Pokémon TCG Scalping Is So Bad That Official Stores Are Removing Packaging

Yahoo

17-03-2025

As we approach the release of Pokémon TCG's next set, Journey Together, the card game is in a really weird place. The sealed cards, bought either for playing the table-top game or for collecting, are broadly unavailable thanks to an ever-worsening feverish demand that is seeing scalpers buying everything to resell. More Pokémon Centers, the physical stores that sell all things Pokémon, have made the extraordinary move to open product before they'll sell it.
Despite promises to massively increase production, the simple act of buying a new pack of Pokémon TCG cards is often impossible, ruining the hobby for millions of children and casual players. With embarrassing scenes of scalpers physically fighting each other, something has to give if the card game is to maintain any viability for its wildly popular live game. To whit, Pokémon Center stores are removing the packaging from TCG products before they sell them, to make them far harder to resell.
As reported by VGC, joining Pokémon Centers in Japan, Singapore's Pokémon Center is now also removing the plastic seals from boxed products to dissuade scalpers. As VGC observes, this means it's the first time the English-language version of the TCG is being treated this way.
It's important to note that permanentPokémon Centers are unique to Japan and Singapore, which itself remains deeply peculiar given the astonishing popularity of all U.S. and UK pop-up venues—to the degree where people have to buy timed tickets, sometimes via lottery, to attend the stores. All U.S. retailers are therefore third-party, and in a more complicated position when it comes to removing packaging. However, it's certainly doable, given it only happens at the point of purchase.
Of course, there are those who would consider themselves legitimate collectors, wanting to buy sealed products to keep for their personal collections. And yes, for them, it sucks. Hell, I'd been buying one of every Pokémon Center ETB from the online store to keep sealed for a collection, with an eye on how much sealed products sell for once they're over a decade old. Unsealed, they'd be worthless. But, you know what, even in my position the scalpers have made this pursuit impossible—the last three sets I've not been able to buy an ETB at all, as bots have demolished the stock in the opening seconds it goes online. Honestly, the situation is so bad that the fair point collectors make has become moot.
And things are only going to get worse, folks. Given that this era of the TCG is now looking certain to last four years rather than three, there are big moves to experiment with the card game's mechanic, and with that comes only ever-more collectible cards. With this month's Journey Together there will be the return of Trainer Pokémon, not seen since the 2000 set, Gym Heroes. Then later this year the game is to receive the return of Mega Pokémon. These will all be boosted with stunning full-art variants which will become ludicrously sought after, and only make the potential for scalpers more lucrative.
The Pokémon Company International either has to match its words and massively step up production to try to flood the market with so much product that the scalpers are drowned, or all stores are going to have to implement schemes like the Pokémon Centers in Japan and slice open that plastic at the checkout.
Yet again, scalpers ruin everything.
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