They should dehumanised as much as humanly possible. No one likes a scalper. It says a lot of what type of person they are.
Pokemon Center Singapore and Pokemon Vending Machines Implement New Anti-Scalping Techniques for TCG Purchases!
- Thread starter Water Pokémon Master
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Printing happens months in advance of release, so Shrouded Fable supposedly selling poorly has nothing to do with it. It was the constant course correction TPCi had to do in response to their product demand. When the last scalper problem happened in early SWSH, TPCi responded by printing way more product, and what happened? We kept seeing constant releases of new collection boxes and Booster Bundles of 2 year old sets (here's looking at you, Crown Zenith), so TPCi had to pull back production, but here we are again with the last few sets being under produced and TPCi needing to ramp up once more.
Miss me with that nonsense. If you're lounging out in chairs waiting in Targets for restockers, throwing hands at Costcos (because they STILL haven't learned to restrict quantities), and lack the moral decency to understand what you're doing is lousy, you are less than a person for it. Scalping needs to be shamed into the ground because our hobby is not for them to make money off of. Get a goddamn job like the rest of us.
OK, after watching that Toronto store punch-fest that's it for me! From now on I'll only purchase a Pokemon Center ETB from each set & no longer purchase any other Pokemon products. Too dangerous & to difficult to get product now! The last couple of years has been madness. I have always tried to purchase one of each Pokemon product as it has been released but this is no longer possible.
Frankly, Prismatic's pull rates were so awful that I'm not terribly upset I can't rip. Just wish the singles weren't so expensive to buy so guess I'll wait for the mass reprint and hope for the best.
The sad part is that Prismatic Evolutions's pull rates were better than the entire year's worth of sets that came before it, as SIRs got bumped up to compensate for the lack of art rares and Pokemon full arts. We just can't recognize it because there's still over 30 SIRs and the set is never going to be in stock for as long as it's printed.
That sentence says more about you than it does about them
No, it's not about Pokemon cards. It's about a quick $500 flip for no work. None of these clowns gives a damn about Pokemon. If you couldn't go into a store, buy for MSRP and resell for x3 the price you just paid, no one would stand there.
Horribly anti-consumer. They are charging new prices for a used product. This is effectively fraud. You would be justified to charge back your credit card saying product is not what you purchased. They are claiming that they are selling you a new product, but by removing the film they are selling you a used product at a new product price point. In literally NO other product line would this ever be acceptable and no other customer base would ever be ok with this.
The situation is fustrating, and honestly I wish PCi would delay all future sets (including Journey Together) and devote more printer space to Prismatic Evolutions while increasing print wave 1 for Journey Together. Instead of adding another new product get the old one under control.
That and release products as "Print to Demand Pre-Order with Waves." Basically they open a pre order for a certain time window and they print enough for every order. Just allocate people to product waves. Ya maybe I have to wait 6 months past release date but it's a lot better than never seeing a product below 3x MSRP. It would also help with scalping as FOMO can be curbed some. Yes they would have to charge eariler so people don't cancel too much, but hey more money for them.
That and release products as "Print to Demand Pre-Order with Waves." Basically they open a pre order for a certain time window and they print enough for every order. Just allocate people to product waves. Ya maybe I have to wait 6 months past release date but it's a lot better than never seeing a product below 3x MSRP. It would also help with scalping as FOMO can be curbed some. Yes they would have to charge eariler so people don't cancel too much, but hey more money for them.
Who isn't a scalper? Sounds like you think everyone other than Target and Bestbuy in the US should be dehumanized because guess what even Gamestop is selling Surging Sparks at $40 a bundle. This is all just business. Don't get mad cause you can't afford the product.
I honestly kinda agree with your take, it's like instead of completely fixing the problem, they just provide these little solutions or these "anti scalping" techniques. It's just not good enough. I doubt there'd be any difference really. It's like they're telling us "here's a solution to deal with the new normal". BRUH, how bout fix the problem so we can go BACK to normal. Frustrating.
Lets be real right now... Gamestop is selling Surging Sparks at $40 a bundle:
It is sold out.
Since it is selling out so fast at that price why exactly should they lower the price? It would make no business sense whatsoever. This is a business, not a charity. The only way to lower prices is for Pokemon to print more product.
Uhh yeah what I was implying by fixing the problem to go back to normal was for them to print more so prices lower lol
It would appear that Costcos and Targets aren't the only places becoming less civil over Pokemon cards. Even forums such as here want to vent their frustrations from every party involved.
The problem is TPC keeps allowing products to remain "too scarce" or "too valuable" for far too long that it only makes perfect sense we have investors sending out scalpers to buy out product every time that happens. Investors + scalpers = sad sad players and collectors (especially casuals who will never see sealed product for a fair price ever again.) TPC encourages all of this and refuses to actually put a stop to it. It's pitting everyone against each other and it's gotten old.
