When Evolving Skies launched at the end of August, I felt my love for Pokemon cards reigniting. Not only is it an incredible expansion filled with Eeveelutions, dragon🥃s, and some of the best art we’ve ever seen - it’s also th🅰e first set in over a year that was actually available on store shelves for more than five seconds. Rather than stand outside Target at 5am for a single ETB, I casually walked into the store in the afternoon and was able to buy multiple products. I also visited a GameStop and another Target over the last weekend in August and found quite a few more packs. Sure, in an ideal world I’d like to see fully stocked shelves all year long, but to see products readily available even for just a single weekend was extremely refreshing.
At the time, I wrote about my hope that𒁏 the Pokemon TCG hobby was finally turning tౠhe corner back towards some sense of normalcy. I anticipated that the availability of Evolving Skies was a sign that the scalpers and opportun𒁃ists had moved on to their next quick buck. I really thought the days of online pre-order lotteries and buying packs marked up to three to five times their recommended retail price were nearing an end, but after the fiasco this weekend at Gary’s Pokemart, it’s clear we’re not out of the furnaceꦯ yet.
The next Pokemon TCG set after Evolving Skies is a special anniversary set called Celebrations. Fall mini-expansions like Celebrations have become common over the last few years and are highly sought after for a few reasons. These sets typically have a smaller card list th🐠at includes a special theme or gimmick you wouldn’t find in a typical set, and they’re only sold in special collection boxes, rather than in single packs like a normal set. This year’s Celebrations set is a 25th-anniversary collection that features reprints and remakes of Pokemon’s most famous and beloved cards. As far as special mini-sets go, this one is the most special, and unsurprisingly, 🎐the hardest to get a hold of. Pre-orders sold out in a matter of seconds, and stock will likely be limited when the set releases on October 8.
Yesterday, a TCG store in California called Gary’s Pokemart was vandalized. In , the store’s owner, Gary Adams, explains thieves broke into the shop and stole a lot of their vintage and newer Pokemon card products. This is, of course, a horrific scenario for any small business owner, especially for a shop like Gary’s Pokemart that undoubtedly relies on the sales of hot new sets. It’s a major setback for the customers that either pre-ordered or intended to buy those cards as well, as they’ll almost certainly wind up getting scalped for exorbitant prices online. This kind of thing wouldn’t be happening if the hobby didn’t have so much outside attention on it right no🌳w, and it’s a clear sign that we still have a long way to go. Unfortunately, that’s not the end of the story.
Last week, . While it’s not uncommon for content creators like Leonhart to receive new Pokemon TCG products early, no one aside from Gary’s Pokemart has opened packs or shown any cards online yet. What’s more, Gary’s Pokemart is already selling Celebrations prꦍoducts ahead of the October 8 release date. According to Reddit users and , the shop was selling individual packs for $60 and ET♏Bs for $300. Gary’s Pokemart is reportedly still selling Celebrations products on eBay, according to PokeBeach. How is this store able to sell Celebrations when no one else can?
There’s essentially two ways that a retailer can obtain💛 and sell new Pokemon cards early. Either they’ve received product from their distributor and are deliberately breaking their retail agreement by selling it early, or they obtained the product in some…other way. We do not know how this store got Celebrations before anyone else, but PokeBeach was able to confirm with distributors that no Celebrations product has been shipped to stores yet. If that’s true, then Gary’s Pokemart didn’t receive product from a legitimate distributor and isn’t violating a contract with them. Thཧe cards must have come from some other source, likely stolen from a printing plant or through some other illegal activity, according to PokeBeach.
Ultimately, whethܫer Gary’s Pokemart obtained the product illegally or not is just one more detail in this long, disappointing story. Even if the shop wasn’t breaking the street date on Celebrations, it is still charging five to ten times MSRP for Pokemon cards. Gary Adams used his early access to Celebrations as a flex to promote the store. Multiple posts on Instagram and streams on the Whatnot app show Gary bragging about having Celebrations before anyone, and of coꦅurse, selling it for outrageous prices.
The break-in🔯 likely dealt a blow to Gary’s business, but Gary’s actions hurt the entire hobby. Jacking up prices to inflate the market and price players and collectors out is despicable, but that’s not ღthe only repercussions here. TPCI is moving away from local card shops like Gary’s in favor of Target and Walmart, which are more consistent and reliable retailers, and community stores that already struggle to get by with razor-thin margins are going to lose even more opportunities thanks to people like Gary.
The worst part of this is the big-shot attitude, which has festered around the Pokemon TCG ever since Logan Paul bought his first booster box last year. All of the content creators and soci✅al media influencers that have latched onto the TCG as a status symbol opened the door for the extreme profiteering we’ve seen this past year, and we’re clearly not out of the woods yet. Narcissism, exploitation, scalping, and, of course, larceny, have absolutely no place in the Pokemon Trading Card Game. I had hoped there was a light at the end of the tunnel, but this whole situation has made it clear that we’re still stuck in Pokemon card hell.