Van Gogh Pikachu Promos Being Pre-Scalped in the Netherlands, Another Botched Release Feared

Ambassador said:
If you're interested in playing the game, I'd encourage you to write TPCI and talk to organizers at regional events and up about ending TPCI's relationship with LGSes and work towards moving these events to large stores, where there is an apparent chain of accountability and a decent track record
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I'm not going to engage with delusion anymore, but it is quite hilarious to read this when people literally had guns pulled on them at Walmart in the Pokémon isle.
 
Ambassador said:
I think you're deliberately making the silliest arguments possible to excuse a basic lack of character.

If I ask you to give $5 to my friend and you have concerns you cannot do it (safety, etc.), then you should tell me and return it to me. In fact, on having that conversation, I might offer something to assist you in completing the request, or arrange for it to be done somewhere else. That is sensible, coherent, and the "incentive" in doing so, as some of you would believe, is maintaining good relationship with me and being a decent human being for yourself.

What you're proposing instead is not airing these concerns and then just deciding how to resolve the situation for yourself. Did you give the $5 to my friend like I asked? No? Then it's theft. In this hypothetical scenario, there's no room for discussion, as you had every opportunity to raise these concerns to me and instead you decided to steal.

TPCI gave these cards to LGSes with the express, specific instruction they be given away to customers under certain conditions. Are they being given away to customers under those conditions? No? Then it's theft. In this real world scenario, there's no room for discussion here – if the LGSes felt they couldn't distribute the cards, they could have contacted TPCI and/or the distributor to discuss their concerns and see if they could work something out, or else would be morally obliged to return the cards. This is exactly what I would do in this scenario if I was running an LGS because I have a basic sense of ethics and morality and a comprehension that society doesn't work if people just live life from moment-to-moment thinking in short-term concepts like muh profit incentive. There are other sorts of people in this world who seem to be completely unable to act decent and are always full of nothing but excuses for being the way they are and I think I am listening to excuses of one such person now.

Again – it is amazing that there are people in our society who cannot even be trusted to give a Pokémon card to a customer. This type of person is called an LGS owner, and for the last several years they have been telling us sob stories about how difficult it is and how the big chain stores are threatening their business. I saw for myself, first-hand, how this was a lie, and now other readers can see for themselves how this was a lie.


I apologize to those LGS owners who are doing the right thing here, but this isn't so much a test to pass and win amazing prizes so much as a basic task nobody should be failing because we live in a society. But here we are.




Maybe bringing Pokémon outside of Japan was a mistake.
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You have my respect for being an honest, moral person. I, too, practice morality. However, we live in a society where going with the flow, or be a bystander, and praising social media personalities by giving them far too much credits for quoting other peoples work. I agree that even small businesses must comply to the rules laid out by TPCi. Most of them often blame bigger retailers for malpractice yet they become hypocritical when given an exclusive opportunity (though not all of them).

As for the last sentence about Pokémon not going outside Japan, I wonder if Water Pokémon Master agrees :D

How do we combat scalpers? Patience!! Lots of it! Mass producing is another way (yugioh proven that). How can we combine the two? Well, TPCi was doing just that, now we need to eliminate this single promo giveaways and instead include it in a product. Sure, some can scalp these and that is why we need to practice patience, knowing that it will be mass produced.
 
Some people in here are just being ridiculous. You do know that the end of LGSs would basically kill the competitive scene, right? You really think Walmart would put aside store space for a few tables and train their employees to be Pokémon Professors? And all that for what gain, making Walmart, one of the easiest places to scalp from, have even more of a monopoly over the supply? Scalpers are horrible but it's TPCi's fault for pandering to them.
 
Where are you going to play the TCG in-person without LGS? It doesn't make their actions appropriate, but there has always been a symbiotic relationship between LGS and TPCI/any other TCG. However, anecdotally that seems to have been more of an abusive relationship.

TPCI forces unsellable products like theme decks onto distributors/stores. That is basically setting money on fire, just so that they can get their allocation of products that do sell. But margins are already low and TPCI increasing the wholesale cost for SV makes it even worse.

