Edited 03/11/25 for clarity and grammar
After weeks of waiting with bated breath and soaring anticipation, it’s finally the day that you’ve longed for: The release date of the new Pokémon Trading Card Game expansion has finally arrived. You hurriedly scramble out of bed to begin dressing yourself and what usually feels like an eternity passes in a flash and before you know it, you’re out the door, making your way to your nearest retailer.

After an excruciatingly long journey, at long last, you’ve made it to the location. As you round the corner to meet the front door, you steel your nerves, but it’s futile as you encounter the winding line of people just like you who are hoping to get their hands on this set too.

The term scalpers describes people who buy up large quantities of products and then resell them to others at a higher price to make a profit.

You slide yourself into your spot at the back of the line and the minutes begin to pass. At first it’s five, then 10, then 30. As each moment passes, you see people coming out of the store just as quickly as they pile in holding bags of products in both their arms. Your heart sinks as the horrifying realization sets in.

These people are scalpers and in their arms are boxes of the very same Pokémon TCG products you’ve waited months to hit shelves so you could be the one to buy them and open packs to try to pull that one card you’ve been eyeing since their announcement.

Emotions fill your body and finally, the time comes for you to enter the store. You rush to the section where the products are meant to be waiting for you patiently, only to find the shelves to be completely picked clean.

This is the unfortunate reality many collectors nationwide face and it has to stop. It’s a dangerous, predatory and controlling practice that deprives people of the opportunity to participate in the community unless they pay an insanely high resale price.

With the recent release of the new Pokémon TCG expansion “Prismatic Evolutions,” many stores sold out within the first few hours of products hitting shelves due to scalpers.

The expansion released January 17, 2025 with many having the goal to pull some of the rarest and most expensive cards in the set. Scalpers use this motivation to purchase a large quantity of products only to resell them at a higher price. Many collectors will spend hundreds of dollars purchasing products at the resale price just to have the opportunity to pull from this set.

TCGplayer.com is a trusted site where many collectors will go to buy their individual cards or buy card packs. Currently on the site, a “Prismatic Evolutions” Elite Trainer Box, also known as ETB, which contains 9 card packs and other bonuses has its listed median market price at $149.95.

The same ETB sold at Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for $49.99 at retailers like GameStop and Best Buy when it was released.

That is an average of nearly 200 percent markup by scalpers and people are buying these ETBs just for the chance to pull from the card packs inside. tcgplayer.com lists the last sale of an ETB as selling for $129.98. This is is still an outrageous price for buying cards. Not to mention that pulling any one specific card is left up to chance with different cards having different rarities, meaning that people are paying an outrageous price just for the low chance they get the one card they actually want.

Not only will people pay outrageous prices, they will physically brawl with each other over these pieces of cardstock.

On January 16, the Pokémon TCG released a premium collection called “Blooming Waters” at Costco stores, which led to physical fights among customers attempting to secure the product.

A video posted by DisguisedToast showcased a man at Costco in Los Angeles trying to grab two “Blooming Waters” boxes out of the arms of another man before getting elbowed in the face and being told to “get off me bro.”

It’s frankly disgusting that people would stoop so low to harm one another over Pokémon cards only to try and turn around and sell them at a higher price for profit.
Unfortunately, the explosion in popularity of collecting cards has allowed this predatory behavior to rear its ugly head as it had done previously in communities such as gaming.

Back in November of 2020, the PlayStation 5 was released worldwide and one of the largest showcases of scalping followed. Shortages of the consoles and sky high prices plagued gamers for months, with scalpers posting videos of themselves on social media showcasing how many consoles they bought to resell.

Resale groups made hundreds of thousands of dollars because consumers wanted the chance to purchase and use these consoles and in desperation, they turned to secondary markets. These consumers overpaid for products that are nowhere near worth the prices they paid.

Time and time again, it’s been shown that scalpers will prey on consumers to make a profit and they don’t care if the prices they set are outrageous. They will continue to sell these products to turn a profit.

So are we going to continue to allow these people to sell us products worth nowhere near the disgustingly high price tag? Or are you going to stand up to these people and stop putting up with them and stop buying?