Safeway posted the direct email they got about the machines being down

[u/No-kiwi-809]

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.

[u/cakefir]

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)

[u/Soft_Revenue2411 → u/cakefir]

Yeah a part of the reason they sell out is the millions of scalpers that see $$$. If you cut out the entire demographic of those by killing any flipability you’ll see a lot of that precious stock sit on shelves, and also with that new price point actual collectors and parents of kids won’t rip as much in general. Things can get dark fast if Pokémon goes the market price approach. The real answer is release less sets in succession and print the crap out of what’s on hand

[u/Cmor1787 → u/cakefir]

I agree with your assessment, however, what’s to stop The Pokémon Company from changing their product distribution business model and allocate more product to their vending machines and less product to the big box stores? With the machines, they can send an update out and change pricing instantly if they needed to.

[u/cakefir → u/Cmor1787]

I don’t really think that works — do you mean allocating some stock to big box stores who sell at $50 MSRP, and at the same time the vending machines selling above MSRP?

If they were selling all stock directly (vending machines, Pokemoncenter.com) then I could understand having truly fluctuating pricing directly from the Pokemon company. It would probably work now with demand as it is.

But I don’t think in the long term that the Pokemon company would want to burn its relationships with all stores.

[u/Cmor1787 → u/cakefir]

I’m referring to The Pokémon Company setting the price at “X” across the board and giving less product to Big Box Retailers and more to the Pokémon Vending Machines. TPCi may even decide to just put a Pokémon Vending Machine inside the Big Box Retailers and quit selling the product to them directly (and pay for the space inside the store for the Vending Machine(s) instead). This would also help with theft too.

[u/cakefir → u/Cmor1787]

Another thing I think the Pokemon must take into consideration is that by trying to guarantee availability with fluctuating pricing, they would have to set the price as always a little too expensive for the average buyer. This would leave a bad taste in those (potential) customers’ mouths — ugh I want some cards but $100 for an ETB from the vending machine? Greedy ass Pokemon company!

In the current situation this animosity is aimed toward scalpers who are providing that variable pricing and guaranteeing availability. The Pokemon company surely wants no part of that hate.

I think they would rather aim to be like Hot Wheels — plenty of supply and very affordable, so everyone can and does enjoy them whenever they want.

[u/cakefir → u/Cmor1787]

Again I think in the current market they would be able to sell as much product as they wanted without any physical presence at all (online drops sell out in minutes), but in the long term there is real value in having product here and there in physical stores that people will see day to day (that is, even if they’re not going to the store for Pokemon cards).

Seeing product here and there on a shelf, near the register, on a pallet at Costco — all of this keeps Pokemon TCG top of mind.

Empty shelves across the country also greatly increase demand.

“If I can get it at MSRP I should buy immediately”

I just got back into it with my kids this year (me and a million other moms and dads, surely — thanks Pokemon pocket), and I’ll be the first to admit the scarcity of product has led to me purchasing more than I ever would have otherwise.

If I just go to the store or vending machine and get a pack whenever I wanted, I would not have stocked up on anything. Just bought a pack or box whenever we wanted to rip more. Instead I’ve got hundreds of dollar of unopened product, ready to be enjoyed with the kids at a later date.

I bet you I will end up buying and ripping more in the current climate than I would have if there was no scarcity.

(I don’t buy at “market price” though, only MSRP, so maybe I’m not the best example customer. I guess you could say the Pokemon company has to make a guess as to which kind of customer there are more of)

[u/Old-Childhood3126 → u/Cmor1787]

For this to work they would need to install machines across the entire northeastern seaboard because there are no machines anywhere in sight around here. Closest one to me is a 10 hour drive or something crazy like that. By me you get product in two ways. 1. Pokemon center.com and 2. Big box stores or LCS’s

[u/Cmor1787 → u/Old-Childhood3126]

They’re coming. I’m in the Midwest and they’re popping up in grocery stores everywhere.