Target Announces "No Longer Selling Pokemon or Sports Cards In-Store"

Xterrian · May 12, 2021

Target will stop selling Pokémon cards in stores

They can still be found on the retailer’s website

www.google.com

Hard to fault them I think. I'm sure they'd love the business but they're definitely afraid of incidents happening due to someone wanting the last pack or some shit.

It still sucks though that they'll be even harder to find. Absolutely no where around me has any Pokemon cards. Yu-gi-oh is left with only structure decks too. Magic seems to be the only one well-stacked.

Pull a shadowless Holo Charizard and accidentally rip it if old.

Duncan · May 12, 2021

Hopefully this makes room for the new GI Joes

CloseTalker · May 12, 2021

if people can't act like adults, then they have to be treated like children

DarthWoo · May 12, 2021

I'll just remember with fondness the times when a booster pack of whatever was around $2.50 and a starter was maybe $10 at the upper end. Stuff got crazy since the last time I played any of these. The last thing I ever bought was a booster pack of Deciper's Star Wars CCG Death Star II expansion. Got a Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight card and eBayed it for $40ish I think.

Maple · May 12, 2021

So why have Pokemon cards become massively popular again? Is it genuine interest in collecting the cards and playing the game, or just a bunch of opportunists looking to capitalize and make money?

RecRoulette · May 12, 2021

My Target stopped selling them at least a year ago, way before the collecting boom started. I wonder if this was always the plan and the current trend just sped it up

Maple said:
So why have Pokemon cards become massively popular (again) recently? Is it genuine interest in collecting the cards and playing the game, or just a bunch of opportunists looking to capitalize and make money?

Like 40 percent A, 60 percent B

rpm · May 12, 2021

I had no idea there was such a frenzy around current, sealed product for Pokemon, I knew the old stuff blew up but I didn't know people were buying all the sealed product they could get their hands on. Crazy. It's only just people trying to pull rare cards and get them graded?

data west · May 12, 2021

Maple said:
So why have Pokemon cards become massively popular (again) recently? Is it genuine interest in collecting the cards and playing the game, or just a bunch of opportunists looking to capitalize and make money?

Scalping exploded during quarantine, and Pokemon cards were already getting popular again.

Very FOMO fueled.

Hero_of_the_Day · May 12, 2021

And the bots win.

entremet · May 12, 2021

People are that greedy? Jeez.

Aaronrules380 · May 12, 2021

Maple said:
So why have Pokemon cards become massively popular (again) recently? Is it genuine interest in collecting the cards and playing the game, or just a bunch of opportunists looking to capitalize and make money?

a lot of people found new hobbies due to the pandemic

Charpunk · May 12, 2021

Maple said:
So why have Pokemon cards become massively popular again? Is it genuine interest in collecting the cards and playing the game, or just a bunch of opportunists looking to capitalize and make money?

It's always about money.

Deleted member 2802 · May 12, 2021

People have reportedly been opening cereal boxes in stores to steal the included Pokémon cards out of them. And someone in Japan even climbed down a rope to steal almost $9,000 worth of the cardboard cards designed for kids.

mute · May 12, 2021

Is there a shortage of paper or ink?

Why can't they just print more?

LycanXIII · May 12, 2021

I just want to find Digimon cards in stock...

Hoa · May 12, 2021

Hero_of_the_Day said:
And the bots win.

Yep. Good luck getting cards when you can only get them online.

Edit: But with how crazy people are, I guess it's better this way until it calms down.

buttzilla · May 12, 2021

Good. Reading the horror stories on the Target Reddit about vendors getting stalked and employees getting harassed/assaulted, it was about time.

Earvin Infinity · May 12, 2021

Maple said:
So why have Pokemon cards become massively popular again? Is it genuine interest in collecting the cards and playing the game, or just a bunch of opportunists looking to capitalize and make money?

I blame Logan Paul.

TarpitCarnivore · May 12, 2021

Duncan said:
Hopefully this makes room for the new GI Joes

I was going to start collecting the new Joe's until I saw everyone in the subreddit complaining non stop about trying to get any of them. They seem stupidly he's to find

A Strong Latte · May 12, 2021

Maple said:
So why have Pokemon cards become massively popular again? Is it genuine interest in collecting the cards and playing the game, or just a bunch of opportunists looking to capitalize and make money?

Scalping Bitcoin bullshit bought on by youtubers so option B.)

It's not like people in the US are going out to locals to play the pokemon tcg in the middle of a relentless pandemic.

Inugami · May 12, 2021

It's the comic book boom 2.0... people seeing an exploding value of gen 1 cards, so they want to get in on collecting now in the case that in 20 years they might be worth something.

Spoiler, they won't.

Pokemon company isn't going to risk bankruptcy by massively over producing at least (and the cards aren't the only thing of value they sell).

manzoman96 · May 12, 2021

wtf is wrong with people. Feel bad for the kids who love looking through that section and bringing home a pack. Most of my sports cards were bought at Target back in the day.

echoshifting · May 12, 2021

DarthWoo said:
The last thing I ever bought was a booster pack of Deciper's Star Wars CCG Death Star II expansion. Got a Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight card and eBayed it for $40ish I think.

You bought *one* pack of DS2 and got Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight?? Am I reading this correctly? Please don't take this personally but I kind of hate you right now

SigmasonicX · May 12, 2021

I'm confused as to why sports cards are apparently blowing up, myself.

DarthWoo · May 12, 2021

echoshifting said:
You bought *one* pack of DS2 and got Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight?? Am I reading this correctly? Please don't take this personally but I kind of hate you right now

Yeah. It was at a comic book store in State College, PA my last year there. I knew I was likely never going to actually play again, but just wanted to see what I would get.

jwhit28 · May 12, 2021

I'll miss Jan's weekly Target reporting.

