ThePokemonTrading Card GameorTCGis currently experiencing a massive boon in the United States, brought on by a renewed interest in the hobby and compounded by resellers.The ongoing chaos surrounding the buying and reselling ofPokemoncardsthough has pushed Target to direct its employees to consider calling the cops on customers who do not comply with the store’s policies.
Being one of the United States' largest retailers of thePokemon TCG, Target has been inundated with demand for the cards by flippers, hardcore fans, and parents. AlreadyTarget has instituted special policies forPokemoncardsthat mandate all stores only restock cards at 8 AM on Fridays and that each customer can only buy one item.
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ThosePokemonTCGpolicies have not been enough apparently, as customers still regularly form long lines outside of Target stores before they open. To combat this, Vice has reported that some Target stores have begun posting policies that direct its employees to warn customers lined up outside to leave and that if they do not, employees should “determine next steps and if law enforcement engagement is required.”
The Pokemon Company previously stated that it will continue and try to maximize the printing of the current sets that are driving demand,namelyShining Fates, which features dozens of shiny Pokemon. The most notable card fromShining Fatesis a full-art shiny gigantamax Charizard, which has an estimated pull rate of less than one percent and is currently selling for hundreds of dollars on eBay. But in weeks and months past, that card sold in the thousands, so clearly The Pokemon Company is slowly meeting demand.
The current commercial success and stock shortages of thePokemon TCGis an amalgamation of multiple factors. ThePokemonfranchise as a whole is currently experiencing its 25th anniversary, prompting old and new fans who have also largely been at home looking for new hobbies the past year to collect. Celebrity influence is also playing a role, as people likeYouTuber Logan Paul have been showing off theTCGto their audiences of millions, bringing more people into the fold.
Pokemoncards are not the only product whose supply to consumers is being strangled by resellers.A significant portion of the PS5’s stock has been sold to resellerswho charge premiums of hundreds of dollars on sites like eBay. Other tech too, like NVIDIA’s new 3000 series of graphics cards, are experiencing unheard-of levels of scarcity, exacerbated by manufacturing issues with the semiconductors inside of them.
