Forum - View topicNEWS: Target Temporarily Halts Sales of Pokémon Trading Cards Citing 'Threat' to Customer, Worker Sa
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wingweaver84
Posts: 74 |
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They're cards for crying out loud. I don't care how popular they are,people are still willing to go to jail over them?
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3567 Location: Finland |
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Reminds me of sports. And I've never really understood the allure of either. At least the cards have some collector's value along with cute images... |
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mrsatan
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 913 |
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One of the Walmarts near me locks up the Lego and other building toys due to high theft. Maybe they should just do that with the cards.
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Rosiero
Posts: 124 |
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It's not about the cards, it's about scalping since there's a big boom of interest in Pokemon cards right now. |
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Triltaison
 Posts: 796 |
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Yeah, I was curious and looked into how much a few of my more rare Pokémon cards are going for nowadays. Some are $250-$500 cards. There are definitely people who will risk jail to take possession of that kind of change. |
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BlueRex666
Posts: 234 Location: El Paso, TX |
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This is why we can't have nice things.
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DRosencraft
Posts: 672 |
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It's not just Pokemon cards. I work with another big box retailer and it's also their Yu-Gi-Oh cards, Magic, baseball cards... every type of trading card.
The pandemic hit and people started looking for something to do, trading card sales spiked. Trading card sales spike caused a shortage of trading cards due to high volume sales, and production and distribution issues. Scalpers caught wind and then started to buy up even more cards to then resell on ebay and the like, which in turn further strained supply. Even without the scalpers stolen packs would be found opened up, packaging hidden behind canned goods in grocery, or under a pile of clothes on a table display in fashions. We stopped selling for a while, but now we only sell at a specific time on a specific day, from one spot in the store where two managers and a team member bring it over, you've gotta line up and can only buy two items per transaction. You want to buy more cards? Gotta get back in line after your last purchase. We sell out every week within an hour, MAYBE a few packs of football/baseball cards left. |
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JeffreySweeney
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I'm so disappointed in myself that I got rid of my Pokémon cards over 20 years ago. If I kept them all I'd probably be sitting on a small gold mine right now and I would definitely sell off what I had. I definitely remember having Base Set Charizard, Venusaur, and Blastoise. I'm pretty sure none of them were 1st Edition though. I did have a 1st Edition Fossil Set Dragonite. Literally went through my parents house to see if they were stashed away somewhere, but to no avail. I most definitely had to have gotten rid of them 20+ years ago when my interest in playing the trading card game went away. Someone needs to invent a time machine and let me use it.
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Aura Ichadora
 Posts: 2303 Location: In front of my computer |
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Which will leave either buying online (and fighting bots) or going to local card shops but you're going to pay a huge markup (local ones around here are marking up the prices by 50-100% depending on what you're buying compared Target or Walmart). Or going without, which is unfortunately what some collectors like a few friends of mine will have to do because they can't fight bots nor want to pay the excessive prices from local shops (if they have any around). I admit, I'm not massively into collecting as I used to be, but I've been buying more and more cards lately as I can for button making and it's tempting me to get back into collecting as I did before. But I think I have to keep that temptation away for awhile longer. |
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TsukasaElkKite
 Posts: 4021 |
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Scalpers/grown men are the reason why casual collectors and actual TCG players can’t have nice things
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zrdb
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Shit-it's the same with everything-for example, try to buy a new receiver for a decent price-GOOD LUCK. With seemingly everything related to entertainment in short supply due to the damn covid 19 pandemic what are you going to do?
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tsog
Posts: 258 |
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Pandemic/lockdowns are making everything in short supply/more expensive; TCGs are just one of the earlier casualties. Wood in particular too; toiler paper, lumber, and I've noticed some restaurants stopped handing out paper napkins for take-outs now.
It's also very much a K-shaped recovery; those with assets before pandemic are seeing insane appreciation. I more or less quit YGO ~9yr ago when I got into anime, but kept all my cards. Most expensive card I got was worth like 200 when I got it, now it's into 5 figures. Never would've guessed YGO cards can ever be worth that much, except maybe one-off cards, but here we are. Ditto with housing; house prices are up ~40% YoY here, favoring those who already have land assets and stacking it against those looking to buy their first. With the usual expenses (travel, dining, transportation) down, a lot of people have more money to spend and are spending it on anything that's remotely an investment, including TCGs. I think it'll level off at current level eventually when travel opens up again, but it definitely sucks even more for casual collectors/players (not that YGO was ever cheap competitively). |
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EmbraceMe
 Posts: 2017 Location: Growing old and jaded. |
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Listen, I need those cards to win my arguments against children. You best not stop me or I'll send you to the shadow realm. Don't make me use Ash Blossom on you. |
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1122 Location: Puget Sound |
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Casual collectors and actual players aren't the target market here... Scalpers and resellers are. The manufacturers want the hype and resulting huge sales. |
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