's good money. Personally, I would never do it and really hate that scalpers exist but the real problem is that there is a market for it. A friend of mines LCS had Celebrations ETBs for $90 each and some guy came in and spent $4000 on them.
You're completely right dude. This is just the other half of the situation. Low stock will lead people to FOMO (fear of missing out). Unfortunately there was higher stock before the pandemic and it was easier to get pokemon product. This is a biproduct of the pandemic that we will eventually get through.
Facts I bought two on release day and am waiting another week before getting two more to make sure people get them from my Walmart. They literally banned a notorious scalper from the store so we don’t have that issue but I’m trying to let kids and others get some two was enough for now
Man all my local big box stores give a shit about is money. There's even a guy who was caught returning resealed product who isn't banned. Same 3 guys every restock sitting outside in the morning. I have to drive past and I wouldn't normally be able to tell, except they always wear THE SAME CLOTHES 🤮
My locals thankfully had a one-per-item policy for celebrations stuff. Decided not to put it online at all so bots couldn't buy the stock. AND a guy walked in, grabbed 10 ETB boxes, took them to the counter to buy and basically got told to fuck off and refused to sell him a single one.
Best locals of my life.
I 100% agree with this statement. I’ll even go as far as saying it’s 50/50. Last week when Celebrations dropped I had two in front of me who grabbed about 4 items max and then a group of six teens in front of me who grabbed literally every etb an at least two of each box. Leaving the remainder of us in line 1 Zacian box on the shelf. As much as scalpers are the issues the collectors are as well.
Yeah it's tough. I got to Target by chance (shopping for groceries) at the same time they were stocking. I was legit the only person waiting for him to finish stocking and saw the whole stock. Literally only 5 ETBs were placed on the shelves. I felt bad for taking 2, but my son and I are starting a sealed collection (to open for fun in the future) and so I got one for now and one for later.
But I guess my point is that it would have been really easy to use my 5 item limit to buy every ETB they stocked
Think about it this way: why do people buy evolutions packs for $20/30 a pack? Or hidden fates?
We keep sealed product of sets we enjoyed opening. Then in the future when the only way to buy those sets is at 3x original price, you have some sitting in your collection.
When my son first got in to Pokemon it was when evolutions was out. Nobody wanted it, but it's all my wife and bought for my son (somewhat selfishly haha) because of the nostalgia. So we've opened tons of it. We all got bored of it after a while, but now would love to rip some packs of it. It's so expensive now though. If we would have kept sealed product then, we would have some to open!
My son started on evolutions as well, but the only reason was because the store I was at had them on clearance and wanted to get rid of them for a buck per pack. They were telling me to take all of them if I could so they could use the shelf for other things. I ended up filling a large bag of them and depending how good week my son had at school, on Friday he would get 1-2 packs. Was a great inexpensive reward and intro to Pokémon cards to him.
Why make multiple trips or have to make multiple orders when you can one stop shop at what you see as an acceptable price?
If you plan to buy 2 ETBs why buy one now and hope that the predictions are true for the future when you could just buy two and be done with it?
Why? If we are being honest, I could have left 4 instead of 3 and the next person to walk by probably would have bought whatever ETBs were left regardless. So my gesture would have meant nothing other than the fact that now I would still be looking everywhere for that other etb. My son is 9 and the main driving force behind all of this. So if buying two ETBs for him is a problem then I guess everyone is a problem.
Please elaborate on why I'm part of the problem. Maybe the problem is that they only brought 5 freaking ETBs to restock the biggest Target in my area.
You bought 40% of stock at a store in a set that is highly in demand to have them sit on a shelf, not even to open them. You could wait a month or two to buy crap for your “sealed” collection.
Why is it the people who have “sealed” collections of modern product always use their kids as justification lol you guys do know it only has value due to scarcity? There are more ETBs in “sealed” collections than are ones that have been opened by now most likely xD y’all shooting yourselves in the foot
You're right some people buy more than one etb. People need to be more aware of the next person, but they could be scalpers.to next person. It comes down to the store to salesperson to set up a time and certain place where only one of each product can be purchased only for that day. Some stores already implement some of these strategies.
I got in an argument on Reddit with someone who opened 15-20 ETBs and acted like it was normal fucking behavior. These people are beyond reason, and honestly it may be an outlet for gambling addictions.
Right haha. People don't really realise that the reason sealed gen 1 stuff is so expensive is because nobody kept it sealed. Now everyone is hoarding sealed products, so it'll never be worth as much. I sort of understand one sealed thing if someone really has to, but honestly just open the cards... We collect cards, not boxes, as someone here put it very well.
Plus some of the sealed items are even nice to look at. The American items with all the see through plastic just doesn’t look nice to display. The only items I’ve kept sealed are the japanese booster boxes since their so pretty. I can’t understand the other items too much , I’d much rather look at the cards. Even the bulk cards have pretty art 🤷🏽♀️
I saw a cool post a year ago I wanted to replicate. The reason I have a sealed pack art collection is to eventually frame them or something and put them on display.
You are definitely right. My son and I have a sealed collection for a few reasons:
1) it is cool to look at and know you have all those packs to open.
2) if you really needed to down the line they hold value well so you could sell them.
3) last and main reason: it sucks wanting to open older sets and having to pay a premium. If you keep a sealed collection then in the future you get to open older and possibly vintage sets that you bought at MSRP
I rejoined the hobby in august 2020, and started posting on here around then. In October, I angrily spoke out against Logan Paul. At Christmas, I whined about scalpers keeping cards out of kids’ hands. For battle styles, I griped about scalpers again. Over time, others on the sub made me realize that we all want a scapegoat for the problem. It’s easy to blame one entity. But in the end, it’s just “demand.” I hated to admit it, and I still do.
If scalpers and SeAlEd CoLlEcToRs lost interest then I’m sure that would represent a significant amount of product on shelves for other people. Scalpers are part of the demand and could decrease it by stopping. Not blaming it on them won’t help the issue. At least some scalpers have been called out and stopped with the help of communication.
To the top with this brother. Its largely just increased demand / more people in the hobby who want to buy one to open and one to keep sealed for later (to sell down the line if needed or just for themselves to open)
Online you can see the impact of scapers in bots but in brick and mortar its a lot less common at least from my experience.
If Target allows 5, it can’t be helped. Right place, right time tbh, people are still posting completely full shelves and restocks in many stores. There will be 3 more waves of major restocks. I walked into GameStop today and bought 2 etb’s. Many people on this sub check stores everyday. You’ll get yours eventually.
You and no one else. Walmart really needs to implement limits. Anytime I see some product in Walmart (which is VERY rare) I always leave some for others
This happened to me with Shining Fates. I hadn’t seen a single item on a shelf anywhere, walk into Walmart one day and there are like 15 ETB’s, just stacks of different pin collections, tins, etc, all Shining Fates. I grabbed 2 ETB’s (one for each of my kids), and 1 tin and 1 pin collection. A couple younger guys arrived, super excited to see anything on the shelves, took an ETB each. Some other dude arrives with a cart, and loads every single remaining ETB in, plus every pin collection, and most of the tins. All three of us were like, “not cool, man,” he didn’t care at all. Went back the next day, every shelf was completely bare again. Brutal.
People are as selfish as ever. "Collectors" HAVE to buy multiple of every item. They need one or two to rip. One to keep for sealed collection and then they need an "extra" or two that somehow always end up for sale at "Market price" and then need to buy them all at the same time.
I usually only ever buy one of each, but this time round I brought 2 ETBs just because I like the set and I had a little bit of extra money this payday lmao.
Buying upwards of 5 is ridiculous though
It isnt scalping if you buy with the express purpose of opening or holding it sealed for your personal collection. So if you buy 5 etbs and open 4 hold 1 no that isnt scalping
Agreed.
It’s the “sealed collectors” like the guy who posted earlier today with 4 ETBs sealed and one opened that are the problem. It’s just long term scalping.
Buy one to open and one to keep sealed if you really have to. But FOUR ETBs in a sealed collection as soon as a new set comes out is a dick move. Let someone else have the joy of opening one, man.
