I love this community. It’s so wholesome, giving, and just overall a happy place (for me at least). My only gripe is the scalpers/aggression.
So today, November 21, was supposed to be the first day that Target put out their sale ETB’s. My target opens at 8am, there were 6-9 Pokemon people there, not including me. They all got to the Pokemon before I did, but the sale wasn’t up yet. Even though there was no sale, I shit you not, the others spent probably a total of $1500 on surging sparks ETB’s and Booster Bundles. As a broke college student who just enjoys a drink and a few packs, I’m just kinda sad about that. Once everyone else left, it was me and one dude. I had 2 booster bundles and buddy had nothing, so I offered him one. Mind you, we all got to Target at opening time, and there were no surging sparks booster bundles after everyone else grabbed 2-5 each, I just happened to manage to get 2. Idk. I’m just ranting about the community. Just because there’s a sale
For $20 ETB’s, and you want the chase card from a set, doesn’t mean you have to get every ETB before everyone else does. Have some love for the hobbyists that don’t want to go broke on the cardboard crack.
TLDR: I wish there was more love in this community past the superficial reddit communities. Let the lil guys get some packs instead of buying them all and reselling at a super exaggerated price
by Quick_Boi_
48 Comments
I’m with you it’s pretty weird. I just feel for my son who gets so excited to get a specific pack/box for us to rip together and some horses ass bought out the store. Is it even fun for those folks? Seems joyless.
Also weird because I would never buy something out just because I “got there first”. Ya know, because I’m an adult man.
There wouldn’t be scalpers if the cards weren’t worth so much. It’s sad because Pokemon cards do not have to be so expensive (Pokemon isn’t even making money off of these prices it’s just scalpers and certain card shops) when it’s just supposed to be a fun hobby.
I agree but don’t see it ever changing unfortunately.
Thanks to them Sparks is going for a solid 50-70 more than the other boxes. It’s ridiculous!
Where there is $ there will be scalpers. It’s in every community. Nothing new
I hear you. There’s very little I can do to influence things, except to say that you may want to put your money into other sets for the time being. Surging Sparks is going to be around for a long time.
There should definitely be a limit to each purchase
The retro gaming community sends its regards from every thrift store where 11 morons are lined up to drag race you to the electronics section. Covid has been the biggest plague on this and every once niche hobby
So you offered him one and yet you still have both 💀
Thats not the community, those are called vultures.
I thought the target sale was on the 24th :(. Guess I’m not giving any etbs out for Christmas
Target should have a limit per customer.
It seems like so much work to go to stores, buy MSRP (or maybe a lil discount on occasion), and then upcharge on FB marketplace. I can’t imagine it’s an easy gig to keep up. At that point, why not put all that time and effort into creating a legitimate business? The lengths these people go to… imagine putting it to good use!
My Local game store delisted their Surging Sparks products from their website and you have to ask if they have any when you are in the store.
This makes it harder for kids to find it, but it really prevents the random scalpers from ordering from across the country, or just trying to buy up any stock they see.
A pretty good middle ground I think.
This is one of the reasons I’m not even excited about the Target deals, I know that with my schedule, everything will be gone well before I get there.
The problem is these people aren’t part of the community. They’re just people looking to scalp and unfortunately give us all a bad name
What’s funny to me is the leak said to set the displays on the 21st. Not only does the sale not start until Sunday, but it is very possible they will use the display for other ETBs until the 24th.
This is all I will say is this has been happening in magic for like 15 years now. I jumped to Pokemon around 2018 because even as someone with plenty of disposable income I was just burnt out on magic and the struggle to even get stuff even if you had the extra money passed what you pre orders I knew it would come to Pokemon eventually…I’m was just glad until this last set that I could generally pre order as much as I could afford. Now with this set and the sets due next year I feel it’s going to be magic 2.0 so idk guys buckle up shit ain’t going to get any better and yes I’ve been demonized in this subreddit because I buy “to-much” trust me I personally know people who bought 2 or 3 cases of this last set and didn’t resale anything legit got it to open. Idk at this point I’m about ready to hop to something else but isn’t to many other games to go to at this point.
People just need to stop buying from scalpers. Stop buying into card breaks for the 1000 people who think they are gonna make it big. If there wasn’t money in it people wouldn’t do it
Pre pandemic I was happily buying Cosmic Eclipse packs casually once a week or so. Just enjoyed like you said. Then suddenly the only place to get packs were from scalpers at double the price.
That was the last set I ever enjoyed buying. The TCG is digital only for me now because of scalpers.
This is honestly the reason I didn’t even go to Target today cause I knew scalpers would be camping outside the store. It’s annoying but what I hate most is we can’t even buy the newest set at MSRP just wait for prismatic evolutions…the pre orders are literally sold out everywhere to get anything pre order your gonna need to purchase a scalping bot just to get product not secondary market. It’s dumb
I see people on here buy the max limit allowed by the retailer all the time. It’s a bigger issue beyond scalping with the community
I hear you OP. These stuff also happens in the Philippines. All the toy store, hobby store game store were all sold out because of scalpers but i was able to buy 1 ETB which is their last stock. I needed to got to 15 stores across 8 cities just to find one. Then after a few days, my local toys r us had a full stock of surging sparks booster box(3 box), and booster packs(100+ packs)so I was able to buy about 15 booster packs since their half booster box was sold out. After 2 to 3 hours I wanted to go back because I wanted to buy the stellar crown ETB but when i got there all the surging sparks were all sold out which is wild to me. The only thing remaining was the pokemon go ETB’s and boosters even stellar crown was sold out. The store clerk said 1 guy bought all of them which is just wild.
