Not surprised. I saw a guy buying 5 Tapu Koko theme decks at Target. That's how desperate some scalpers are.
Last edited:
“Black Bolt” and “White Flare” to Experience Severe Shortages, But TPCi Now Catching Up!
- Thread starter Water Pokémon Master
- Start date
LGS in my country have the booster boxes from SSP and JTG from 210€ to 220€ (if in stock). Before this recent panic booster boxes were around 190€ to 200€ (even for the "not-so-interesting" sets like SVI and PAL -personally I love them, especially for the hit rates-).
Big stores are usually even more expensive.
So, I can say it's very hard to support any of them if the prices even before this craze were a rip-off and now just got worse, they have a 2pack tin from PRE for ~25€ ... for the rest of the PRE products the average price is around 10€ per pack the product has inside.
The PRE Prismatic Evolutions – Super-Premium Collection for 220€
A DRI ETB for 80€ (usually they go for 65€ to 70€).
It is (or was before this scalpers galore) way cheaper to buy the more expensive products (like ETBs, premium collections, booster boxes etc) from cardmarket and pay the shipping fees around 15€ (usually I buy more products at the same time since shipping costs do not scale lineary) than buy locally.
Only one store sold PRE tins for MSRP with the condition to unseal them at the store (no problem for me I wanted to open the packs) and ofcourse I went and bought one (purchase limit).
Big stores are usually even more expensive.
So, I can say it's very hard to support any of them if the prices even before this craze were a rip-off and now just got worse, they have a 2pack tin from PRE for ~25€ ... for the rest of the PRE products the average price is around 10€ per pack the product has inside.
The PRE Prismatic Evolutions – Super-Premium Collection for 220€
A DRI ETB for 80€ (usually they go for 65€ to 70€).
It is (or was before this scalpers galore) way cheaper to buy the more expensive products (like ETBs, premium collections, booster boxes etc) from cardmarket and pay the shipping fees around 15€ (usually I buy more products at the same time since shipping costs do not scale lineary) than buy locally.
Only one store sold PRE tins for MSRP with the condition to unseal them at the store (no problem for me I wanted to open the packs) and ofcourse I went and bought one (purchase limit).
I’d say the best way to combat scalping in general is to break seals so the only people who want to buy are collectors and players
I went to a LGS today, expecting Marnie and Steven league battle decks, but instead they got a big restock on Blooming Waters, Zapdos boxes, and Eevee SPCs. Of course, they were charging way above MSRP so I didn’t buy any, but that’s just the way things are right now. It was pretty cool to see, hopefully this drops the price into reasonability. I’m not concerned about allocations for this set, they’ll mass print it later. This is temporary.
I do love it when stores do that, because it shows that they dont care about the extra money (because they charge less), they care about people not trying to resell
Exactly, it doesn’t even need to be less than MSRP. It could just be msrp. As long as they don’t make packs like 7$ each we good lol
as someone who runs an LGS, you've got it completely backwards bossman. Market value isnt determined by stores, it is quite literally "how high can the price of the thing go before people stop buying them. Stores selling at market arent making the price, they're quite literally responding to what the boxes are already selling for. I can absolutely guarantee that if people werent buying at double, triple, quadruple what msrp is, they wouldnt be selling it at that price point. You'd have to be massively inept to price cards at prices nobody is willing to buy at.
You're also just completely wrong here. LGS arent the only people on TCGplayer, if every single brick and mortar store was strictly required to comply with MSRP, nothing would change. Scalpers would just buy from the store and flip the product for a profit online, like they literally already do now. Where do you think scalpers even get product from if not from places selling at msrp?
800 card? wtf are you on?
I'm in a lottery for Destined Rivals product at my local card shop. While I'm happy TCPi is catching up, they're also chasing a moving car. If they can't get BW sets done, how are they going to handle the presumed September or November sets?
I'm a collector, and like putting them in binders, but I can imagine it would be a real impediment for competitive players.
I'm a collector, and like putting them in binders, but I can imagine it would be a real impediment for competitive players.
People need to keep in mind that LGSes don't buy product directly from Pokemon, they buy it from distributors so if the distributors aren't selling it to the stores for a price where the LGS can afford to sell it at MSRP that affects the end consumer price, this is the same thing affecting graphics card prices, during a shortage people are dipping all through the chain.
Moreover I'd much rather my LGSes make some extra money on the sealed product they sell than have all of that price gap between msrp and scalpers go to the scalpers, msrp is suggested retail price, not a guarantee, not a right. Running a small business like that isn't easy and I've seen plenty of LGSes close.
