The Pokemon Trading Card Game has always been popular among Pokemon fans who play competitively, casually, and those who just collect the cards for their artwork. However, a new surge of popularity hit the card game back in 2020, with many high profile card auctions and sales occurring thanks to the resurgence of mainstream card collecting.
While many communities welcome new members, many of those who have entered the Pokemon TCG community as of late have been doing so for monetary reasons. Due to some older cards and packs selling for more than what many make in a year, many cards are being purchased in bulk in hopes of turning a profit at some point.
One of the biggest effects of this surge is the rise in scalpers that buy out Pokemon cards from retailers in order to resell them for higher prices. This has led to stores such as Target, Walmart, and even the toy aisles of CVS being completely sold out of packs, starter decks, and anything containing cards.
Many trading card isles of retail stores are left barren in the Pokemon sections, with many also using more security devices on the cards to prevent theft. Large retail stores are also starting to place limits on trading card purchases, including those other than Pokemon. This makes it much more difficult for those who want to genuinely purchase multiple packs to do so.
One of the largest recent examples of what scalpers are doing with the Pokemon Trading Card Game can be seen with the recent McDonald's Happy Meal promotion. This promotion gave buyers three random special starter Pokemon cards with their Happy Meal with the cards likely being the start of many children's card collections.
Unfortunately, the campaign resulted in trouble for parents, children, and McDonald's employees. Scalpers were reported to buy dozens of Happy Meals at once with no intention on actually eating the food, just to get the card packs for reselling. This meant that many different McDonald's locations were stuck with card shortages, tall orders from single customers, and many children unable to get a toy at all with their meal. Locations affected by this began to place hard limits on how many card packs would be given with each purchase.
With the McDonald's promotion in mind, it is unknown when the scalpers won't target Pokemon cards so hard anymore. It could even be possible that this will just remain the new normal for Pokemon TCG players and collectors for the unforeseeable future. Pokemon cards used to be something that one could purchase easily on their way out of a store, with the process of purchasing them now being more complicated than ever before.
Those who still want to purchase Pokemon cards, that don't want to buy from resellers but are unable to find cards in major retailers, still have options. One of the best ways to find Pokemon card packs at this time is through smaller local game or tabletop stores. These locations are much less likely to be hit by hoards of scalpers, with employees also being more likely to have the ability to put their foot down against them.
Pokemon TCG cards can be purchased from select retailers and local game stores.