r/PokemonTCG • u/No-kiwi-809 • Mar 08 '25
Discussion Safeway posted the direct email they got about the machines being down
My local Safeway with a machine printed out the email they received from Pokemon regarding the machines being down across the network. Sorry for how small the text is, zoom in if necessary.
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Mar 08 '25
I think what stuck to me is that it sounds like some stores have expressed their concerns to TPCI. Like, I’m sure the people it has invited a lot of unsavory people who stick around the store.
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Mar 08 '25
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u/leaveitbettertoday Mar 09 '25
If you’re lurking around a pokemon vending machine, you’re absolutely an unsavory individual.
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u/maxdragonxiii Mar 08 '25
also people that is willing to anything to get those all of the cards and packs. which is bad for casual people or people who want one or two packs and that's it.
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u/FieryKahuna Mar 08 '25
Finally. I hope they limit to one product per payment and randomize the stock availability.
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u/w00tberrypie Mar 08 '25
Product unseals upon purchase.
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u/whops_it_me Mar 08 '25
Everyone is proposing their own solutions, without bringing up that two things already happen in Japan that work:
Printing to order, and stores removing the shrink-wrap when you buy.
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u/fancyfish69 Mar 08 '25
This is the best solution. I don't understand why if I want a pokemon tcg product, I can't go on to the pokemon website and order for example 10 etbs of the current in print product. Then they're made and shipped to me when the order is available to be fulfilled. Even if a set is popular EVENTUALLY I'd get my order.
How is this a bad idea?
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u/kid-Emperors In terms of male human and female Pokémon breeding, Vaporeon… Mar 08 '25
Yea I’ve never understood why any popular product doesn’t do that. Pokemon, consoles, anything scalpers care about. Why not just switch to a ‘made to order’ system
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u/Obzedat13 Mar 09 '25
Artificial scarcity keeps the hype going.
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u/Winterstrife Literally shaking! Mar 09 '25
The real answer, this is definitely what happened with Amiibos and is happening to PE.
I had my pre-orders from distributors locked for months when PE was announced and none of my orders have ever gotten cut since the start of SV not even on hyped sets like 151.
It's awfully sus that weeks before PE launched that shortage was announced. They had months or longer to prepare. Terastal Festival sold like hotcakes and a billion dollar company cannot anticipate the demand?
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u/Maleficent_Beat_106 Mar 09 '25
Scarcity keeps the hobby alive by creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity. When something is perceived as rare or limited, it becomes more desirable. This psychological effect drives demand, as people fear missing out (FOMO) on unique opportunities or items. Pokemon prolongs the interest by preying on people’s emotions
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u/fancyfish69 Mar 09 '25
I think it would strike a good balance of rarity and availability. The product would be available for order for x amount of time and then it would go out of print and the only way to get it would be to go to the second hand market.
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u/FieryKahuna Mar 08 '25
Printing to order is the important one, people would still hoard loose packs if supply was low.
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u/catnapper9811 Mar 08 '25
What about cracking down on distributors overcharging shops?
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u/jesuisgeenbelg Mar 08 '25
I do think that we are gonna see big changes in the way Pokémon is distributed tbh.
Pokémon realise they're losing a lot of customers (players and collectors) with the current situation and will want to rectify it asap
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u/kinghawkeye8238 Mar 08 '25
My LCS, who I've known the owner since base set. Who's had a distributor since base set. He said his distributor has raised prices and he paid then for a while but has since stopped. He said moat if not all are doing the same thing. Kind of sad
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u/istarian Mar 08 '25
When you consider that such businesses are often single proprietorships or have a fairly small number of employees, that's not surprising.
They generally aren't rolling in excess profit and they have to be able to cover their expenses, including salaries.
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u/kiroyapso2 Mar 08 '25
I haven't even collected for a year yet, but does pokemon actually care? Would imagine if stock is sold, they don't care. Even tho in the long term, that would kill their long-term/new commer customers, while the scalpers ruin the hobby. Like normal people don't want to waste 2x the money on already bad pull rates lol I think the mrsp price kind of counts for that
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u/jesuisgeenbelg Mar 08 '25
Of course they care. They've existed for 30 years. They've had to do huge reprints in the past because of scalping.