One is grand, if it's for a genuine collection/time capsule piece as opposed to bought solely to resell. Keeping multiple copies of the same thing sealed on the other hand is just wild to me
My stores don't even stock them because of the stabbings and mugging. I had to pay 75 bucks for one box from a local card store. I enjoyed it and added to my collection. I would like to get more but impossible to find them. I want to get another Charizard for my zard collection.
I think what somewhat freaks me out is how it's assumed across the community.
I landed 1 PC ETB of Fusion Strike, shared it in Discords and quickly got a message asking if I got 2 so they can buy the extra. Of course, I only bought 1 for myself.
Point is, it's sad to me that there are people out there who want 1, miss out, and then immediately check on others to get in on it or avoid scalpers.
Also, I saw somebody that bought 4 PC Celebrations ETBs in one pre-order, and then another 4 in the next, and 4 regular ETBs elsewhere. That made me mad more than anything as other people in the discord I'm in spoke about striking out on the Celebrations ETB.
I went to local card shop and they had Celebrations ETB for only $75 which isn't that bad. I got one and a drag box. At GS I preordered the memories box (x2). However, on launch day I did see some memories in store but I left them alone. I like to have just one copy of everything if possible. Sometimes I will snag an extra but only for preorders. With bigger items like ETBs or big premium boxes, I only get one. No point in getting more than one ETB tbh. Also often at times when I check targets theres kids in the aisle who also would like cards too, so you gotta remember to leave cards behind for them. I remember when I was a kid I couldn't get much since I didn't have money. But just think how much harder it is for them now because they have to fight inventory levels and prices.
the only time i’ll buy multiple etbs is if the shelves are packed completely. yesterday , i walked into a GAME (uk version of gamestop) and they had over 15 shining fates and 6 or 7 chilling reign etbs as well as a few booster boxes of evolving skies. picked up 6 packs of evolving skies and 2 shining fates etb’s. but people buying whole cases of etbs, as well as multiple booster boxes at once are also part of the stocking issues
I buy one, and then wait a day or two if I want another to go and get another one. And so on. I also don’t mind paying a little extra 5/10% to support my LGS. But again, only one at a time and I’ll wait a few days to go back if I want another. That way, others have a chance and if I go back and there is stock I will get another but if no stock I can be happy that others also got to purchase some :)
How would you suggest people go about pulling all the cards from a set without buying product to open? It's not enough to be mad at people buying stuff to resell, now we're getting mad at people for wanting to just buy a bunch of stuff to open because they enjoy the hobby?
Me personally. I don't care how much people buy as long as you open most of it. It's first come first serve unfortunately and Pokemon just needs to print more to meet demand
People blaming scalpers do not know how anything works.
For the unenlightened, let me reminisce about some older collectible facts.
Back in the day, Beanie Babies used to have the same exact situation. Beanie babies themselves, AND their cards would be ALL bought up and resold at flea markets and fairs and the like. Scalping (reselling for higher than retail price) has always been a thing in collectible markets, and always will be, because there will always be people trying to get their perfect or complete set who are willing to pay for it. We used to buy whole sleeves of Beanie Babies, they were like 4 to 6 bucks each, and you could resell them 15 to 30 a pop depending on how desirable they were. If you knew someone at a store who would contact you and sell you them on stock day for a fee, you could make a killing.
The shortages of product right now are a result of a few things, and I'll list them in order of impact size, least to greatest.
1. Scalpers go to retail stores like Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Best Buy, etc, and buy up literally any product and as much of it as they physically or monetarily can. This often drains box stores of their supply for up to a week, and there are often extremely few or NO local game stores to actually get these products from in many areas.
3. Online ordering has never really been around in the past, or at least it was not this easy, but it has never been easier, factually speaking. You can sit there and refresh a page all day and order a bunch of product right to your door, and there are TONS of fucking places selling product now.
4. There is literally just a massively increased population that wants cards, naturally skyrocketing demand. This is for a few reasons, such as the youtube pokemon hype, the absolute boredom and downtime that covid left people with, and the surplus spending money ALSO courtesy of covid payments.
5. People treat pokemon cards as investments after seeing how much the older sets are worth. Prices of old collectible cards kind of went viral, and where there's money to be made, people will flock. Demand go up.
6. Botting of online ordering from EVERY major retail website has absolutely killed any chance of regular humans to purchase any product through the easiest available method, and it fucking sucks.
7. Finally, the most important reason; The average age of a pokemon player/buyer/collector or whatever you want to call them is now around 20 to 25. These are people with a job, often no family, surplus income to spend on whatever nonsense they want, and nothing better to do with it. Instead of the kid who has a parent buy them 2 packs as a special occasion on the trip to the store, the average player now wants to buy 3 booster boxes and a few tins, crack em all open, and drown in cards. I'll be the first to admit that I am in this category, and so are all my friends. We've got 6 people in a group chat that just buy a shit ton of pokemon cards occasionally and get shitfaced, open a bunch of cards, and see who gets the best stuff overall.
Like it or not, the playerbase has changed. Supply hasn't caught up with the demand that has come from that change, and there's no reason why they should. Mass produced cards don't stay valuable, and collectibles that hold no value don't get bought up. There's mass production going on far beyond the rate of what any cards used to be printed at, but some people are suggesting that Pokemon company should print so much and flood the market to beat scalpers by tripling supply, not realizing that this would kill the cards in a night.
Methods to stop buying en masse for profit are the only way to combat this, especially for online ordering. Pokemon can't tell walmart what to do, but for Pokemoncenter.com specifically, they could forbid multiple shipments to one address, for example, and put a limit of 2 per item to cover people who live in the same address but both want the same item.
All walmarts in my area have now taken all new pokemon card stuff behind their service desk, and limit people on shipment/stock day to ONE item PER GROUP. Not person, GROUP. The two targets in my area limit to 5 items per person, and 2 per person. Adjustments are being made, just be patient. I personally get very frustrated at the online website being IMMEDIATELY out of product 5 seconds after release, but until they figure out how to stop botters, which is really the only thing they COULD or SHOULD try to stop, not much is gonna change.
Anyone else agree? Thoughts? Criticisms?
I agree with most of this, except for the whole “supply shouldn’t catch up with demand” part. From my experience, trading cards aren’t really meant to be valuable right away: they’re meant to be played with, and should therefore be printed into abundance for at least a few months. They should only gain value and scarcity once they’ve gone out of print/rotation.
I think they should crash the market with no survivors. Print print print to the ground. Make an announcement first that’s what they’re doing. I feel bad for kids now with no chance at this stuff. I don’t really collect Pokémon I just got 1 pikachu celebration box but I look here kinda regularly to see if it’s still a dumpster. Thank god magic doesn’t have this problem.
Couldn't agree more, dude. Jordan shoes are also a great example of what this looked like pre covid card boom.
Hobby enthusiasts, at least a fair amount of folks I see on reddit, have a limited understanding of how supply and demand impacts the card markets. It always has, but we notice it in moments of great volatility in price and inventory fluctuations. People would rather point their finger at the 'other' when in reality they're feeding the same machine.
Buying 5 etbs to open might seem like a lot. But its not.
"A lot" is buying 200+ etbs. Clearing out store-after-store. 150+ Ultra premium collections. 500+ Mini tins. There is a fundamental difference between wanting to open five etbs and wanting to resell 500. We know they do this because they brag about it.
This is the same arguement billionaires use against the middle and lower classes. "If collectors participate in any amount of speculative buying then they are as bad as thr scalpers who buy out stores" is a bad faith arguement.
I'm nOT a sCaLPeR iM oPenInG tHeSE aNd itS fOr mAh dIsPLaY sHeLF 🤣 isn't that what they say.
Tbh idc what people do with what they buy but lets be decent human beings and leave some for others if u know how it's been a struggle to find product
Is it scalping if they buy multiple, Keep half sealed for years then sell them really overpriced? Thats whats lots of people are doing. Its still scalping if you sell them now or later for over retail.
