What has seemingly been the most brain-dead recent, in person event highlights a much larger issue being seen within the Pokemon TCG community. Perhaps that language is somewhat informal and hyperbolic, but the recent Van Gogh museum event does reveal something to us. Undeniably, the Pokemon TCG is still in the midst of a crisis in terms of scalping and overstocking, and all of this stems from a poorly managed scarcity of product. To begin to unpack this, first we need to analyze the event at hand to look at everything at a larger scale.
On September 27th, Pokemon announced a line of Van Gogh collaborative pieces which depicted Pokemon artwork in the style of the late artist. The products all looked incredible, and spontaneously became a talking point within the community. The collaboration was taking place specifically with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, with products simultaneously launching on the official Pokemon Center website. Already, one can assume the problem when Pokemon releases anything hot or new in a specific location, scalpers and hoarders.
Within the first few hours of the Pokemon x Van Gogh products being available in the gift shop of the museum, it was already overrun by scalpers who were acting nothing short of clown-like. Within the day, scalpers had gone online to begin listing the Pikachu promotional card for several hundred dollars, knowing that an identical card would soon also release on the website; nonetheless, this just shows how greedy and arrogant these scalpers truly are. It was genuinely a circus, and several different videos online show just that, which highlights an even larger issue within the community. Certainly there is a problem with scalping within the Pokemon TCG community, but how about TPCi itself?
We've known for several years at this point that scalping has become a prominent issue within the Pokemon trading card community. Beginning way back to quarantine, everyone seemed to be flocking to local stores just to purchase whatever was left on shelves. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it appeared that card collecting was one of the many hobbies that saw a resurgence. With this resurgence also came a large influx in scalping within the community.
I can personally think back to a few days two or three years ago now, during which me and a friend would wake up before the crack of dawn just to drive to our local Target. In those mornings we would wait in a line just for a chance to see a fresh restock of the newest set, Battle Styles, and maybe catch an odd restock of Hidden Fates (we did manage to find some thankfully). While it was fun and we made some memories, fans certainly shouldn't have to wait outside of retail stores just for a chance at finding any product which hasn't been picked clean.
Back then, certainly it was the fans which had started to make a lack of products an issue, but soon the problem seemed to also stem from Pokemon's poor stocking choices. Certain items certainly weren't being made enough, and some products were printed much to scarcely to meet general demand. The first product which comes to most people's minds is the Celebrations Ultra Premium Collection box, which ended up being the 'golden egg' many scalpers had hoped for. Another such item that was used as a money machine was the Marnie Premium Tournament Collection carton, which was resold for over double its value within days of its release.
TPCi seems to have noticed that this was a common trend in many of their Sw/Sh era products, and it appears they have attempted to remedy the issue during the first year of the S/V era. Within just the first few sets, Pokemon has more than changed the direction of product availability, yet they appear to have driven the problem to the other end of the spectrum; unfortunately, many items now appear to sit on store shelves and simply collect dust. Too many products for our base Scarlet and Violet sets have been printed recently, and its more than evident in the pricing of what should be 'larger value' cards. For instance, the ultra-rare Charizard from Obsidian Flames is sitting well below $100, and none of the other cards can even break $20. While this does help remedy the issue of scalping, it also takes away any value that cards could potentially hold as well, highlighting the predicament we find ourselves in now.
This most recent event shows TPCi swaying back to the other end of the spectrum, making products far too rare and not nearly meeting demand. Certainly we cannot put the sole blame of scalping onto Pokemon themselves, but the availability of products certainly does effect the prominence of it.The sheer amount of product that has been printed in order to meet demand is ludicrous, yet also speaks volumes to the amount of growth Pokemon has seen in the past several years.
Hopefully we this event can bring more awareness to the seemingly unwavering scalping crisis, instead of just being something we all get annoyed by and move on from.