I hope you get amazing pulls from your boxes.
I live in France now and it’s really down to luck if you’re able to get anything. Scalping is such a huge problem here. It can be so difficult to get pokemon cards and not due to a lack of retailers.
I saw a guy buy a case of booster boxes and tried to resell the whole thing but no one was buying for the price he wanted so he decided to sell each booster box individually for a profit.
Those people DGAF. How do you think they got $1500 to blow before Xmas? Don’t worry, this one will be printed into the ground too so long as they keep consuming which is good for us and bad for them.
I can’t find shit at any retail store near me. Literally 90% of the time I check the pokemon aisle there are boxes of cards ripped to shreds. It’s downright disgusting. Be better people
Not saying who’s right or wrong, surging ETBs are pretty widely available online though.
Louder for the people in the back!
It’s frustrating and disheartening. I tried to get some booster bundles of Surging Sparks to open and I took too long to decide on it and they sold out. Tried at another store and they went flying out the door.
It kinda makes me want to give up collecting. 151 was the same experience.
I live in a very remote area, we have 2 shops that get TCG stuff in unless you order online right, there is 1 guy who goes to both shops the day that sll the new MTG stuff comes out and buys all stock, bam done. Pokemon is becoming the same :/
I was at my local target today and these weren’t even on sale yet. Just wanted a lost orgins.
https://preview.redd.it/nvbt6d9azc2e1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=94393d5eddf876e4b22c9d323ba7e5bf2769fd5f
The last 151 ETBs I found I split with a guy and his kid. We are nothing without each other. F scalpers and this agressive behavior. Take some solace that some of these bag holders will pay.
Curious about price, i picked the last available SV08 booster bundle today from Walmart for $28
You said you offered guy one of your 2 bundles, did he not accept your offer?
The regular surging sparks etbs are kind of a waste at $5.50 per pack so they did you a favor
Everyone just needs to grow a pair. Ya know until they check out the product is still owned by the store. Walk up and take what u need if they cleared it out. Super unlikely these type of people will actually do anything to you
can’t wait to line up at target for the etb sale and race a bunch of people to the card section so they can flip them all for profit. I’m hoping I can at least get a couple… I want to get one for my coworker who would like one for her son. She isn’t from America and doesn’t really understand what a scalper is. Let’s pray I can get my hands on one for her
Like one of the mods said “no one is entitled to cheap cards” /s
Are people really struggling to find Surging Sparks? Both LGS in my town have plenty of stock and I see it at Walmart quite a bit? I’m kinda surprised seeing people having trouble finding it.
I’m not going to be popular for saying this, but I’ll play devils advocate here…. if you found 5 $20 bills in the middle of an aisle, would you grab only 1 and leave the rest for others? I mean, if I find 20 packs of evolving skies for $1 each on a shelf at target, i can’t tell you I wouldn’t grab them all
Stores need limits!!!!!!!!
Easiest thing to do is stop buying from resellers that are jacking up the prices by 200% or more.
my experience in the community is markedly different.
there are definitely good ppl, but there are far more ppl like the Target Campers who will dropkick grandma thru the automatic doors & trample her body for a $30 booster bundle.
we can’t just take the ppl & experiences we like & say “this is the Pokémon community” then take the 75% of greedy, self-entitled rasholes & say “those aren’t community they’re just scalpers.”
all of them are part of the community & most of them are “toxic,” but u have done the legwork to find your ppl & your space & the community works for u… it isn’t like that for everyone.
personally I don’t get the hype.
I have had no trouble finding Sparks online & in the wild… it may not be like Stellar Crown or Shrouded Fable where I can go to Target or Walmart any day of the week & buy as many ETB’s as I want, there is still plenty out there.
I think there are 2 major counter-forces to the “wholesome community” narrative:
1. Flex Addicts— ppl who live for the praise & perceived jealousy of others online when they post pictures of their “wins,” “hauls” or screenshots of the invoices from drops they “ate” but don’t really care about the hobby itself
2. Hoarders/“Investors”— these are just patient scalpers. instead of buying as much as they can & posting it on eBay from the Target parking lot for the quick 20% markup flip, they buy as much as they can & sit on it for years for a 200% markup. BOTH are only in it for the profits & BOTH are consuming massive quantities of high demand product at the lowest prices, leaving actual collectors in the cold.
I hate to be the wet blanket, but even some of the nicest ppl in this hobby can be overcome by a greedy streak with no warning when there are Evolving Skies ETB’s on the shelf or $20 Black Friday ETB’s at Target 🤷🏽♂️
my positive spin is that THIS SET ISNT GOING ANYWHERE.
it is the holidays. TPCi didn’t shortprint a set they’ve been hyping almost the entire year (Paradise Dragona & Supercharged Breaker, the JPN sets that comprise Surging Sparks, were getting hype as early as Spring IIRC).
there should be no shortage of Surging Sparks heading into Christmas.
$20 for an ETB that just released? Damn what the heck Target don’t give a fuck lmao
Try living on an island (Maui) demand is so high with supply being so low. I’d love to even just rip single sleeved packs but I haven’t seen anything since release day 😂
The Target near me put a two item per person on every tcg item on the isle. It’s helped but people still buy, throw in car, come back in and buy again but at least it slows em down
I just don’t understand why target doesn’t enforce their limit 1/2 per customer policy. It’s so simple yet they refuse.
I feel like the type of situation you went through is why Pokémon International doesn’t have any Pokémon Centers in America.