Pokémon Centers wage war on TCG scalpers by removing plastic packaging from new boxes
The procedure will be used “until further notice”, one store says
Another Pokémon Center store has begun removing the plastic wrapping from sealed Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) products in an effort to combat scalping.
The Pokémon TCG is currently enjoying popularity at levels it hasn’t seen since the Covid-19 pandemic. This is partly due to the popularity of the game itself, but is also largely attributed to scalpers.
While scalpers – those who purchase products at retail price and resell them for a huge mark-up – have been a problem in the TCG for as long as it has been around, the volume of these incidents has shot up in recent months.
For some time, most Pokémon Center stores in Japan would remove the plastic film from the outside of sealed booster boxes when purchased in those stores. This is done in an effort to dissuade scalpers, because customers on the secondary market can’t trust that the packs haven’t been tampered with.
This practice is now being adopted by the Pokémon Center in Singapore, marking the first time the practice has occurred in a Pokémon retail store that sells English TCG products.
For a normal consumer buying cards at the Pokémon Center, the removal of the outside packaging makes no difference, as the packs themselves remain sealed, and there’s no chance of the cards being tampered with as they are being purchased from an official store.
Some fans have raised concerns that for those players who collect sealed products, this unfairly punishes them, but due to the scalping issues that are plaguing the game at the moment, this has been seen as a smart step for the majority of consumers.
Most notably, this will affect booster boxes of the highly anticipated Pokémon Journey Together trading card game set. The Pokémon Center Singapore, which is located in the country’s largest airport, has said it will continue this practice “until further notice.”
VGC recently got an early look at Journey Together, calling it the “must-have TCG release of the year.”
“The Trainer’s Pokémon mechanic has been smartly introduced, and this set gives us plenty of cards that are both competitively viable and visually stunning,” reads our review.
“Our hope is that when Mega Pokémon return to the game later this year, Trainer’s Pokémon can exist alongside them, giving even more opportunity for some of the best Pokémon Trading Card Game art ever.”