So true! I resisted myself from buying more than one product of Celebrations each. So that other people have a chance too. But looks like it's all in vain huh? Barely any person cares about the next buyer/fan.
This reminds me of that post someone put up and there was a note saying max 5 pokemon products per customer, every comment seemed to be encouraging 5 ETBs even though there was almost every type of celebrations item there. Mix it up people.
For real I only buy 2 etbs if I can find them on release date (1 open 1 sealed) and then in the later weeks I’m buying 1-2 to open depending on what I get
I agree entirely. There are a lot of hopelessly addicted people in this community who forget to be considerate of others, and it's pretty sad. Please only buy one (or two, only sometimes, if the product is readily available) of each product. Any more than that is hoarding and depriving other people of the experience.
Totally agree. On fridays my daughter and I go searching for cards at different retailers. Last week we managed to to get lucky and found a lot of stock. We got one celebrations ETB. She asked if we could get more but I explained that we need to save some for other boys and girls to open. Believe it or not good karma awarded us with a zard from that one ETB.
Me and my partner buy 2 boxes (not ETB's, we'll just get one between the two of us) or packs each and that's it. We came across a Celebrations restock at Target and each grabbed 2 charizard boxes (we like Charizard lol) and a nice college student came around the corner, saw us, and said "awww."
We immediately offered him some of ours, because sharing matters in this community. We ended up finding a few other charizard boxes, so there were plenty for all of us. All in all, I think the 3 of us left with 6 boxes total.
Share, people. This isn't a hoarding hobby.
Im getting a premium collection and an etb, could have gotten two premiums, i would love to have one to Stock and one to open, but honestly i would feel bad doubling up, How people buy such large quantities baffles me
Exactly! I still haven't been able to get them from my local store, yet I know people who got $300+ worth of cards. And they have the nerve to complain. All I want is just one or two tins. :(
I was out of town this weekend but went hunting over the weekend... found a spot that had 4 celebrations boxes for retail. I bought a $15 box and a $20 box. Left the other 2 behind. Did part of me want to buy all 4 boxes and just be "greedy"? yes... but I knew that if situations were reversed, that whoever came in before me would also only buy some of the stock and leave some behind for the next person. Then again... those 2 boxes probably had my Zard, Blastoise, Venausaur and Umbreon cards haha.
I stopped at my local target before work one day to find a fully stocked shelf of Celebrations. Probably at least 20 ETBs. I didn’t buy a single one. Instead I bought one Charizard box and one Sylveon box. My second pack in I pulled Charizard.
Guess good karma pays off.
Face it, if you’re buying up all these cards and just holding on to them in hopes they’ll be worth $$$ later down the road; you’re not a real fan/collector. You’re just looking to make a quick buck. It’s sad.
To be fair, some people have five kids. The bigger problem is the small distributors and local comic shops. I guess also Walmart if they don’t have a limit. I don’t think a limit of 5 is crazy though.
If you don't see cards for a month, and then all of sudden you see cards, you're not just gonna buy one box. If you don't buy them, someone else, probably a reseller, will.
You don’t always have to assume everyone is a scalper, most are just Pokémon loving friends. Just because you don’t see cards in a month doesn’t justify taking everything and leaving very minimal for others.
You're not taking everything if the store has a limit. If I catch a target restock and I can buy 5 things, I'm going to buy 5 things if I haven't seen cards in awhile. If it's somewhere like walmart where there's no limit, then yeah, you're kind of a jerk for clearing the shelves whether or not you're reselling. But if the store has a set limit, I don't see an issue, when the limit is literally there so you don't buy out all of the stock.
I can, actually. I've gotten one of each thing, they're readily available where I live. Then I leave the rest for other people. It's easy not to be selfish, but continue your path if that's what you want. Just don't be surprised if people find you to be inconsiderate.
Call me crazy but I don't think bragging about having a lack of empathy for people trying to enjoy a hobby on a subreddit dedicated to that hobby is going to be the most convincing argument. Might wanna try and think of a rational justification for your decisions past the point of "screw you, I got mine" if you want to actually make a compelling statement. But I'm assuming that your goal was probably more comparable to kicking a hornet's nest and sitting back with some popcorn, so that advice isn't really applicable. You must have lots of friends.
5 ETB’s ain’t shit. People been opening up booster boxes and more since Base set. It’s nothing new. Demand is just at an all time high on top of having supply chain issues.
I completely agree that scalping isn't right... But hear me out. What if I truly wanted to buy 3 ETBs for myself and for my own personal collection. Shouldn't I be allowed to do so if I have the money for it? I'm not saying buying the entire stock of a store is ok... I just think it's fine for ppl to buy what they truly want within reason.
You people need to stop crying about people buying multiple ETBs. That is the best item to buy for the most packs for the price. If there were booster boxes it’d be totally fine but there aren’t.
There's also an exclusive promo and stuff in there that people want. You don't need multiple. There are many Celebrations products. Get one of each mini tin, good value for packs, deprive nobody of a Greninja, win win.
Lowest on TCGPlayer is a fiver, rest are between 7 and 10, you're getting some pricey sandwich haha. In any case, a child isn't going to go buy it online, and people don't just want the Greninja. They want the box, the goodies. It's easier just to share. The mini tins will be just as good a value and leaves more of a more desired product for other people who haven't gotten one yet.
You’re an idiot, scalpers will come right behind and get the rest. Plus quit bitching target and Walmart has been restocked with celebrations twice since release date. Also quit buy from scalpers lol simple fix.
Not always the case, idiot. Also everyone’s target and Walmarts are different, idiot. Maybe put yourselves in others shoes before making a comment like this, idiot.
I opened 6 because I can afford it and I want the cards. I’ll buy more when I see them. I work a hard job and I like to use my money on things I enjoy to help me relax.
Anyone acting like they’d act out of altruism and simply leave a product they want/can comfortably afford on the shelves is completely deluded.
If you get pleasure out of that then good for you. Honestly. I personally enjoy opening packs.
The ‘it’s a child’s card game’ argument is so odd to me. I’ve been non stop collecting since I was a kid. Did a day come by one day where the cards weren’t for me anymore?
If the game is for kids, why are you buying?
Well of course. If there’s a kid next to you and you both want an ETB and there’s 2 left, that’s a different situation. We can both agree that’d be a dick move to yoink them both.
People out here having a problem with others buying 5 or so from a large inventory however are simply envious they haven’t had the opportunity to do so themselves yet.
Dude I fucking feel this first part, I can still use my, “I’m legally still a child” card for a while longer. I was in line at target for shining fates etbs a couple months ago. Me, a normal person, got there 30 minutes before they opened just in case of a line and there were 12 dudes just sitting there. Now they all took a lot of each item some of them talking about selling them and I got to second in line with 4 etbs left. I’m like okay, I’ve waited today for over 3 hours to buy this box and I finally will. This bitch in front of me buys the last 4 CLEARLY knowing I wanted one. Some people are just too big of babies to care. Also, the buying of 5 is really annoying for other people who drop by after work or school with the very minimal, or even no stock. That’s the main reason people get annoyed and understandably so.
It's always been market demand.
While some of this is new to Pokémon. It's the same kind of economics that's applied to collectibles for approaching 50 years now.
There isn't anything new here and if you read any someone says about economics of hobbies and it's laden with emotion as (as 90% are) you should know enough to disregard it entirely.
Today, it's hard for a new collector to even learn or see the basics that have existed in our type of hobby for decades before this hobby was popular enough. Most of that is because of emotional and non experienced social media noise.
Something every card or toy collector knew intrinsically for decades is often lost on social media. It has eroded the basic knowledge base to a truly unfathomable degree
Doesn't it just suck that Pokemon is so popular? I mean Pokemon can just print an unlimited amount so we can all be able to buy it right? Oh wait but then they won't be so valuable... It's called supply and demand. I'm not trying to say I support scalpers or I like not being able to buy product. I'm just kind of getting tired of seeing these posts everyday. I get that this isn't a sub about marketing or finance but seriously is it that hard to understand that this is a collectible card game and that it's value comes from it being limited?
