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Pokemon card availability
I’m really disappointed with how The Pokémon Company handles product availability. As a parent of two kids who love Pokémon, I’m just trying to buy cards at a reasonable price, but every option feels stacked against families.
Here is what I've tried:
Online queues at Pokémon Center: got queue spot resets due to work internet or phone screen timeouts, or I clicked too fast and now I'm a bot. Failed for both AH ETB and BB.
Paid services like Walmart Plus: got through queue to fail with checkout errors and 10 minute timer ended.
In-store shopping at Target and Walmart: unreliable unless you arrive minutes after a drop. Good luck guessing when. I can't camp out there and when I call I'm always too late.
Early-morning releases at Sam’s Club aren’t realistic for working parents
3 a.m. Target drops aren’t sustainable. Even the one I tried I got checkout errors until OOS.
Local card shops charging $10–12 per pack aren’t a financially reasonable option either. Facebook marketplace is full of $10+ a pack posts.
I’m doing everything right except make buying cards a full time job, yet it still feels impossible to get Pokémon products at MSRP—so what are parents actually supposed to do?
Comments
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I AGREE!!!! I've had issues also that's why I haven't been able to purchase barely anything lately for my family also. I actually put that as one of my new year's resolutions on a post here.... to find a local store with in stock reasonably priced TCG booster packs. (It's next to impossible lately 😐)
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Oh, but I have seen fake or bootleg TCG packs available.... (Yes we confronted the shop owners, but they put them back out a week later)
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I remember an ice cream truck selling those in 2017 (that’s like the only year I remember)
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We've seen Sword & Shield Astral Radiance (this past early fall at the local city fall festival) and Fusion Strike (at a local shop) fakes. I haven't looked at the ice cream trucks lately but I wouldn't be surprised if they were there too.
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they were the fake packs with all the golden cards children always have
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Ohhhh it's a bummer when people intentionally sell fakes and even more of a bummer when people scalp the real cards, increasing the prices beyond what they should be. I think that's one reason why i like the online TCG Pocket and Live so much. I get to open packs daily without the stress of actually finding them in a store. The downside is that you don't have anything tangible to hold onto or pass on or trade with others later.
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Yeh I like the online games but I also like knowing I have real life cards
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It's simple supply and demand. Investors and collectors swarmed the hobby back during the COVID era when everyone was stuck at home with government cheques and nothing to do, and that demand hasn't abated all that much.
Perhaps something will come along to draw investment attention; a new TCG or collectable, a new technology or any other new fad with a limited supply and high demand. Or maybe Pokémon or the TCG will do something to annoy their own customers or cause investors to lose faith in the market.
But ultimately, Pokémon is a cultural phenomenon, it's always popular to some degree, and it has an established market that has survived for 30 years. It is a relatively safe place to park your money, because either a set will be a hit and you can scalp and cash out immediately, or a set becomes valuable once it leaves print and nostalgia sets in a few years later.
In short, Pokémon TCG cards are in demand from everybody from (the ironically small population of) TCG players, collectors, investors and kids and their families scrabbling for anything with Pokémon written on it.
The demand is not going away.
All you can hope for is Pokémon ramping up their print runs to meet demand. Which I believe they have attempted but it has still proven insufficient.
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True and yep, I've thought the same, just sometimes wished it weren't so.
Basic economics, right? Limited supply + high demand = increased prices (in a free market). Hmmm now i feel like writing equations (this takes me back to college days lol, thank you @TheJeffers . Fun times.)
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