The only solution I could remotely agree with, is any that puts The Pokemon Company themselves as being the ones who are mostly responsible. Whether or not they decide to take action however is yet to really be seen as they are a "business" after all. The most we can visibly see them do is to post about printing more product but sadly talk is cheap. That alone shouldn't build customer confidence.
Does TPC want products to sell out normally without the endless fomo? Well maybe stop making pull rates so garbage that people have to open 10000 packs just to get a few alt arts. I've seen the endless complaints of early Scarlet & Violet having too easy of pull rates, so TPC lowered them around Paradox Rift and Temporal Forces. Who would complain about actually good pull rates? Probably the investors who want a QUICKER return. It's one thing to want to make an investment, but it shouldn't be TPC's problem that people want to turn a $140 booster box into $1400 the following year. Also, nobody asked for more reverse rares and guaranteed holos so maybe consider putting an end to that IF costs are an issue. Put that funding into printing more actual chase cards, so collectors/pack openers don't NEED so many packs to open in the first place.
A major final issue I hear a lot of is card value, as if every set has to have a $500+ card to chase in order to be worthwhile. Well nearly a decade later I can tell you that most B&W or XY sets were essentially worthless on release, yet the sealed products for those generations are still worth thousands now (with singles slowly catching up finally.) Stop worrying so much about INSTANT gratification, cards will hold their value one day. It reasonably will not kill TPC to increase pull rates for these modern sets that have nearly 20+ SIR but you'll barely see 1 per every 100 packs. If a $200 card went down to $100 because it was "too common" should that be considered killing the hobby? No, ofc not. I for one would prefer pulling multiples of cards I actually want, instead of pulling maybe a single copy for triple the cost. It's like people forget that getting dupes or multiples of cards is fine, if they're nice cards they'll hold value.
The problem is TPC keeps allowing products to remain "too scarce" or "too valuable" for far too long that it only makes perfect sense we have investors sending out scalpers to buy out product every time that happens. Investors + scalpers = sad sad players and collectors (especially casuals who will never see sealed product for a fair price ever again.) TPC encourages all of this and refuses to actually put a stop to it. It's pitting everyone against each other and it's gotten old.
The only solution I could remotely agree with, is any that puts The Pokemon Company themselves as being the ones who are mostly responsible. Whether or not they decide to take action however is yet to really be seen as they are a "business" after all. The most we can visibly see them do is to post about printing more product but sadly talk is cheap. That alone shouldn't build customer confidence.
Does TPC want products to sell out normally without the endless fomo? Well maybe stop making pull rates so garbage that people have to open 10000 packs just to get a few alt arts. I've seen the endless complaints of early Scarlet & Violet having too easy of pull rates, so TPC lowered them around Paradox Rift and Temporal Forces. Who would complain about actually good pull rates? Probably the investors who want a QUICKER return. It's one thing to want to make an investment, but it shouldn't be TPC's problem that people want to turn a $140 booster box into $1400 the following year. Also, nobody asked for more reverse rares and guaranteed holos so maybe consider putting an end to that IF costs are an issue. Put that funding into printing more actual chase cards, so collectors/pack openers don't NEED so many packs to open in the first place.
A major final issue I hear a lot of is card value, as if every set has to have a $500+ card to chase in order to be worthwhile. Well nearly a decade later I can tell you that most B&W or XY sets were essentially worthless on release, yet the sealed products for those generations are still worth thousands now (with singles slowly catching up finally.) Stop worrying so much about INSTANT gratification, cards will hold their value one day. It reasonably will not kill TPC to increase pull rates for these modern sets that have nearly 20+ SIR but you'll barely see 1 per every 100 packs. If a $200 card went down to $100 because it was "too common" should that be considered killing the hobby? No, ofc not. I for one would prefer pulling multiples of cards I actually want, instead of pulling maybe a single copy for triple the cost. It's like people forget that getting dupes or multiples of cards is fine, if they're nice cards they'll hold value.
That's not how supply & demand works. If you flood the market with supply to the point that it becomes impossible to buy out, then the market will crash.
Of course, TPC does not want to do that. If the market crashes, it will verify the actual demand for the product, which might be much lower than anticipated. They enjoy the glamour of being a "limited, high value product". They don't care whether you get to play the game, or collect the cards, only that 100% of their stock will be sold out.
it's less about not wanting to and likely more about not really being able to wave a magic wand the way fanciful sorts online seem to think that they can. it's generally childish to assume that a company not doing everything you think they should (or can) be doing is because they have some specifically nefarious intent that you can write fanfiction about
good
I blame WhatNot 100%
Exactly this. To say it's scalpers as being the problem, shows how ignorant some people