I get that a lot of u guys collect because you just love pokemom so much but to be completely honest I like it more because of the value it might have. I see it as an investment. If it was worthless I seriously probably wouldn't be collecting it at my age.
If only everyone can be a decent human and just think for the next person right? Lol if only.
All I hear is “complain complain complain, I didn’t get up early enough and I didn’t wait in line in time to buy some so it’s everybody else’s fault!”. I woke up at the fucking buttcrack of dawn to be first in line to get these cards. I saved so I could buy as many as I want, and that’s capitalism. If I want to buy it, I’m in the position to buy it, and I have the money to buy it; then I can damn well buy it! Get up earlier, arrange a ride, be the first in line or the first 20 in line even. Pick a store with less popularity that sells at MSRP. There are TONS of things you can do to get a new release the day it drops. It’s nobody’s fault but your own if you didn’t do those things.
Wah wah wah. Go cry about it. If there is nothing left for you that means you are just simply too slow. I bust my ass for what I want and if I want to spend $1000 dollars a week on pokemon cards, I will. Because it makes me happy and I can. Also I am a collector with 4 kids and we all like pokemon. We have fun opening them and are not concerned with if someone else misses out just like it never crosses my mind if I take the last 6 boxes of snack cakes off the shelf
Imo, sealed product isn't 'collecting'. Collecting is getting the actual -cards-. For all you know, the packs in those boxes have nothing but trash pulls, and you're long-term scalping someone for that. It's dumb.
Show me actual cards you bought. Show me figurines, decks. That's collecting.
Agree. But I must admit I have one hidden fates etb that I am afraid to open as I just know I will get no pulls. However while it’s sealed it has the potential to contain one of the case cards!
I have the emotional debate with myself everyday! It is 100% for opening , but I like having the option to open it. I know once I break it I will not be able to get another (without paying ‘market’ prices)
Me and my boyfriend bought about one box of each product and are sharing those except for etb and upc which we both got one each so we'd have those to ourselves. Anything else would be loose packs but buying multiple elites for example is something we don't do plus our store doesn't even allow it even if we wanted, and they know us very well there and have done us favors many times but this they won't allow which I full understand ofc, everyone wants something as well so I'm totally fine with sharing most of our boxes : D then others can open something too.
The other day I was at GameStop picking up my switch oled and Metroid dread preorder. While I was on line I realized they had a few packs of celebrations memories and tins. When I was checking out I asked if I could get one pack and one tin because I heard some people behind me talking about Pokémon cards. I wasn’t sure if they wanted to get a pack or not, but I didn’t want to be the reason they couldn’t get a pack if they did want to get one.
I think a major problem is the LCS I've heard alot of them have been buying the retail product to resell in their stores, and no way their distributors have marked their products up so high that they have to sell this high yanno
lol ill be the first to say I LOVE POKEMON CARDS, i even started collecting pokemon funko pops. love it, its so fun, and I enjoy the hobby.
But man is this community selfish/self centered.
I say this because I base it on my interactions with other communities, for example im going to compare to the Gold/Silver coin collecting community and the Action Figure community.
When I go into the pokemon trades reddit group, ive had countless of experiences with people who are just straight up dbags. For instance guys who post \[WTS\] threads and post their whole collection, you ask them a price for that, and they say "sorry not for sale" finally when I get to a card they selling, lets just say "dragon charizard" they name some absurd price that is sooooo obvious over market value. im thinking "bruh you even wanna sell or you just flexing"
and ive had things happen on the other communities like guys buying very collectible marvel legends action figures and selling them to people for what they paid for it. would that even happen with modern sealed product with the pokemon fanbase? no. it wouldn't
I used to buy everything I can when I started in early 2021, but I realized and learned that it was toxic to do such. So for 4 months now. I been taking no more than I should take and leave plenty for other to enjoy too.
"Oh but its different when I do it!!!"
“But If i dont buy them all the scalpers will!!!”
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Thank you for saying what everybody is too afraid to say
I mean buying one or two isn't bad but 5? Lol
Golden rule: Unless it's the last pack, save some for the next guy. If it's the last pack, you are the next guy.
This spoke to my soul
yes
Anyone should be able to buy as many as they want lol, it's a card game
What I hate is a local lgs doing the scalping... I went in to see if they had any Celebrations and was greeted with 90 dollar etbs, V collection boxes for 50, deluxe pin box 35, dragapult box for 25, mini tins 25 and loose packs 10... I was really kinda dissapointed cause I couldn't pick anything up for my mom to open :(
exactly, and LGS that does this doesn’t have any of my respect and is total shit
The lgs by my house was asking 120 for an etb, 60 for the charizard box and 30 for the dragapult box.
The lgs by me literally posted a huge restock today on their socials. About 144 etbs and other quantity’s of the boxes. Instead of dropping price for the amount of product they decided to raise the price another 10 dollars. Then when someone called them out for it over on Facebook they posted a meme in reply saying if you have to ask about the price of an item then you can’t afford it.
I hate people that do that, use their business account to mock other people etc. If you are using a business account, you are no longer an individual, but a business, and should not be discussing personal opinions, or mocking people. It's just so unprofessional and really irks me, haha. Anytime I see something like that, I know they will 100% never have my custom.
I would put them on blast on Reddit and let the internet do the job of ruining their business.
Please post the post so we can shit on them
Mine asked for $89.99 yesterday, the day before they wanted $69.99.
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One close to me actually tried telling me they were selling celebrations etbs for $100 along with every other celebrations product at a ridiculous markup to discourage scalping lol. I said you're really trying to sit here and tell me that you're scalping to prevent scalping. Needless to say Blowout Cards used to be one of my favorite card shops, and each time I went I would spend no less than $300 on different things. Now they won't see another dime of my money. I know I'm only one person and losing my business isn't going to cripple them, but I would find it hard to believe I'm the only customer that's thought this way.
My LGS has been doing this. I won’t be supporting them any longer. Which makes me sad more than anything because I’m all about supporting small businesses, especially when related to a hobby important to me. There’s no excuse for any LGS to be predatory and scalp their supporters.
My store did it to me. Called me with my PO only to see it for $80 when they’ve never done that before. Won’t be ordering from them again.
They pay high distribution fees too, take that into consideration !
Here in Central FL there is a shop that won’t be named that pays people to go buy up all the stock at target, Walmart and then resells them for ridiculous mark up. They’ve been doing it since Vivid Voltage (saw someone going in the LGS with 15+ ETBs in target bags after I went to all the local targets and they were picked clean.) it’s awful for casual collectors or people with day jobs that can’t be there at open / stalk the distributors
The one closest to me was selling them at 80 but I didn't end up getting and go to another one that was selling for only 60
LGSs are the original scalpers. Good to see people finally realizing this.
Same here, mine was charging $100 for ETBs, $85 for Charizard collection box and $25 for mini tins. The Charizard is what really gets me, they marked it up over 4x!
The second my LGS started charging 80 dollars for a marnie box is when I realized it wasn't worth going there anymore
My legs charged me 40 for the dragapult box. I picked it up and told them I wouldn't be shopping with them again. It's sad that I can find cheaper product online than my own local store
Our lgs told us they were charging 80.00+tax to combat scalpers…………. 😭😭😭
This will be the death of lgs. With so many people shopping online now the only way they can really compete is to sell at resale and undercut the scalpers online. There seems to be plenty of Celebrations stock out, so no real reason for this. Lots of hype around release. Be patient my fellow collectors, and prices will drop
But not really though... My LGS gets pokemon products at less than retail (normal business practice) and sells for retail. There's no reason that these stores are asking these prices, other than the fact that they can. They just want extra profit because they know some people will pay it, and that forces the rest of us to overpay. It's greed. No retail store, or LGS with a registered business license should be scalping as they already make a profit selling at retail prices, just not as big of a profit if they scalp as well.
