Summary
At the moment, it seems like every newPokemon Trading Card Gameexpansion is more hotly anticipated than the last. The Pikachu-centricSurging Sparkswas released in November, butPrismatic Evolutionsquickly stole away its hype with its newMoonbreon.Journey Togetherthen appeared, ushering in the return of Trainers' Pokemon, only for its popularity to be usurped byTeam Rocket’s upcoming return in Destined Rivals.
With Pokemon TCG productsbecoming harder to get hold of, the drop for Destined Rivals on the Pokemon Center was always going to be a bit of a bloodbath. Somehow, though, it even eclipsed the worst possible scenario, with the exclusive Elite Trainer Boxes now selling for $450 on eBay.
The Pokemon Center Destined Rivals Drop Was Worse Than We Could Have Imagined
I could report on what other people are saying about the drop for Destined Rivals, but I think my experience sums it up better than anything else.
I joined the queue on the Pokemon Center the second it went live, and ended up in around 20,000th position. Shortly after, I reached the Pokemon Center website, but the Destined Rivals Elite Trainer Box was nowhere to be seen. It turned out it could only be accessed through a specific URL. Then, the website started to sputter. For some reason, every single product was removed. There were no Pokemon cards, no plushies, or anything else for that matter.
Eventually, maybe 20 minutes later, I had a product in my basket and tried to check out. The website wouldn’t let me, or anybody else, put their card details in. 20 minutes more of reloading my basket, and I eventually managed to put my card details in. I was then booted out, right to the back of the queue. This time, there were over one million people in it. I should have given up hope, but persevered.
After another 45 minutes or so, I was back onto the website. The same thing happened again, but I was now in position 1.5 million in the queue. Some people were starting to check out at this point; others were still facing issues. I waited out the 1.5 million queue again, and about two and a half hours since I first joined, I was back on the website. I was able to put my card details in on the first time now, but I was greeted with a spinning Poke Ball loading icon as I tried to purchase. The transaction didn’t go through three times, and on the fourth, I was back in the queue.
The masochist that I am, I waited in the queue for a fourth time, but as I watched my position move down, it sold out. It was categorically the worst, most frustrating online shopping experience I’d ever faced, and I know I wasn’t the only one as dozens of people in a Discord server I frequent went through the same thing.
To compound things, as has so often been the case with the Pokemon TCG over the last few months, the Elite Trainer Box appeared on eBay for a ludicrous price. Sales for the product havealready reached $450, more than any other ETB in the Scarlet and Violet era, including151.
The Pokemon Company is in an unenviable position, butgiven this has happened twice in a week, it’s something it desperately needs to resolve for the long-term health of the Pokemon TCG.