Moreover I'd much rather my LGSes make some extra money on the sealed product they sell than have all of that price gap between msrp and scalpers go to the scalpers, msrp is suggested retail price, not a guarantee, not a right. Running a small business like that isn't easy and I've seen plenty of LGSes close.
Gee I wonder why you are telling me I am wrong and defending scalping. Nah dude, everyone can see whats happening, its not hard or even hidden. If you think you are pulling a wool over peoples eyes to say "No thats not whats happening" I got some bad news for you. I seriously hope the best for your patrons, seeing how you do not.
The problem is honestly kind of complex. You'd have to address...
* TPCi, who's trying and failing to continuously to supposedly meet demand (three canned responses saying so doesn't inspire confidence).
* Distributors selling products at-or-above MSRP (which is causing shops to boost their own prices).
* Vendors backdooring product that meant to go onto store shelves for themselves, store employees, or scalpers.
* Scalpers buying out online and in-person restocks, the former using bots and the latter using large groups.
* Streamers and FOMO-susceptible schmucks being absolute dunderheads and buying products at these inflated prices (with bonus points going to the former for actually finding a way to tap into distributors).
* Possible criminal groups committing financial crimes and using the game as a way of hiding and/or laundering money.
Unfortunately I don't really have high hopes things will seriously change unless people actually protest over this and that has a infinitesimally small chance of occurring due to the Pokémon TCG fandom being extremely conflict-adverse.
I managed to get both but people are reporting that their packages are being tampered with by FedEx employees during transit and PC being a stick in the mud about sending a replacement or a refund.
It's an unpopular opinion but retiring Illustrator Rares and Secret Illustrator Rares would more than likely do it, especially if those specific hits are replaced with more FAs and Gold Rare pulls.
They may not buy them directly from pokemon, but I have seen what distributors sell to stores for, and it is a profit to sell at MSPR. This is not new for stores, or even that new to pokemon. When a product becomes out of print, or hard to comeby thats when distributors might raise the price. Day 1, nah. I have seen the prices stores are buying them for when they first get released, and stores dont need to sell at $250 for the UPC, to make money. It is far less. I do not want to defend scalpers by any means, but what stores are doing is slightly worse. Scalpers have perform shady moves, pay way more, and there means of selling is like TCGplayer or ebay usually. Stores do far less (talk to a distributor), pay far less (distributor price) and they have a store front and sell on ebay and tcgplayer. So saying you rather enable LGS who, as you can read from the comments on here, are objectively just as bad or worse than scalpers, doesnt make sense. I am not against LGS entirely, I have heard LGS doing good things like what MarlinRimes is saying. But what I am saying is that the ones I see, almost all dont do those things, they say we go off market price which is basically triple MSRP. You are right that its suggested, but that doesnt mean its okay to charge a pricce thats highway robbery.
(btw I hope anyone reading this is not reading this in an angry tone, I am at work and am bored. This is merely my observation of what I see, and trying to show people whats happening so hopefully everything for everyone gets better. Things are what they are, its tough to change it.)
I really hope for you my dude. Fingers crossed
Okay I kind of understand more why people are angry at LGSes if they're throwing their stuff on ebay and TCGplayer, none of the LGSes in my area do that afaik, I'm guessing it's more of a thing in the US than in Canada.
Yeah I cant speak for every store, or even every store in the US. But almost every store I know if you ask them why on their prices, they say "we go off market value". One store literally had a sign, it was adorable, it showed a screenshot of TCGplayer, the high end pricing, saying that their prices may seem high but its cheaper than most. TCGplayer, when I see sealed product, is a good amount of stores but obviously not all.
I mean I still think stores are well within their right to sell at market price, that's just how supply and demand works and I'd rather LGSes sell at what the scalpers will end up selling at themselves than that money go to scalpers who aren't running a proper business that provides one of the few third spaces that still exist for people to hang out at. If the store wants to sell lower than market price to take care of their customers that's obviously better but I'm not going to get upset at stores doing the former, ultimately the problem is the people willing to pay exorbitant prices for sealed product making that the price the market will bare.
Last edited:
It’s worth noting that distributors are also guilty of this too: MJ Holdings, the distributor that supplies Walmart with their products, was found to be selling products for market value on Walmart’s website via their GT Collectibles company.
Unfortunately LGSes will often clean out big box stores of product (either through bot usage or though buffering line-ups) if their distributors give them low allocation numbers, I already know of two shops in the LA area that do this and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more.