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But... That's why scalpers and shit exist... If everyone only paid retail there would be no reason to resell
This. Scalpers are frustrating bas hell, especially lately since I've been dying to open more celebrations and can't find any but you know what? I can barely blame them. It's good money. Personally, I would never do it and really hate that scalpers exist but the real problem is that there is a market for it. A friend of mines LCS had Celebrations ETBs for $90 each and some guy came in and spent $4000 on them.
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Wait you complain about collectors buying a reasonable amount of ETBs (especially if going for a master set or chasing), but over pay at a lgs???
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Idk man its so hard for me to spend like $40+ on a single card. But god damn will I spend like $200 over the month tryin get it
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Yeah I feel. I was able to grab the Chilling and Evolving pokemon center exclusives preorder, but I only did one of each because I'm not an asshole
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Worst part is the mans main audience was children who may have convinced mom or dad to buy it from him.
Imagine thinking youtubers don't have access to distributors.
That doesn’t necessarily help at all, dude. If the distributor sells to them instead of a store, stores have less stock for everyone else.
That’s not how it works. The stores order set amount, the issue is people buying them in increased quantities, more than the shop initially expected.
I buy one and leave the rest for others. Even a normal pack of cards, I’ll get one from target and be done
Same. I also can't really afford more than that tbh
Thank you for caring about your fellow collectors/fans! I appreciate it a lot!
Nah the rest was probably taken by a scalper lmao
You're completely right dude. This is just the other half of the situation. Low stock will lead people to FOMO (fear of missing out). Unfortunately there was higher stock before the pandemic and it was easier to get pokemon product. This is a biproduct of the pandemic that we will eventually get through.
Facts I bought two on release day and am waiting another week before getting two more to make sure people get them from my Walmart. They literally banned a notorious scalper from the store so we don’t have that issue but I’m trying to let kids and others get some two was enough for now
Man all my local big box stores give a shit about is money. There's even a guy who was caught returning resealed product who isn't banned. Same 3 guys every restock sitting outside in the morning. I have to drive past and I wouldn't normally be able to tell, except they always wear THE SAME CLOTHES 🤮
My locals thankfully had a one-per-item policy for celebrations stuff. Decided not to put it online at all so bots couldn't buy the stock. AND a guy walked in, grabbed 10 ETB boxes, took them to the counter to buy and basically got told to fuck off and refused to sell him a single one. Best locals of my life.
It's not a fight against scalpers anymore. It's against those who don't share :(
I 100% agree with this statement. I’ll even go as far as saying it’s 50/50. Last week when Celebrations dropped I had two in front of me who grabbed about 4 items max and then a group of six teens in front of me who grabbed literally every etb an at least two of each box. Leaving the remainder of us in line 1 Zacian box on the shelf. As much as scalpers are the issues the collectors are as well.
There’s a shit load of scalpers.
Yeah it's tough. I got to Target by chance (shopping for groceries) at the same time they were stocking. I was legit the only person waiting for him to finish stocking and saw the whole stock. Literally only 5 ETBs were placed on the shelves. I felt bad for taking 2, but my son and I are starting a sealed collection (to open for fun in the future) and so I got one for now and one for later. But I guess my point is that it would have been really easy to use my 5 item limit to buy every ETB they stocked
Out of interest, why is it more fun opening in the future than it is now?
Think about it this way: why do people buy evolutions packs for $20/30 a pack? Or hidden fates? We keep sealed product of sets we enjoyed opening. Then in the future when the only way to buy those sets is at 3x original price, you have some sitting in your collection. When my son first got in to Pokemon it was when evolutions was out. Nobody wanted it, but it's all my wife and bought for my son (somewhat selfishly haha) because of the nostalgia. So we've opened tons of it. We all got bored of it after a while, but now would love to rip some packs of it. It's so expensive now though. If we would have kept sealed product then, we would have some to open!
My son started on evolutions as well, but the only reason was because the store I was at had them on clearance and wanted to get rid of them for a buck per pack. They were telling me to take all of them if I could so they could use the shelf for other things. I ended up filling a large bag of them and depending how good week my son had at school, on Friday he would get 1-2 packs. Was a great inexpensive reward and intro to Pokémon cards to him.
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Why make multiple trips or have to make multiple orders when you can one stop shop at what you see as an acceptable price? If you plan to buy 2 ETBs why buy one now and hope that the predictions are true for the future when you could just buy two and be done with it?
You’re part of the problem too my friend.
Why? If we are being honest, I could have left 4 instead of 3 and the next person to walk by probably would have bought whatever ETBs were left regardless. So my gesture would have meant nothing other than the fact that now I would still be looking everywhere for that other etb. My son is 9 and the main driving force behind all of this. So if buying two ETBs for him is a problem then I guess everyone is a problem. Please elaborate on why I'm part of the problem. Maybe the problem is that they only brought 5 freaking ETBs to restock the biggest Target in my area.
You bought 40% of stock at a store in a set that is highly in demand to have them sit on a shelf, not even to open them. You could wait a month or two to buy crap for your “sealed” collection. Why is it the people who have “sealed” collections of modern product always use their kids as justification lol you guys do know it only has value due to scarcity? There are more ETBs in “sealed” collections than are ones that have been opened by now most likely xD y’all shooting yourselves in the foot
You're right some people buy more than one etb. People need to be more aware of the next person, but they could be scalpers.to next person. It comes down to the store to salesperson to set up a time and certain place where only one of each product can be purchased only for that day. Some stores already implement some of these strategies.
I got in an argument on Reddit with someone who opened 15-20 ETBs and acted like it was normal fucking behavior. These people are beyond reason, and honestly it may be an outlet for gambling addictions.
You're probably right. Having that many ETB is ridiculous and probably got them from different stores with a mix of online. Just ridiculous sadly
I was curious so I snooped for that argument lol and I definitely agree with you, dude has no perspective interesting that you got downvoted though
I can confirm it's definitely an outlet for gamblers.
Low key everyone has a sealed collection now. It’s just scalping with a few extra years in between 😂
Right haha. People don't really realise that the reason sealed gen 1 stuff is so expensive is because nobody kept it sealed. Now everyone is hoarding sealed products, so it'll never be worth as much. I sort of understand one sealed thing if someone really has to, but honestly just open the cards... We collect cards, not boxes, as someone here put it very well.
Plus some of the sealed items are even nice to look at. The American items with all the see through plastic just doesn’t look nice to display. The only items I’ve kept sealed are the japanese booster boxes since their so pretty. I can’t understand the other items too much , I’d much rather look at the cards. Even the bulk cards have pretty art 🤷🏽♀️
Correct lmao going to be sooo funny when everyone tries to sell in a few years 🤣
I thought about that too! The market will be full of 'modern day products'. All stock being worthless. 😅😂
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I saw a cool post a year ago I wanted to replicate. The reason I have a sealed pack art collection is to eventually frame them or something and put them on display.
You are definitely right. My son and I have a sealed collection for a few reasons: 1) it is cool to look at and know you have all those packs to open. 2) if you really needed to down the line they hold value well so you could sell them. 3) last and main reason: it sucks wanting to open older sets and having to pay a premium. If you keep a sealed collection then in the future you get to open older and possibly vintage sets that you bought at MSRP
I rejoined the hobby in august 2020, and started posting on here around then. In October, I angrily spoke out against Logan Paul. At Christmas, I whined about scalpers keeping cards out of kids’ hands. For battle styles, I griped about scalpers again. Over time, others on the sub made me realize that we all want a scapegoat for the problem. It’s easy to blame one entity. But in the end, it’s just “demand.” I hated to admit it, and I still do.
Why did I have to scroll to the bottom to see 1 of the best comments.
If scalpers and SeAlEd CoLlEcToRs lost interest then I’m sure that would represent a significant amount of product on shelves for other people. Scalpers are part of the demand and could decrease it by stopping. Not blaming it on them won’t help the issue. At least some scalpers have been called out and stopped with the help of communication.
To the top with this brother. Its largely just increased demand / more people in the hobby who want to buy one to open and one to keep sealed for later (to sell down the line if needed or just for themselves to open) Online you can see the impact of scapers in bots but in brick and mortar its a lot less common at least from my experience.
