The Culture of Resellers: The Pokémon Company

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many retailers have been unable to keep up with the high demand for certain commodities. Among the dozens of tech, paper, and medical goods finding themselves in shortages, collector’s items were at an all-time high. This led to companies such as The Pokémon Company increasing print production on the Pokémon card game in order to keep up with the high demand. The elevation in demand was partly because of an increase in popularity on streaming websites such as YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch in 2020. Streamers on these websites would broadcast themselves opening the “booster packs” from the different card sets. These “booster packs” would have a set of 10 different cards, all with increasing rarity; only the lucky few would be able to pull one of the rarest cards in the pack. These rare cards came with their own elevated price points, as fans of the game were eager to get their hands on them. Some of the cards even landed themselves up to a six-figure price tag, like a first edition Charizard, with a mint condition card being sold in June of last year.

Fast forward to January of 2025, The Pokémon Company debuts its new set, Prismatic Evolutions, alongside a statement about shortage issues. Since the card pack had many fan favorites, the news spread to the community quickly as people eagerly waited for release day. Despite warnings of low supply and previous altercations, little to no regulations were put in place by major retailers. Many of these scalpers arrived en masse to buy as much stock as they could. Since no purchase limit was put in place, arguments between resellers on who had the right to purchase what became commonplace. These arguments could turn violent as well, with screaming and elbows thrown claiming these boxes for themselves.

The lucrative nature of buying up the stock was not in the contents of the packs but the packs themselves. Although one can find a card worth $1400 in the Prismatic Evolutions packs, the rarity far outweighs the risk of opening them. According to TCGPlayer, the largest online marketplace to sell trading cards, one Prismatic Evolution pack is valued at $13.35 at the time of this article. This far exceeds The Pokémon Company’s $10 valuation–of a two-pack bundle. Scalpers are selling packs at more than a 100% markup.

Scalping culture completely omits casual fans and families from being able to enjoy the card packs themselves. Buying from a third party is a big ask for most of the populous, even more so on egregious markups. The tactic of “letting the consumers handle the demand themselves” may allow The Pokémon Company to keep their pockets full at this time, but opinions may shift as lifelong fans keep running into the same supply problems years down the line.