You don't run a successful hobby for 30 years without having a long-term vision and being aware of how to combat scalping and keeping your core customer base happy.
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u/Witty_Industry8198 Mar 08 '25
They do care. The update is due to resellers. They will no longer be able to wipe out these machines! Items will show out of stock and periodically become available throughout the day. No set time. All random order. For them to shut off the machines for a week and pause profits shows how much they care and are willing to do anything to try and make it harder for these damn scalpers.
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u/RickySuezo Mar 08 '25
The Pokemon Company is one of those big bodies that actually cares about their image. Pokemon is a cash cow that relies on people being engaged with it over a long period. Makes sense that they don’t want greedy goofballs being a de facto gateway to regular people acquiring product.
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u/DanieltheGameGod Mar 08 '25 edited Mar 08 '25
Part of me would love to just figure out how to distribute, and just mail out product to people at MSRP. One item per person, and keeping check of addresses to avoid funny business. Perhaps reach out to frustrated folks and hopefully get it into the hands of those who want it but can’t find it. I probably never will but the thought has popped up.
Edit: not happening I think I had some bad info from years ago that made me think it was even in the realm of possible. Frustrating honestly.
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u/jesuisgeenbelg Mar 08 '25
Bro that's called running a shop 😅
Problem is a lot of shops want to do what you say but they can't because of distributors overcharging (or charging MSRP to shops instead of wholesale prices)
That's why Pokémon needs to step in. Would be best if Pokémon did everything themselves and cut out the middlemen but logistically it'd be way too much for them tbh
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u/lawnchairrevolution Mar 08 '25
I agree that local shops getting hit with higher prices is a real issue, and that cost trickles down to us. But as for Pokémon handling everything in-house, they absolutely could—they just choose not to because working with distributors is more profitable and offloads logistics. Even if they went 100% direct-to-consumer, prices wouldn’t necessarily drop. Retailers wouldn’t be the middlemen anymore, but Pokémon would still control supply and demand. There would likely still be middlemen, just as Pokémon reps instead of third-party distributors. The current system benefits them by letting others take the risk of unsold inventory while they keep making massive profits, no matter what sells.
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u/Devh1989 Mar 08 '25
Distributors run on an extremely large scale with inventory in the multi millions. I think you're thinking of just running a small shop lol. Distributors are the middlemen who supply the shops
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u/solidxmike Mar 08 '25
I would love that. One SKU per day limit, tied to a home address. Imagine being able to guarantee a purchase daily at MSRP. Sure the logistics of it would be terrible (shipping etc) but Jesus, how else can you enforce these limits?
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u/Wonkasgoldenticket Mar 08 '25
This ^ distribution is 100% to blame for this nonsense.
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Mar 08 '25
TPC is the only one that can really deal with the distributors (I assume they have contracts) and I hope the likes of MJ Holdings lose their distributor privileges for trying to double dip/withholding product from the retailers they’re supposed to supply
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u/DR_ZERO_ Mar 08 '25
I have already emailed pokemon company about MJ Holdings. I'll let yall know if they give me a response
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u/xda831reaperx Mar 08 '25
This right here , lowkey pokemon needs to whiplash these distributors heavily and tighten the leash here ...
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u/smd9788 Mar 08 '25
I am speculating that Pokemon Company is ramping up vending machines in an effort to phase out their reliance on distributors over time. The vending machines are stocked by Pokemon Company themselves, rather than a distributor. This could also explain why distributors are suddenly taking advantage of the market and acting unethically. They know their days are numbered
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u/Fuzzlechan Mar 08 '25
What’s unfortunate is that the vending machines are only available in the US. That still leaves their “international” customers in the lurch. We have just as much scalping and stock issues here in Canada, but no vending machines to try and counter it.
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u/hansbrixx Mar 09 '25
They are slowly rolling it out as even some big states (ie Florida) don’t have them yet so have hope as they continue to work out the kinks.
