Pokemon Center Says More “Destined Rivals” Product Coming!

[Vertemes]

Oh wow someone who’s actually been around in the hobby long enough to understand how regular collection based market cycles work… how refreshing! Lately all I ever see is the same “should I hold or should I sell!!??” post.

What's funny is that I've only been in the hobby for a year and a half (before that I used to collect as a child), but the other forum (E4) helped me learn about collection markets, and I somewhat know what to look for (still make a good bit of mistakes though)

 

[Moymon]

What's funny is that I've only been in the hobby for a year and a half (before that I used to collect as a child), but the other forum (E4) helped me learn about collection markets, and I somewhat know what to look for (still make a good bit of mistakes though)

Could have fooled me. People who’ve been in the hobby for 14 months are still confused on why sealed products appreciate better than singles. Good for you nonetheless, the more educated people in this hobby the better.

 

[GeorgieWorgiePP]

I get that actual collectors are having to wait longer for product availability to complete sets and such, but from my perspective (player) it isn't that huge a deal. And I'm not sure what all the bot numbers are about, I waited in queue about 40-45 mins and was able to order an ETB. Some other folks I know were able to as well. Pokemon day was just last month, pocket has brought a lot of interest to the TCG, and we had back to back sets of popular headliners. Sometimes demand just outstrips immediate supply. Sure, the argument could be made that if more was produced then supply would ease, but that's only true and fiscally viable to a point. That's why there's still SWSH product around in stores.

 

[Vertemes]

Back to the point at hand, the preorders were actually easier to get than before. There was a time where you could wait for 10 mins and not get anything. Now if you wait an hour you have a chance of getting something. As hard as it is to believe, product is slowly becoming more available, you just gotta search a bit more. I think a possible solution is to redirect everyone back to the pokemon center, as bots are completely reliant on getting to the direct links.

 

[Nuxnut]

TPCi promised more PRE products… but haven’t seen anything since its release. Also SSP is nowhere to be found. Are reprints really happening. Even Blooming Waters is nowhere… Wasn’t even able to buy a booster box of JTG in pre-order…

They did drop more of the Poster Collection last week via the Pokemon Centre.

The queue system seems much worse than the last free-for-all attempt. Ideally the old system with the harsher 1pp limit would have been better, instead of starting at 6pp, then 4pp, then 2pp...

 

[Ashmo]

Pokemon right now is probably in the worst state its ever been in. Havent seen it this bad since Battlestyles and Shining Fates days. But we know we recovered once pokemon turned on them printers. Lets see how much stock in on the shelves in 8 months time lol.

 

[beav910]

Terrible time to be a collector, seems like an okay time to play the trading card game. As long as you aren't blinging out a deck too much you can get most for 50-60 bucks seems like.

 

[DeAdSyde]

One thing everyone needs to accept is the PC ETB will never restock again. Haven’t seen a surging sparks or prismatic pc ETB restock yet.

Nah they restocked surging sparks pc and also journey together misinfo

 

[Mr. Trips]

Yes we do, we went through this in mid 2010s, 2020, and now 2025. And it ALWAYS ends the same way. People in the e4 forum even made a graph for it:

View attachment 20630

We are currently in the climax of stage B, and we should be entering stage C in the near future. It's happened every single boom, and I dont see this one being any different.

I don't remember it being THIS bad in the mid-2010s. How bad was the scalping scene then because I actually recall seeing packs in stores, though I wasn't as big into the hobby at that point in time.

 

[The Binder Guy]

Back to the point at hand, the preorders were actually easier to get than before. There was a time where you could wait for 10 mins and not get anything. Now if you wait an hour you have a chance of getting something. As hard as it is to believe, product is slowly becoming more available, you just gotta search a bit more. I think a possible solution is to redirect everyone back to the pokemon center, as bots are completely reliant on getting to the direct links.

Unfortunately some people are finding ways around the queue, mostly through actively browsing the site before a drop occurs.

Terrible time to be a collector, seems like an okay time to play the trading card game. As long as you aren't blinging out a deck too much you can get most for 50-60 bucks seems like.

Which is kind of bad news for some Worlds competitors, making your deck as flashy as possible is seen as something you just do in some circles.

I don't remember it being THIS bad in the mid-2010s. How bad was the scalping scene then because I actually recall seeing packs in stores, though I wasn't as big into the hobby at that point in time.

It wasn't as bad as it currently is, the only sets that I remember being hard to find were Double Crisis (due to TPCi only releasing 'em in two 4-pack blisters themed around Team Magma/Aqua and nothing else) and Generations (the Mythical Pokémon Collection boxes were hard to find at first, especially the Mew and Celebi boxes) while Evolutions was overprinted to the point where it lingered in boxes for a while.

 

[Mr. Trips]

Unfortunately some people are finding ways around the queue, mostly through actively browsing the site before a drop occurs.

Which is kind of bad news for some Worlds competitors, making your deck as flashy as possible is seen as something you just do in some circles.

It wasn't as bad as it currently is, the only sets that I remember being hard to find were Double Crisis (due to TPCi only releasing 'em in two 4-pack blisters themed around Team Magma/Aqua and nothing else) and Generations (the Mythical Pokémon Collection boxes were hard to find at first, especially the Mew and Celebi boxes) while Evolutions was overprinted to the point where it lingered in boxes for a while.

Now that you mention it, I don't remember ever seeing Double Crisis anywhere back then. That does explain a lot. Generations as well. Very odd... And yeah, I definitely bought some Evolutions. I even have opened packs I kept from back then as proof.

 

[JolteonsDuo]

I've never been able to buy a new anticipated TCG product from Pokémon-Center since I came back to the hobby (151) which is a bit frustrating ngl. Even my favourite Pokémon Jolteon is hard to get (plush and stuff) from there. The newest product is already sold

 

[Bionicleforever12]

Yes we do, we went through this in mid 2010s, 2020, and now 2025. And it ALWAYS ends the same way. People in the e4 forum even made a graph for it:

View attachment 20630

We are currently in the climax of stage B, and we should be entering stage C in the near future. It's happened every single boom, and I dont see this one being any different.

While I do agree in this, I'd also say its the worst one yet even beating the covid one for modern at least. Think probably the ability of paying for bots by a lot more people is causing it. But yea it'll pass especially when they eventually release 1-2 mid sets. People who are most vocal about being upset are likely ones who just jump on the bandwagon and leave when the hype actually does die down.