The new set of the Pokémon trading card game will be released soon. But a store has now drawn attention to itself by deciding not to sell it. The reason: concerns about security.
The Prismatic Evolutions expansion will soon be added to the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Here in Germany sales start on January 17, 2025.
The set focuses on Eevee and his developments, including stylish teracrystal shapes. Favorites like Nachtara, Feelinara and the other Eevee developments are there.
But one business has now made headlines, which at the same time shines a light on a problem with the cards. In the past, the increasing popularity of Pokémon cards has occasionally led to situations in which over-motivated collectors, scalpers or others caused problems when rare or new cards were offered.
Here are the 3 best decks for Pokémon TCG Pocket!
More videos
Autoplay
Why a store in the US won’t sell the new Pokémon set
What kind of shop is this? The Retro Emporium is a store in the USA that offers typical pop culture items, from video games to merch to Pokémon cards.
However, the store posted a worrying message on Instagram:
It states that Retro Emporium has decided not to sell the new set for personal and business safety reasons. They write: “We struggled with this decision, but at the end of the day we will NOT sacrifice our safety for… cardboard” (via Instagram).
They cite certain groups of buyers as the reason: “The overly aggressive (and presumptuous) behavior of collectors/resellers has reached a whole new level, so in this case we are out. We’re sorry to those who aren’t part of the problem… we’ve tried to be fair and keep everything accessible, but we just can’t this time.”
In the comments there are mainly voices that regret the decision but can understand it. Retro Emporium’s post also made waves in the Pokémon TCG subreddit (via reddit), which currently has over 3,000 upvotes and more than 1,100 comments.
There are also voices condemning excessive behavior of difficult customers, especially since it is actually a nice, nostalgic hobby. However, scalpers in other areas who are only looking for profit are also condemned.
What are these problems? It is currently not known exactly what experiences Retro Emporium had with scalpers. But every now and then reports emerge about some people’s reckless behavior when it comes to Pokémon cards. A particularly vivid example was a campaign by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which exhibited Pokémon paintings as part of a collaboration. Visitors were also able to pick up a special Van Gogh Pikachu card during their visit.
But there were unpleasant scenes in which hundreds of people stormed the museum to collect the merchandising items from the exhibition. They later ended up on Ebay at a high price. At the same time, there were still images of adults fighting over Pokémon items.