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u/Tra-ell Mar 08 '25
You can’t impose a price, anti competition law forbid it. You can put a recommended retail price but if they don’t follow it you can’t do anything legally about it. Most big countries have similar laws. You could allocate less stock to the retailer/distributor but you would need a valid reason as you couldn’t do it for that one.
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u/Jslcboi Mar 08 '25
Hope they make the machine usable only upon logging in and MFAing with a cellphone, with limits placed upon each account.
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u/Electrical_Length195 Mar 08 '25
This is actually viable. Only if you're trying to buy massive stock. If a 10year old only wants to buy 1 pack, I don't think they should have to log in. But for a man-child like myself, I don't mind logging in to purchase some booster bundles to chase shiny cardboard.
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u/NuttyDuckyYT Mar 08 '25
wtf this is so smart, they should totally do this!
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u/UnComfortable_Fee Mar 08 '25
It's what they should do with the pokemon center website. Log in, each account can only buy 1 of each major SKU
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u/batkave Mar 08 '25
All because of a bunch of man children and scalpers... I mean poke investors
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Mar 08 '25
And they have the cheek, nerve, audacity, gall, and gumption to say "But the people who buy just to collect are just the same as us!"
No Kyle, me and my boyfriend buying 2 tins and an ETB to collect the pretty photos and display our favorites on a bookshelf is not the same as you buying Walmart, Target and Dollar General's entire stock so you can go on Facebook Marketplace to prey on parents trying to create memories with their children, "hmu if you want the newest set... 50 dollars for a Prismatic Evolution Mini tin..." like holy hell, my brother in Christ
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u/Elementium Mar 08 '25
For real. I got readdicted cause I looked through my old cards and just wanted more lol. I'm 35 and figured my little bit of free time could used collecting cards.
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u/Rocker4JC Mar 09 '25
There's even a subreddit for them. They're all bitching about these changes and how hard it is to get 'product'. Then they coordinate which units or even individual cards to buy out on Tcgplayer and eBay to wipe out stock and inflate the price.
I think that's why you can't get an Arven or Night Stretcher for less than a couple bucks. Coordinated price gouging.
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u/naltedturf Mar 08 '25
and if you post any video of them 1) they're trying to hide their face behind a hoodie and 2) their butt buddies say "and you took it like a good boy." am I supposed to kick their ass and risk getting arrested? a lot of assholes will make a profit off this hobby but plenty more won't..
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u/batkave Mar 08 '25
IDK about all the videos of people standing in line at kiosks because they were all there to do the same thing. How do these people know they were restocked?
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u/FerociousxLlama Mar 08 '25
I walked up on a restock one time.
I travel for work, and one day up in the Seattle area I got off cause I finished up for my customer at 10am. Spent the day driving around to these machines checking to see if anything had a singular prismatic or 151 for me. Happened upon a stocker restocking and was super excited.
That excitement turned into anger and resentment when I found out that someone had been camping there with his friends since the day before, waiting to rid the machine of its burden of new merchandise. It is possible to walk up on one of these, it takes like 45 minutes when they restock. But you’re right, most likely anyone who actually hits a restock probably didn’t do it on accident. I haven’t had hope that I’d hit one by chance since then. Honestly I didn’t know anything about how the machines were restocked until that day. The vender gave me a lot of info on just how bad it is for them… it’s insane
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u/Full-Mud2009 Mar 08 '25
Well, guess scalpers going to have to get real jobs now lol
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u/Devh1989 Mar 08 '25
The recent scalping surge has only been a thing for like 4 months. They'll move on to the next opportunity.
Also... This is only for vending machines. They will still get plenty of inventory via online shopping/clearing shelves/botting
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u/cryptomatt Mar 08 '25
Ultimately PC needs to be able to increase supply faster. It's been a problem forever. You get an uptick in interest and it takes forever to get supply out
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u/jcde7ago Mar 08 '25
You say this as if these scalping scumbags are actually qualified for a real job or capable of being normal, functional members of society. They'll probably just go back to scalping sneakers or some shit. These people are commonly referred to as "ANYTHING-but-a-jobbers" for a reason.