Booster boxes used to be LGS exclusive but have since been given to big box stores that don't, can't and won't host any in-person TCG.

Did LGS owners bring it on themselves? Maybe, but perhaps if there was better communication between them and TPCI it would never have happened on such a large scale.

In any case, the TCG wing of TPCI doesn't seem to care about actually growing the TCG like Japan does. If they did, they would not still be making all these unsellable products. Putting unsellable stuff on shelves does not create demand for them. Even the make-up of packs and set design tells you that players are not the focus of TPCI. Though it got better in SV, you had sets in SWSH where you may not even get a VMAX out of a booster box. And you need 4 specific ones to play the game.

Will they learn? If they don't know how to listen, how will they learn?
 
Wow Ambassador, did you get a gun pulled on you in an LGS or something lmao? I've never seen such unrepentant hate towards LGS's as a whole. Just because you have had bad experiences doesn't mean that LGS's are horrible and should be abolished. At the end of the day the pros of an LGS (easier ways to get singles, safe spaces for like minded people to meet, safe spaces for people to play/learn how to play) out weighs the cons (some stores price gouging, some stores scalping). A lot of LGS owners have full time jobs in addition to their stores. They do it out of a labor of love, not because it makes tons of money.
 
I wonder if they'll continue to re-release this card via overly specific distributions. If so I hope one becomes more absurd than the last
 
Debatably society has already collapsed to some extent.

I feel like there's some moral disconnect if two opinions from the same person are "I've had opportunities to steal but I didn't so no one else has any reason to" and "stop supporting local businesses and support giant corporations instead, theyve definitely never stolen from society"

Also waiting for WPM to say walfart
 
I’m not at all surprised after seeing how many stores list all their league promos in Cardmarket
 
Hukutus said:
I’m not at all surprised after seeing how many stores list all their league promos in Cardmarket
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It comes down to TPCI's failure of imagination or will to do anything different or to be better as a company.

In Japan, lots of promos are locked behind playing the game yet they manage fine. The accessories they come up with are for the game.

TPCi just makes a lot of terrible products that use excessive packaging that hardly anyone wants and incurs significant postage costs.
 
I'm just gonna put my two cents here. Justifying LGSes for pulling a stunt like this is baffling and is making excuses for theft, breach of contract, and possibly more depending on the back end of things. However, this does not mean all LGSes are awful and the concept as a whole should be panned entirely. They are still a core part of TCGs and the reason they survive, no arguing that. Putting that kind of responsibility onto large retailers is a ridiculous concept. It would never work, and only make things worse. The only thing TPCi can, and should, do is take legal action as to dissuade any potential issues like this down the line. If anyone asks, yes, these stores can be held liable for this in a court of law. They shouldn't have to add any further guidelines, or instructions, or anything. The fact it's a crime is enough to dissuade from this even cropping up. TPCi will only print more of these cards because of this. If it's already on the press, and they're actively combating the issues with the previous event, why would they just say, "Nah, you deal with this mess?" These stores will turn a quick dollar, and in turn, they will probably lose their partnership, lose any distribution, and face legal ramifications. TPCi, on the other hand, will have no problem resolving this issue.

So, in conclusion, shut up about LGSes dying over this and stop trying to say this can be excused in any sort of manner. It's scummy, it's stupid, and it's a risk to the business that's doing this in the first place, no matter the profit.
 
Welp, called that. These sellers should be blacklisted from any future events and promotions, but they wont be.
 
this pikachu promo made me disgusted with investors so much, it was the last point before i snapped.
And I finally told everything I thought about scalping and investing in one place and got banned after it ended up flaming.

I just left all the discords where I tried to "fit in". I'm fine just enjoying cards alone and sometimes posting them here and shitposting.

fudge pokemon community. I saw pokemon as escapism from boring life and disguisting adult bulshit-tery but this exact same bullshit slipped into the pokemon community as well.
I remember escaping into fantasy worlds back then because it was the only place without normies and cynical adults.
Now i'm escaping from those worlds because such people invaded them.
When pokemon will be "gay" and "for kids" again? I can't wait...
 
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