Yesterday I was at the antique mall digging through a few cases I frequent, just looking for some junk wax to rip. While I was browsing, the vendor stocking the case next to me struck up some small talk. He was loading stacks of Pokémon product—something I normally don’t pay much attention to. But when I glanced over, I noticed he was putting in pile after pile of the newly released Mega Evolution packs that dropped Friday.

Out of curiosity (I’ve got a buddy who’s into TCG), I checked retail prices. Sure enough—he had them marked at double retail. As I moved down the aisle, I watched him unload multiple retail display boxes straight into his case, and it hit me: this was the same vendor I’ve bought singles from in the past. Suddenly, I wasn’t interested in buying anything that day.

Here’s the thing—I get that “business is business.” But at what cost? Scalping like this feels like one of the biggest black eyes in the hobby. It prices out true collectors, keeps kids from enjoying the simple joy of grabbing packs at the store, and makes it harder for new collectors to get involved. We’re already paying premiums set by the card companies, and scalpers piling on another 100% markup only inflates things further.

Sure, people will say “just buy singles,” and I don’t disagree. But when singles sellers pay scalped box prices, those inflated costs trickle down to collectors anyway. The secondary market will always be there, but it’s getting harder to separate normal supply and demand from flat-out greed.

Maybe this happened back in the ’80s and ’90s too, but I don’t remember it being this difficult to simply find packs on the shelf.

So here’s my question for this Storytime Sunday:

👉 Are scalpers killing the hobby, or are they just another cog in the machine that’s always been there?