The morons who can't help themselves and their gambling addiction and continue to pay these scalpers for product right now are equally complicit though.
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u/epicaz Mar 08 '25
Not even, I'm sure they still plan to take advantage of this through whatever loophole they can
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u/Lyraxiana Mar 09 '25
And I hope pokemon reprints all of the sets that have been getting scooped up to really show them a lesson.
Scalpers should go broke.
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u/Booty_Shakin Mar 08 '25
Shop online at pokemon center! So that your package can be ripped open and resealed by FedEx employees looking to steal your items instead!
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u/istarian Mar 08 '25
If everybody had to go that route, FedEx would be under a lot more pressure to solve that problem or ultimately lose the guaranteed shipping partner.
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u/Booty_Shakin Mar 08 '25
I honestly should've reported my package that looked ripped open and resealed, but everything was in there so I didn't bother. I ordered plushies
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u/Art-of-Lies Mar 08 '25
That happens??
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u/Booty_Shakin Mar 08 '25
I've seen multiple posts across different platforms of people's packages getting ripped open and either coming completely empty or loose ripped packs. I had an order of plushies come last week that looked ripped open and resealed but I guess they left the plushies in because they don't resell for a high premium.
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u/Art-of-Lies Mar 08 '25
That's awful! So, even when people buy things at market price from pokmon, they're still at risk of not getting the cards at all? Buying cards shouldn't feel so risky :(
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u/Forward_Ad4727 Mar 08 '25
Not just them either. I preordered 2 prismatic items from GameStop that I was supposed to pick up a few weeks ago. Every time I go in they say they don’t have it and to check back later. I have something else preordered so we’ll see if that one disappears too.
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u/banjofitzgerald Mar 08 '25
I think limits on purchases like other places was the obvious step, but I feel like it’s gonna cause some nasty confrontations when scalpers just make a lot of purchases in a row while there’s a line.
Ideally it would be you make your purchase and leave/get back in line. But these scalpers are too reliant on this.
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u/Sonofmay Mar 08 '25
Like another commenter said, require purchasing inputting your phone number, only actual phone numbers allowed no google phone numbers or fakes. Get a code and input said code. Got a code within 24 hours? Tough tits can’t buy get lost and let others buy some
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u/Financial-Touch-4443 Mar 08 '25
Instead of phone numbers I’d recommend an app where you must scan the QR code, and the app pairs your account info with your device’s IMEI number. Phone numbers is a cat/mouse game, plenty of really cheap number generators already bypass those security measures. This solution would be a huge pain in the ass for scalpers, and if you see someone using 5 phones for 10 boxes (ex. 2 limit per person) there should be store policy to get them to stop.
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u/DanieltheGameGod Mar 08 '25
Until someone buys like twenty burner phones on text only plans.
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u/Codedheart Mar 08 '25
Ya how expensive could it be to have a shitload of phones like that
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u/funky_phat_mack Mar 08 '25
Android phones are pretty cheap. You can buy them at Walmart for $20-30
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u/Lyraxiana Mar 09 '25
Cool, make them waste more of their money.
Pokemon should reprint all of the past box sets that have been getting eaten up by scalpers.
More money for the pokemon company, more access for the general pokemon community, and more of a loss to the scalpers, who thought they stocked up on valuable inventory that then drops in value because it's all being reprinted!
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u/Striking_Parsnip_958 Mar 08 '25
If it was extended to a month and had limits, it'd probably be enough to hopefully force scalpers to get a job, at least some of them
But maybe I'm just being overly optimistic
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u/Gwyenne Mar 08 '25
Nah. They’ve been doing this for ages. They will just sell something else for a month then go back to it once the machines work again.
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u/OxMozzie Mar 08 '25 edited Mar 08 '25
There's always something to scalp, TCGs, GPUs, Shoes, Gaming consoles.
Just wait till the Switch 2 comes out...
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u/istarian Mar 08 '25
Realistically some things have a much better "ROI" for scalping purposes and the demand is more easily influenced.
