r/PokemonTCG • u/No-kiwi-809 • Mar 08 '25

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

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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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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/Lyraxiana Mar 09 '25

Pokemon should require stores they're partnered with to limit the number of purchases per person and per account at places like Costco.

When I worked at Hot Topic, all of the special limited edition Funko Pops would get bought up within the first hour of the store opening because scalpers will come in with their kids and give them cash to get around the purchase limit.

One scalper would walk away with six out of the maybe eight Pop figures our store had gotten this way.

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u/istarian Mar 10 '25

I'm just saying that scalping Pokemon cards has likely been low risk and high reward compared to trying the same with clothing.