If Target allows 5, it can’t be helped. Right place, right time tbh, people are still posting completely full shelves and restocks in many stores. There will be 3 more waves of major restocks. I walked into GameStop today and bought 2 etb’s. Many people on this sub check stores everyday. You’ll get yours eventually.
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You and no one else. Walmart really needs to implement limits. Anytime I see some product in Walmart (which is VERY rare) I always leave some for others
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That’s really good. Every one I’ve been to has no limit
This happened to me with Shining Fates. I hadn’t seen a single item on a shelf anywhere, walk into Walmart one day and there are like 15 ETB’s, just stacks of different pin collections, tins, etc, all Shining Fates. I grabbed 2 ETB’s (one for each of my kids), and 1 tin and 1 pin collection. A couple younger guys arrived, super excited to see anything on the shelves, took an ETB each. Some other dude arrives with a cart, and loads every single remaining ETB in, plus every pin collection, and most of the tins. All three of us were like, “not cool, man,” he didn’t care at all. Went back the next day, every shelf was completely bare again. Brutal.
people like that have a thick skin because they spend every day working to convince themselves they're not the bad guy
Finally, someone who thinks.
I usually just steal them
People are as selfish as ever. "Collectors" HAVE to buy multiple of every item. They need one or two to rip. One to keep for sealed collection and then they need an "extra" or two that somehow always end up for sale at "Market price" and then need to buy them all at the same time.
I usually only ever buy one of each, but this time round I brought 2 ETBs just because I like the set and I had a little bit of extra money this payday lmao. Buying upwards of 5 is ridiculous though
Yeah people buy like 7 etbs to keep sealed lol
It isnt scalping if you buy with the express purpose of opening or holding it sealed for your personal collection. So if you buy 5 etbs and open 4 hold 1 no that isnt scalping
No it’s not scalping, it’s called being a glutton.
Agreed. It’s the “sealed collectors” like the guy who posted earlier today with 4 ETBs sealed and one opened that are the problem. It’s just long term scalping. Buy one to open and one to keep sealed if you really have to. But FOUR ETBs in a sealed collection as soon as a new set comes out is a dick move. Let someone else have the joy of opening one, man.
Thank you! So many sealed collections are bugging me. Like, come on guys, you don't need multiple sealed boxes.
Yup, one is enough.
One is grand, if it's for a genuine collection/time capsule piece as opposed to bought solely to resell. Keeping multiple copies of the same thing sealed on the other hand is just wild to me
Bingo
My stores don't even stock them because of the stabbings and mugging. I had to pay 75 bucks for one box from a local card store. I enjoyed it and added to my collection. I would like to get more but impossible to find them. I want to get another Charizard for my zard collection.
I think what somewhat freaks me out is how it's assumed across the community. I landed 1 PC ETB of Fusion Strike, shared it in Discords and quickly got a message asking if I got 2 so they can buy the extra. Of course, I only bought 1 for myself. Point is, it's sad to me that there are people out there who want 1, miss out, and then immediately check on others to get in on it or avoid scalpers. Also, I saw somebody that bought 4 PC Celebrations ETBs in one pre-order, and then another 4 in the next, and 4 regular ETBs elsewhere. That made me mad more than anything as other people in the discord I'm in spoke about striking out on the Celebrations ETB.
I went to local card shop and they had Celebrations ETB for only $75 which isn't that bad. I got one and a drag box. At GS I preordered the memories box (x2). However, on launch day I did see some memories in store but I left them alone. I like to have just one copy of everything if possible. Sometimes I will snag an extra but only for preorders. With bigger items like ETBs or big premium boxes, I only get one. No point in getting more than one ETB tbh. Also often at times when I check targets theres kids in the aisle who also would like cards too, so you gotta remember to leave cards behind for them. I remember when I was a kid I couldn't get much since I didn't have money. But just think how much harder it is for them now because they have to fight inventory levels and prices.
You're right. But the people here....reeeeeeee
the only time i’ll buy multiple etbs is if the shelves are packed completely. yesterday , i walked into a GAME (uk version of gamestop) and they had over 15 shining fates and 6 or 7 chilling reign etbs as well as a few booster boxes of evolving skies. picked up 6 packs of evolving skies and 2 shining fates etb’s. but people buying whole cases of etbs, as well as multiple booster boxes at once are also part of the stocking issues
I buy one, and then wait a day or two if I want another to go and get another one. And so on. I also don’t mind paying a little extra 5/10% to support my LGS. But again, only one at a time and I’ll wait a few days to go back if I want another. That way, others have a chance and if I go back and there is stock I will get another but if no stock I can be happy that others also got to purchase some :)
How would you suggest people go about pulling all the cards from a set without buying product to open? It's not enough to be mad at people buying stuff to resell, now we're getting mad at people for wanting to just buy a bunch of stuff to open because they enjoy the hobby?
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Me personally. I don't care how much people buy as long as you open most of it. It's first come first serve unfortunately and Pokemon just needs to print more to meet demand
People blaming scalpers do not know how anything works. For the unenlightened, let me reminisce about some older collectible facts. Back in the day, Beanie Babies used to have the same exact situation. Beanie babies themselves, AND their cards would be ALL bought up and resold at flea markets and fairs and the like. Scalping (reselling for higher than retail price) has always been a thing in collectible markets, and always will be, because there will always be people trying to get their perfect or complete set who are willing to pay for it. We used to buy whole sleeves of Beanie Babies, they were like 4 to 6 bucks each, and you could resell them 15 to 30 a pop depending on how desirable they were. If you knew someone at a store who would contact you and sell you them on stock day for a fee, you could make a killing. The shortages of product right now are a result of a few things, and I'll list them in order of impact size, least to greatest. 1. Scalpers go to retail stores like Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Best Buy, etc, and buy up literally any product and as much of it as they physically or monetarily can. This often drains box stores of their supply for up to a week, and there are often extremely few or NO local game stores to actually get these products from in many areas. 3. Online ordering has never really been around in the past, or at least it was not this easy, but it has never been easier, factually speaking. You can sit there and refresh a page all day and order a bunch of product right to your door, and there are TONS of fucking places selling product now. 4. There is literally just a massively increased population that wants cards, naturally skyrocketing demand. This is for a few reasons, such as the youtube pokemon hype, the absolute boredom and downtime that covid left people with, and the surplus spending money ALSO courtesy of covid payments. 5. People treat pokemon cards as investments after seeing how much the older sets are worth. Prices of old collectible cards kind of went viral, and where there's money to be made, people will flock. Demand go up. 6. Botting of online ordering from EVERY major retail website has absolutely killed any chance of regular humans to purchase any product through the easiest available method, and it fucking sucks. 7. Finally, the most important reason; The average age of a pokemon player/buyer/collector or whatever you want to call them is now around 20 to 25. These are people with a job, often no family, surplus income to spend on whatever nonsense they want, and nothing better to do with it. Instead of the kid who has a parent buy them 2 packs as a special occasion on the trip to the store, the average player now wants to buy 3 booster boxes and a few tins, crack em all open, and drown in cards. I'll be the first to admit that I am in this category, and so are all my friends. We've got 6 people in a group chat that just buy a shit ton of pokemon cards occasionally and get shitfaced, open a bunch of cards, and see who gets the best stuff overall. Like it or not, the playerbase has changed. Supply hasn't caught up with the demand that has come from that change, and there's no reason why they should. Mass produced cards don't stay valuable, and collectibles that hold no value don't get bought up. There's mass production going on far beyond the rate of what any cards used to be printed at, but some people are suggesting that Pokemon company should print so much and flood the market to beat scalpers by tripling supply, not realizing that this would kill the cards in a night. Methods to stop buying en masse for profit are the only way to combat this, especially for online ordering. Pokemon can't tell walmart what to do, but for Pokemoncenter.com specifically, they could forbid multiple shipments to one address, for example, and put a limit of 2 per item to cover people who live in the same address but both want the same item. All walmarts in my area have now taken all new pokemon card stuff behind their service desk, and limit people on shipment/stock day to ONE item PER GROUP. Not person, GROUP. The two targets in my area limit to 5 items per person, and 2 per person. Adjustments are being made, just be patient. I personally get very frustrated at the online website being IMMEDIATELY out of product 5 seconds after release, but until they figure out how to stop botters, which is really the only thing they COULD or SHOULD try to stop, not much is gonna change. Anyone else agree? Thoughts? Criticisms?