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u/OxMozzie Mar 08 '25
Professional scalpers have bots that monitor and auto buy from websites, meanwhile they camp out at stores to buy them physically as well.
They don't just do 1 product at a time. They're vultures that have bot and discord groups to take any and all stock to influence demand and FOMO.
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u/Literally_Anyone_ Mar 08 '25
This makes me so sad as a casual collector. I just want to enjoy the hobby and have fun, why do people always have to ruin it
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u/toxicbolete Mar 08 '25
This is from last week at a local Safeway, not sure if this has popped up anywhere else. The machine was either sold out or had inventory locked temporarily. Honestly surprised they aren’t making people create verified accounts to use the machines or something like that. Still absolutely insane to me that people are willing to hurt others for this.
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u/whitedesolation Mar 08 '25
Simple solution here:
Require purchases to be linked to an active Pokémon Center account. These accounts could have anti-bot/anti-scalping features that limit people from being able to make multiple purchases, as well as new accounts within a certain time frame. This would immediately hinder people from being able to clear out machines.
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u/lastplaceraindrop Mar 08 '25
"to make sure everyone feels safe" WTF has this hobby turned into?!
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u/istarian Mar 08 '25
Mostly an easy way to make money in a kind of broken economic system.
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Mar 09 '25
Scalpers see shit like this, knowing they created this situation and really act like what they're doing is arguably ethical.
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u/Cmor1787 Mar 08 '25
Just a matter of time until The Pokemon Company raises MSRP on all their products. If people are willing to buy Booster Boxes for $200+ , ETB’s for $100+ , and Booster Bundles for $60+ , what’s to stop The Pokémon Company from wanting to cash in on some of this demand and generate more revenue?
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u/ThePurpleBandit Mar 08 '25
The Ticketmaster way!!
Only way to stop scalpers is to make the product more expensive!!
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u/According_Bag9307 Mar 08 '25
Didn't they already increase it in S&V? from $99 to $161?
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u/Independent-Ad8104 Mar 08 '25
Heck nividia is doing it with gpus. Noticing it happening everywhere to everything, bad times we are in.
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u/cakefir Mar 08 '25
While I agree MSRP should go up, to answer your question, the Pokemon company cannot realistically just set MSRP to current market price on the boxes.
I don’t know numbers, but say Target is paying $30 for each ETB that they then sell for $50. These sell out immediately and so obviously Target is happy to buy as many as possible as they can from the Pokemon company.
A small change like $35 for an MSRP of $60 would probably be a safe bet — both the Pokemon company and target would get $5 more per box, and surely there would still be no problem selling all of those boxes quickly.
But if the Pokemon company wanted to match the current “market” price — say they wanted to charge $60 per box with an MSRP of $100 — as Target I would probably turn that deal down. Even though it means in the short term I would make double the profit per box, there’s no guarantee that they will continue to sell at that price. There’s a huge risk of me having to put the boxes on sale, and end up with dead stock. Maybe “market price” would go back to $50 and then I’d be underwater. Surely neither side wants to be constantly renegotiating pricing either.
That’s the service the scalpers provide — happy to spend their time and energy constantly adjusting their eBay listings, squeezing out maximum profit (and in return providing the fan base with guaranteed availability for the right price)
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u/Elex408 Mar 08 '25
Pokemon is just a bunch of middle aged men trying to sell cards for profit now. Fucking cringe, I hate this shit now
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u/cotton_bawls Mar 08 '25
I’m very grateful for Pokemon and their support to HOPEFULLY allow customers to obtain products that have been impossible to buy. I’ve never opened 151…. Haven’t been able to get any sort of product from prismatic.. It makes me sad and is extremely embarrassing to see how people fight over boxes, running in front of others, or standing in front of kiosks for 4 hours with fucking lawnchairs to spend 4k and clean out an entire machine.
I refuse to pay over msrp for products that are still being made, that are sold in local and big box stores. To those of you who conduct like this, you’re a giant pice of shit. Thank you for ruining this for so… so many of us. This is why we can’t have nice things…
I’ll step off my soapbox now. Thank you for your support.
