The Pokémon Company released Prismatic Evolution, the newest English-language card set, on Friday, January 17, 2025. Unfortunately, retailers didn’t receive as much Prismatic Evolution product as they initially requested. Distributors weren’t able to fully fulfill orders originally placed by retailers due to a product shortage.
The Pokémon Company addressed this shortage of Prismatic Evolution products. They posted this on X:
It’s funny that the Pokémon Company thanked the community for their patience. That’s not a word I usually associate with the Pokémon community as a whole. If more people in the Pokémon community had patience, there wouldn’t be “scalpers.”
Who are scalpers?
A scalper is someone who buys a product at retail for the sole purpose of reselling it at a much higher price. The Pokémon community is especially susceptible to scalping compared to other trading card games. You don’t see people reselling new Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic: The Gathering card sets soon after release day.
The reason scalpers focus on Pokémon over other collectible trading card games is because of the severe FOMO that runs throughout much of the hobby. FOMO, the Fear of Missing Out, is an emotion that’s common among many Pokémon collectors.
Too many Pokémon collectors feel like they must own the latest product as soon as it’s available. Many of them seem incapable of denying themselves the pleasure they receive when opening a new Pokémon product. This makes them willing to pay too much for what they want. Many of them act as though they don’t have a choice but to buy from scalpers.
Scalpers outside the community know this and take advantage of impatient collectors.
In conclusion
As long as there are collectors in the Pokémon hobby willing to pay an artificial premium to open the newest product on release day, scalpers will exist. If more collectors had the patience and maturity to simply wait for the supply to catch up to normal demand, people outside the hobby wouldn’t buy Pokémon product just to resell it. Scalpers wouldn’t exist. Pokémon would be like Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, and other products immune to scalpers.
Update
I stopped by my local Target this morning, January 22, 2025 and they were fully stocked with Prismatic Evolution elite trainer boxes (ETBs).
I did not purchase an ETB. According to the sign, I would have been allowed to buy one (1) ETB. I’m taking a break from Pokémon.