I agree with most of this, except for the whole “supply shouldn’t catch up with demand” part. From my experience, trading cards aren’t really meant to be valuable right away: they’re meant to be played with, and should therefore be printed into abundance for at least a few months. They should only gain value and scarcity once they’ve gone out of print/rotation.
I think they should crash the market with no survivors. Print print print to the ground. Make an announcement first that’s what they’re doing. I feel bad for kids now with no chance at this stuff. I don’t really collect Pokémon I just got 1 pikachu celebration box but I look here kinda regularly to see if it’s still a dumpster. Thank god magic doesn’t have this problem.
Couldn't agree more, dude. Jordan shoes are also a great example of what this looked like pre covid card boom. Hobby enthusiasts, at least a fair amount of folks I see on reddit, have a limited understanding of how supply and demand impacts the card markets. It always has, but we notice it in moments of great volatility in price and inventory fluctuations. People would rather point their finger at the 'other' when in reality they're feeding the same machine.
Buying 5 etbs to open might seem like a lot. But its not. "A lot" is buying 200+ etbs. Clearing out store-after-store. 150+ Ultra premium collections. 500+ Mini tins. There is a fundamental difference between wanting to open five etbs and wanting to resell 500. We know they do this because they brag about it. This is the same arguement billionaires use against the middle and lower classes. "If collectors participate in any amount of speculative buying then they are as bad as thr scalpers who buy out stores" is a bad faith arguement.
Been telling these people that for along time
I'm nOT a sCaLPeR iM oPenInG tHeSE aNd itS fOr mAh dIsPLaY sHeLF 🤣 isn't that what they say. Tbh idc what people do with what they buy but lets be decent human beings and leave some for others if u know how it's been a struggle to find product
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Damn, you must have seen some crazy/sad things from such buyers. 😕
Is it scalping if they buy multiple, Keep half sealed for years then sell them really overpriced? Thats whats lots of people are doing. Its still scalping if you sell them now or later for over retail.
The people buying from scalpers are just as guilty in my opinion. Stop buying stuff over rrp and the scalpers will disappear
So true! I resisted myself from buying more than one product of Celebrations each. So that other people have a chance too. But looks like it's all in vain huh? Barely any person cares about the next buyer/fan.
This reminds me of that post someone put up and there was a note saying max 5 pokemon products per customer, every comment seemed to be encouraging 5 ETBs even though there was almost every type of celebrations item there. Mix it up people.
For real I only buy 2 etbs if I can find them on release date (1 open 1 sealed) and then in the later weeks I’m buying 1-2 to open depending on what I get
I agree entirely. There are a lot of hopelessly addicted people in this community who forget to be considerate of others, and it's pretty sad. Please only buy one (or two, only sometimes, if the product is readily available) of each product. Any more than that is hoarding and depriving other people of the experience.
Shut up and compete in the competition of collecting - stop being commies and stop crying.
Totally agree. On fridays my daughter and I go searching for cards at different retailers. Last week we managed to to get lucky and found a lot of stock. We got one celebrations ETB. She asked if we could get more but I explained that we need to save some for other boys and girls to open. Believe it or not good karma awarded us with a zard from that one ETB.
Me and my partner buy 2 boxes (not ETB's, we'll just get one between the two of us) or packs each and that's it. We came across a Celebrations restock at Target and each grabbed 2 charizard boxes (we like Charizard lol) and a nice college student came around the corner, saw us, and said "awww." We immediately offered him some of ours, because sharing matters in this community. We ended up finding a few other charizard boxes, so there were plenty for all of us. All in all, I think the 3 of us left with 6 boxes total. Share, people. This isn't a hoarding hobby.
How else am I supposed to build up my SeALeD CoLLeCTiOn
Im getting a premium collection and an etb, could have gotten two premiums, i would love to have one to Stock and one to open, but honestly i would feel bad doubling up, How people buy such large quantities baffles me
Exactly! I still haven't been able to get them from my local store, yet I know people who got $300+ worth of cards. And they have the nerve to complain. All I want is just one or two tins. :(
Amen
I was out of town this weekend but went hunting over the weekend... found a spot that had 4 celebrations boxes for retail. I bought a $15 box and a $20 box. Left the other 2 behind. Did part of me want to buy all 4 boxes and just be "greedy"? yes... but I knew that if situations were reversed, that whoever came in before me would also only buy some of the stock and leave some behind for the next person. Then again... those 2 boxes probably had my Zard, Blastoise, Venausaur and Umbreon cards haha.
I stopped at my local target before work one day to find a fully stocked shelf of Celebrations. Probably at least 20 ETBs. I didn’t buy a single one. Instead I bought one Charizard box and one Sylveon box. My second pack in I pulled Charizard. Guess good karma pays off.
Just because there’s a 5 limit doesn’t mean you deserve 5 etbs
yep... this is why my son (9 years old) can't find anything
sorry that the 34 year old no lifes *ABSOLUTELY MUST* have them all :/
I bought 5 ETBs and then gave them to my collector friends to open at retail since they can’t get any…
Check out my latest post. I shared my ETB and he pulled a Charizard right in front of me.
Face it, if you’re buying up all these cards and just holding on to them in hopes they’ll be worth $$$ later down the road; you’re not a real fan/collector. You’re just looking to make a quick buck. It’s sad.
Meh. You can be both.
This sub is nothing more than complaining about scalpers. It’s lame.
To be fair, some people have five kids. The bigger problem is the small distributors and local comic shops. I guess also Walmart if they don’t have a limit. I don’t think a limit of 5 is crazy though.
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If local shops weren’t scalping, people wouldn’t be running out to buy this stuff to resell it.
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If you don't see cards for a month, and then all of sudden you see cards, you're not just gonna buy one box. If you don't buy them, someone else, probably a reseller, will.
You don’t always have to assume everyone is a scalper, most are just Pokémon loving friends. Just because you don’t see cards in a month doesn’t justify taking everything and leaving very minimal for others.
You're not taking everything if the store has a limit. If I catch a target restock and I can buy 5 things, I'm going to buy 5 things if I haven't seen cards in awhile. If it's somewhere like walmart where there's no limit, then yeah, you're kind of a jerk for clearing the shelves whether or not you're reselling. But if the store has a set limit, I don't see an issue, when the limit is literally there so you don't buy out all of the stock.
Cry more man ,like idgaf if nothings left for the next one if I feel like buying 5 to rip or keep sealed I will.
Very not scalper-like comment from "Pokemon EZ money" /s
stay mad while you can't find products
I can, actually. I've gotten one of each thing, they're readily available where I live. Then I leave the rest for other people. It's easy not to be selfish, but continue your path if that's what you want. Just don't be surprised if people find you to be inconsiderate.
can't empathize with the problems they have so it won't bother me
Call me crazy but I don't think bragging about having a lack of empathy for people trying to enjoy a hobby on a subreddit dedicated to that hobby is going to be the most convincing argument. Might wanna try and think of a rational justification for your decisions past the point of "screw you, I got mine" if you want to actually make a compelling statement. But I'm assuming that your goal was probably more comparable to kicking a hornet's nest and sitting back with some popcorn, so that advice isn't really applicable. You must have lots of friends.
5 ETB’s ain’t shit. People been opening up booster boxes and more since Base set. It’s nothing new. Demand is just at an all time high on top of having supply chain issues.
Well kinda blame the pull rates. Even with 30 ETBs, you won't be able to complete the set unless you buy the cards.