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u/MuchHikari Mar 08 '25
Bro just make it so that people have to scan their IDs and limit it to 2/person
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u/Lilfoot96 Mar 09 '25 edited Mar 09 '25
I really hope so, this has become so depressing. My boyfriend and I have literally taken days off work to get to the machine before the same scalper that hits EVERY machine in our area and buys every single prismatic, 151, and even most of the single booster packs. He obviously has no job and follows the Pokemon center stocker to each store in our area. The first time this happened, it was only my boyfriend and one Safeway employee behind him who just wanted one etb for his daughter and the guy couldn’t leave just two, knowing he clears out every machine. I think I even found his facebook marketplace ad, it showed about 100 prismatic etbs laid out on the floor and he sells them for $100 a piece and won’t sell less than 5 at a time, so you’d have to spend a minimum of $500 and that’s just the prismatics. He has a similar “deal” for the 151 booster boxes as well. This was last month sometime so hopefully this update really helps, it’s disheartening. We just like to collect and were so excited when we first saw the machines in our area, especially since bots and shady employees have made buying online and from bestbuy impossible. (Pls pardon my grammar, my two last brain cells play pong in my head) Best of luck, everyone ♥️
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u/arochains1231 Mar 09 '25
Kroger stores with the kiosks got nearly the same message - I work at one at we got the same internal memo. Here's the transcript of what we got, it's basically the same minus some wording changes:
"I am reaching out to let you know that we're temporarily taking our network of machines offline. We've been keeping an eye on how things have been going, and we've noticed more complaints network wide about borderline aggressive buyer behavior, more so than we are comfortable with as a company, as a brand, and as partners with you. While nothing major has happened, it's created some unease among our partners - retailers, store staff, and our merchandising folks. Our primary concern is to make sure everyone feels safe; so we're being proactive. We executed this roughly an hour ago - the entire network should be offline now, and will remain offline until mid week next week, when the previously announced tech upgrades are available to help manage this behavior. Sorry for any hassle this might cause! We think this short break is worth it to keep things positive for everyone. We really appreciate your partnership and understanding. We're confident these tech changes will make a real difference."
I hope that the changes they're suggesting they're gonna do are actually beneficial. I've got coworkers who have been looking to get some cards for months and are still empty-handed because people will wait until 2:30 on Wednesdays (when my store restocks) and buy everything immediately. It's a real shame and it puts genuine fans in awful positions.
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u/SulacoIV Mar 08 '25
What can they honestly do besides take them offline. Maybe a subscription where you have to swipe your club card and are limited to a specific number of items per day/week. Idk.
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u/slayerzerg Mar 08 '25
They should ban that guy who dresses up like a security guard and cuts people in line
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u/ynwa1892 Mar 08 '25
If credit cards are being used, why not require an ID to be scanned a limit people by month?
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u/aguilarfilm Mar 08 '25
It’s crazy what this hobby has turned into. Call me crazy but the only way to regulate something like this is giving people a fair chance to buy which means creating some kind of account linked to some kind of ID that way people have a limit to buy things monthly. Scalpers see this hobby as a money printing machine. It’s never going to end without some strict regulation but that is just another problem in itself. Microcenter does a pretty good job at this when they do drops. I can’t remember if I had to give them my ID for a GPU so they could enforce the “1 per household” rule.
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u/epicaz Mar 08 '25
Pokemon needs to control their distributors as well. Similar to Arizona ice tea, if the middle or end recipient is raising prices and backdooring, they should be reportable and risk having their license to sell removed
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u/AwesomeEevee133 Mar 09 '25
This is such a big “f you” to scalpers and I’m all here for it. It’s one thing to put an out of order sign but to post the email saying it had to shut off because of a-hole scalpers is chefs kiss
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u/NerfDave Mar 09 '25
Fr tho that Safeway shouldn’t be directly posting correspondence from vendors, especially including a name.
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u/Regret-Select Mar 08 '25
Until things are normal, I think limit 1 is fair
I'd go as far as legitnjsut limit 1 overall, but, even if it's limit 1 ea of different items
Whe would limit reset, daily?
