Summary
ThePokemon Trading Card Gamehas been in a bad place for a while now. Earlier this year, I reported thatcards were spiking in price and products were becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. It’s only gotten worse since then.
With The Pokemon Company releasing more desirable products like thePrismatic Evolutions Super Premium Collection, things have become more profitable for scalpers, and therefore, they’ve been harder to get hold of for the average collector.
Recent drops from theBlack Bolt and White Flare,Destined Rivals,Journey Together, andPrismatic Evolutionsexpansions have seen hours-long queues, multiple errors, and hundreds of scalpers ruin the buying experience on The Pokemon Center website.
However, the tide could be turning. Last night, Pokemon dropped another wave of Prismatic Evolutions Elite Trainer Boxes, and the process was surprisingly smooth.
The Pokemon Company May Have Finally Figured Out The Pokemon Center’s Anti-Bot Protection
I’m going to start with a personal anecdote. In previous drops, I’ve been at the front of the line, sat there for four (!) hours, and still not managed to get my hands on the product due to multiple errors. Last night was a very different experience. I didn’t realise a queue was up until 45 minutes after the alerts had been doing the rounds. This would normally be fatal. Determined, though, I pressed pause onThe Last of Usand trudged upstairs to my PC, expecting to spend my night staring at that damned Pikachu. That wasn’t to be.
As I hunkered down, I picked up my phone and doomscrolled for a bit. After five minutes, I decided to look up, and to my surprise, the queue had already passed. I threw an ETB in my basket and checked it out with ease. The hardest part was navigating the anti-bot restrictions at the start, and I think The Pokemon Company may have finally got it right.
I spoke to dozens of other Pokemon TCG collectors on Discord, and they all faced similarly positive experiences. Thesentiment also seems the same in online forums.
The Pokemon Company’s crackdown may extend to existing orders placed by scalpers, too, withunconfirmed reportsthat those who placed multiple orders are having them canceled.
Pokemon itself isn’t the only one cracking down on scalpers, either. Aftertrouble in many of its stores, GameStop hasofficially confirmedthat it is limiting Destined Rivals purchases to one unit per SKU per customer to “help ensure more fans receive the opportunity to access the latest expansion.”
It seems like, finally, the hobby may start returning to normal, at least to some extent.
