Scalping Situation
Hey everyone.
With Destined Rivals on rapid approach, and hot off the heels of Journey Together, the scalping situation has only gotten worse. It's to the point that unless the TCG is your only spend, a normal person can't really afford to participate. I couldn't even pick up any boosters, outside of the pre-release events, for JoT.
Prismatic Evolutions is still expensive, and only getting moreso. The $160 per ETB I spent on release weekend is quaint now; they're going for $250 at my LGS. Scalpers and distributors are screwing over shops and customers alike. It's at the point that I'm entirely priced out- I can't afford to buy boosters at all anymore. It's all too expensive, and I'm well above the mean income for my country (Canada). JoT boxes are in the multiple hundreds of dollars per box too.
Suits probably aren't seeing the issue quite yet, but this is going to kill the game in the long-term. Something has to be done to remedy this, and fast, before people give up and move on to cheaper pastures.
My suggestion, given some background in economics and supply chain, is twofold:
Increase production, and cut off the distributors. Someone (likely multiple in the chain) in the middle has decided to milk your product and customers for all their worth. Break them. Ramp up your supply and build a portal to sell direct to shops- on the expectation that they sell at MSRP. Instruct them to do what you do for Pokemon Centres already and remove the seals when product is sold. Scalpers will recede to only whatever they can get that's sealed, and will crush their market share and dominance over said market.
On the front of increasing supply, this coincides with the trade issues that've been rearing their heads of late; currently North American supply is manufactured in the United States. While, to my knowledge, TCG are not subject to the retaliatory tariffs Canada and Mexico are inflicting (Canada being of importance here, as it's where I'm from) there's no guarantee of future tariffs having no effect. Given that, I'd suggest spinning up another factory somewhere in Canada, that deals in direct-to-retail customers and perhaps even supplying just singles at a significant markup ($5/10/whatever for an EX-card based on rarity, for example, so you don't undercut LGS but ensure there's supply still) while not dealing in any SIRs or Trainer Gallery cards. Anything you can do to undercut and crush scalpers messing with in-production sets will be healthy in the long-run.
I, of course, don't expect to be listened to and this is mostly annoyed rambling due to checking an online store and seeing booster boxes listed for $500 CAD. As it stands, however, I'm priced out. I can't buy packs anymore. Unless something changes, I'm done with the game.
Comments
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exactly. The Pokémon center is basically empty when it comes to TCG. This shouldn’t be the case for a main distributor of the product. If the PC is empty then the retailers are empty. Stock should have be tripled in demand since prismatic.
The TCG fandom is looking grim for long term and new fans.0