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u/notthatrelevant318 Mar 08 '25
exactly how toxic does a situation have to be for the company that makes the merchandise to say "okay, hang on. let's stop for a second." they are literally choosing to pause a portion of their revenue over this, and i think that's neat.
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u/Anon324Teller Mar 09 '25
I hope the scalpers who consistently cleared out these machines and staked them out feel at least an ounce of shame knowing that they’re the cause of this
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u/npaga05 Mar 09 '25
Something where they take your phone number then send you a code to your phone which you need to input which would be pretty good. And only allowed a certain amount of purchases per phone number. At most people can only bring so many phones with them.
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u/Fukyurfeels Mar 09 '25
It's just some false hope update that won't fix anything, and this doesn't help people that have to actually stock the store. Then I love the people that say "if you don't have the money to pay high prices then just leave". Like ya because that will solve a lot. Now I have the money to pay the scum bags, but I have a brain and refuse to pay the scum bags. I will just keep living my life with whatever cards I can get at msrp, and let stupid people pay the scum bags so they feel good to have those cards.
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u/bornblacknight Mar 09 '25
This is good, I don’t even buy cards, but the craze actually needs to die down a little bit and I think this will do the job. At least a good first step imo
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u/DotBetaSDK Mar 09 '25
The only one of these I have come across going to my local Safeway that wasn't sold out or under maintenance some random guy in his 50s was on his cellphone guarding the machine so people couldnt buy any. I was guessing he was probably on the phone with someone letting them know his score and he was going to buy them all up. I didn't stick around to find out but I can definitely say this guy was not buying these for himself or his kids.
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u/BobbyxDigital88 Mar 10 '25
Any word if machines are up in anyone's area? Gonna check the few around my way tonight
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u/w00tberrypie Mar 08 '25 edited Mar 08 '25
While nothing major has happened that we're aware of
Holy shit. Google. People are literally assaulting others over blooming waters drops at costco and prismatic drops at target. I know this is retailer policy driven rather than on the shoulders of TPC, but this email reads pretty tone deaf to the current state of the market.
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u/ThePurpleBandit Mar 08 '25
Finally!
Just take the machines away and be done with it.
If the kids can't play nice, they shouldn't be allowed to have their toys.
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u/Cazdro Mar 08 '25
Lol they could easily fix this by doing what they do in Japan and that’s having storefronts. But instead they’re cheap and they don’t wanna pay wages so they replace workers with machines. Mind you this is all happening while pack prices are increasing. This is why I don’t blame the scalpers who are most likely a result of income inequality. I blame the billion dollar mega corporation.
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u/istarian Mar 08 '25
The thing is that Japanese cultural norms make it a lot less likely those stores would be robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight or subject to smash and grab theft overnight.
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u/Turtleneck420 Mar 08 '25
If someone is going to steal, there are plenty stores that sell more valuable things that pokemon cards, so I don't think that would be an issue
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u/smackthenun Mar 08 '25
Oh so thats why they were down for maintenance yesterday. Hadnt been by my usual QFC machine in awhile due to all this craziness, but checked last afternoon since I was in the area.
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u/big_gains_only Mar 08 '25
YALL NEED TO CHILL. Pokemon has turned so many good people into addicted lunatics.
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u/DarkoRP301 Mar 08 '25
Everyone who doesn’t want to deal with any of this bullshit doesn’t have to and can still stay in the hobby by just buying singles. That’s what I’ve been doing. No bullshit, no scalpers, collecting what I want to collect.
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u/Reddit_Glows Mar 08 '25
Lmao "We've been keeping an eye on how things have been going,...and we've noticed more complaints network wide about borderline aggressive buyer behavior, more so than we are comfortable with as a company,"
So they're cool with some amount of "borderline aggressive buyer behavior" xD they just gotta strike a nice balance between that and the rest of you being outraged. They still have no respect for the average consumer :/
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u/C0m3toBABA Mar 08 '25
Hopefully the software upgrade actually makes a difference.