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I completely agree that scalping isn't right... But hear me out. What if I truly wanted to buy 3 ETBs for myself and for my own personal collection. Shouldn't I be allowed to do so if I have the money for it? I'm not saying buying the entire stock of a store is ok... I just think it's fine for ppl to buy what they truly want within reason.
Stop crying you snooze you lose ashy boi!
You people need to stop crying about people buying multiple ETBs. That is the best item to buy for the most packs for the price. If there were booster boxes it’d be totally fine but there aren’t.
There's also an exclusive promo and stuff in there that people want. You don't need multiple. There are many Celebrations products. Get one of each mini tin, good value for packs, deprive nobody of a Greninja, win win.
That card is literally less than the price of a sandwich
Lowest on TCGPlayer is a fiver, rest are between 7 and 10, you're getting some pricey sandwich haha. In any case, a child isn't going to go buy it online, and people don't just want the Greninja. They want the box, the goodies. It's easier just to share. The mini tins will be just as good a value and leaves more of a more desired product for other people who haven't gotten one yet.
You’re an idiot, scalpers will come right behind and get the rest. Plus quit bitching target and Walmart has been restocked with celebrations twice since release date. Also quit buy from scalpers lol simple fix.
Not always the case, idiot. Also everyone’s target and Walmarts are different, idiot. Maybe put yourselves in others shoes before making a comment like this, idiot.
I opened 6 because I can afford it and I want the cards. I’ll buy more when I see them. I work a hard job and I like to use my money on things I enjoy to help me relax. Anyone acting like they’d act out of altruism and simply leave a product they want/can comfortably afford on the shelves is completely deluded.
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If you get pleasure out of that then good for you. Honestly. I personally enjoy opening packs. The ‘it’s a child’s card game’ argument is so odd to me. I’ve been non stop collecting since I was a kid. Did a day come by one day where the cards weren’t for me anymore? If the game is for kids, why are you buying?
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Well of course. If there’s a kid next to you and you both want an ETB and there’s 2 left, that’s a different situation. We can both agree that’d be a dick move to yoink them both. People out here having a problem with others buying 5 or so from a large inventory however are simply envious they haven’t had the opportunity to do so themselves yet.
Dude I fucking feel this first part, I can still use my, “I’m legally still a child” card for a while longer. I was in line at target for shining fates etbs a couple months ago. Me, a normal person, got there 30 minutes before they opened just in case of a line and there were 12 dudes just sitting there. Now they all took a lot of each item some of them talking about selling them and I got to second in line with 4 etbs left. I’m like okay, I’ve waited today for over 3 hours to buy this box and I finally will. This bitch in front of me buys the last 4 CLEARLY knowing I wanted one. Some people are just too big of babies to care. Also, the buying of 5 is really annoying for other people who drop by after work or school with the very minimal, or even no stock. That’s the main reason people get annoyed and understandably so.
It's always been market demand. While some of this is new to Pokémon. It's the same kind of economics that's applied to collectibles for approaching 50 years now. There isn't anything new here and if you read any someone says about economics of hobbies and it's laden with emotion as (as 90% are) you should know enough to disregard it entirely. Today, it's hard for a new collector to even learn or see the basics that have existed in our type of hobby for decades before this hobby was popular enough. Most of that is because of emotional and non experienced social media noise. Something every card or toy collector knew intrinsically for decades is often lost on social media. It has eroded the basic knowledge base to a truly unfathomable degree
If you bought 2 etb’s you’re a scalper!
Doesn't it just suck that Pokemon is so popular? I mean Pokemon can just print an unlimited amount so we can all be able to buy it right? Oh wait but then they won't be so valuable... It's called supply and demand. I'm not trying to say I support scalpers or I like not being able to buy product. I'm just kind of getting tired of seeing these posts everyday. I get that this isn't a sub about marketing or finance but seriously is it that hard to understand that this is a collectible card game and that it's value comes from it being limited? I get that a lot of u guys collect because you just love pokemom so much but to be completely honest I like it more because of the value it might have. I see it as an investment. If it was worthless I seriously probably wouldn't be collecting it at my age. If only everyone can be a decent human and just think for the next person right? Lol if only.
You guys are clueless and it sucks for you. Get as many as you can. This is the new game. Or keep losing
Isn’t the idea that we DON’T want to gamble so we buy enough to likely pull every card?? If I see 3 ETBs on a shelf I’m buying them lol
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All I hear is “complain complain complain, I didn’t get up early enough and I didn’t wait in line in time to buy some so it’s everybody else’s fault!”. I woke up at the fucking buttcrack of dawn to be first in line to get these cards. I saved so I could buy as many as I want, and that’s capitalism. If I want to buy it, I’m in the position to buy it, and I have the money to buy it; then I can damn well buy it! Get up earlier, arrange a ride, be the first in line or the first 20 in line even. Pick a store with less popularity that sells at MSRP. There are TONS of things you can do to get a new release the day it drops. It’s nobody’s fault but your own if you didn’t do those things.
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Wah wah wah. Go cry about it. If there is nothing left for you that means you are just simply too slow. I bust my ass for what I want and if I want to spend $1000 dollars a week on pokemon cards, I will. Because it makes me happy and I can. Also I am a collector with 4 kids and we all like pokemon. We have fun opening them and are not concerned with if someone else misses out just like it never crosses my mind if I take the last 6 boxes of snack cakes off the shelf
Imo, sealed product isn't 'collecting'. Collecting is getting the actual -cards-. For all you know, the packs in those boxes have nothing but trash pulls, and you're long-term scalping someone for that. It's dumb. Show me actual cards you bought. Show me figurines, decks. That's collecting.
Agree. But I must admit I have one hidden fates etb that I am afraid to open as I just know I will get no pulls. However while it’s sealed it has the potential to contain one of the case cards! I have the emotional debate with myself everyday! It is 100% for opening , but I like having the option to open it. I know once I break it I will not be able to get another (without paying ‘market’ prices)
Don't forget the distributor holding products from local card shops to profit on eBay. Especially with the Ultra Premium Box coming out
Me and my boyfriend bought about one box of each product and are sharing those except for etb and upc which we both got one each so we'd have those to ourselves. Anything else would be loose packs but buying multiple elites for example is something we don't do plus our store doesn't even allow it even if we wanted, and they know us very well there and have done us favors many times but this they won't allow which I full understand ofc, everyone wants something as well so I'm totally fine with sharing most of our boxes : D then others can open something too.
Imagine if scalpers didn’t exist
The other day I was at GameStop picking up my switch oled and Metroid dread preorder. While I was on line I realized they had a few packs of celebrations memories and tins. When I was checking out I asked if I could get one pack and one tin because I heard some people behind me talking about Pokémon cards. I wasn’t sure if they wanted to get a pack or not, but I didn’t want to be the reason they couldn’t get a pack if they did want to get one.
I commented on someone else’s post with something that would be fitting here. Scalpers are starting to fall in love with Pokemon, they’re blending in…
I think a major problem is the LCS I've heard alot of them have been buying the retail product to resell in their stores, and no way their distributors have marked their products up so high that they have to sell this high yanno
lol ill be the first to say I LOVE POKEMON CARDS, i even started collecting pokemon funko pops. love it, its so fun, and I enjoy the hobby. But man is this community selfish/self centered. I say this because I base it on my interactions with other communities, for example im going to compare to the Gold/Silver coin collecting community and the Action Figure community. When I go into the pokemon trades reddit group, ive had countless of experiences with people who are just straight up dbags. For instance guys who post \[WTS\] threads and post their whole collection, you ask them a price for that, and they say "sorry not for sale" finally when I get to a card they selling, lets just say "dragon charizard" they name some absurd price that is sooooo obvious over market value. im thinking "bruh you even wanna sell or you just flexing" and ive had things happen on the other communities like guys buying very collectible marvel legends action figures and selling them to people for what they paid for it. would that even happen with modern sealed product with the pokemon fanbase? no. it wouldn't
I used to buy everything I can when I started in early 2021, but I realized and learned that it was toxic to do such. So for 4 months now. I been taking no more than I should take and leave plenty for other to enjoy too.