ThreePi · May 12, 2021

My only frame of reference for this is Jan's stories on the Bombcast, what is it specifically about Target that these problems happen? Do Walmart and other retailers not carry these cards?

echoshifting said:
You bought *one* pack of DS2 and got Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight?? Am I reading this correctly? Please don't take this personally but I kind of hate you right now

My very first pack of the Dagobah expansion I got Son of Skywalker.

deimosmasque · May 12, 2021

KojiKnight said:
It's the comic book boom 2.0... people seeing an exploding value of gen 1 cards, so they want to get in on collecting now in the case that in 20 years they might be worth something.

Spoiler, they won't.

Pokemon company isn't going to risk bankruptcy by massively over producing at least (and the cards aren't the only thing of value they sell).

It's pretty much this, with the added "bonus" that scalpers can then just go on Mecari or Ebay and sell their shit at 100% mark up.

El Bombastico · May 12, 2021

RecRoulette said:
My Target stopped selling them at least a year ago, way before the collecting boom started. I wonder if this was always the plan and the current trend just sped it up

Like 40 percent A, 60 percent B

Nah, more like 10% A and 90% B.

asmith906 · May 12, 2021

Xterrian said:
Target will stop selling Pokémon cards in stores

They can still be found on the retailer’s website

www.google.com

Hard to fault them I think. I'm sure they'd love the business but they're definitely afraid of incidents happening due to someone wanting the last pack or some shit.

It still sucks though that they'll be even harder to find. Absolutely no where around me has any Pokemon cards. Yu-gi-oh is left with only structure decks too. Magic seems to be the only one well-stacked.

Pull a shadowless Holo Charizard and accidentally rip it if old.

I really wanted to start collecting Yugioh cards again but this is just mental. It's not worth the hassle.

RecRoulette · May 12, 2021

KojiKnight said:
It's the comic book boom 2.0... people seeing an exploding value of gen 1 cards, so they want to get in on collecting now in the case that in 20 years they might be worth something.

Spoiler, they won't.

Pokemon company isn't going to risk bankruptcy by massively over producing at least (and the cards aren't the only thing of value they sell).

Pokemon company actually said they were planning to ramp up production quite a bit, won't be enough to outpace scalpers but that was a neat gesture.

El Bombastico said:
Nah, more lime 10% A and 90% B.

Yeah, you're probably right. it has shifted pretty hard to B lately

t26 · May 12, 2021

What about Animal Crossing card?

LycanXIII · May 12, 2021

SigmasonicX said:
I'm confused as to why sports cards are apparently blowing up, myself.

'Holy Grail' Of Tom Brady Rookie Cards Gets Record $2.25 Million (antiquesandthearts.com)

Gaardus · May 12, 2021

mute said:
Is there a shortage of paper or ink?

Why can't they just print more?

Demand for basically every type of trading card has been sky-high for a year. They're printing as fast as they can.

AnansiThePersona · May 12, 2021

YES THANK GOD

Arkeband · May 12, 2021

I wonder if this will ever affect Final Fantasy TCG. I don't know if I'd want a billion sweaty, desperate streamers making the cards harder to find than they already are.

Randomly Generated · May 12, 2021

I found an old MTG deck in my closet and it is my belief I am now a millionaire.

lunarworks · May 12, 2021

CloseTalker said:
if people can't act like adults, then they have to be treated like children

"Nanny State!!!"

ev0 · May 12, 2021

Duncan said:
Hopefully this makes room for the new GI Joes

Ah yes, another scalpable item with rare exclusives that Target will surely handle the distribution of well based on past efforts lol

jwhit28 said:
I'll miss Jan's weekly Target reporting.

I'll call it a wash if we get reports of him waking up at 5am trying to beat the bots online

Thordinson · May 12, 2021

KojiKnight said:
It's the comic book boom 2.0... people seeing an exploding value of gen 1 cards, so they want to get in on collecting now in the case that in 20 years they might be worth something.

Spoiler, they won't.

Pokemon company isn't going to risk bankruptcy by massively over producing at least (and the cards aren't the only thing of value they sell).

It's not just that. A lot of the current cards go for a few hundred and you can easily resell tins and things for double what you paid.

Curler · May 12, 2021

KojiKnight said:
Pokemon company isn't going to risk bankruptcy by massively over producing at least (and the cards aren't the only thing of value they sell).

They are the most profitable franchise in the world currently, overprinting cards are fine for them. And they have! There's been soooo many more defects on cards (not being centered, scratches, etc), that you can tell they are trying to pump the volume out as fast as they can. Buuuut considering the problem with resources, like card stock, and that doesn't make it any easier. They literally can't print fast enough to meet (the scalpers) demand.

Sandfox · May 12, 2021

SigmasonicX said:
I'm confused as to why sports cards are apparently blowing up, myself.

LeBron James rookie card sells for record $5.2 million (espn.com)
Mike Trout rookie card sells for record $3.93M at auction - CBSSports.com

Some big name rookie cards have recently sold for a lot of money, so now people are going crazy trying to get them because they think it will make them rich. It actually predates the Pokemon stuff and you have stuff like people camping out trucks and having their employee friends hide product.

mute said:
Is there a shortage of paper or ink?

Why can't they just print more?

People are literally buying all the product up as soon as they are taken off the truck. Like one or two people buying out entire stores. This is also happening because of safety reasons

Arkeband said:
I wonder if this will ever affect Final Fantasy TCG. I don't know if I'd want a billion sweaty, desperate streamers making the cards harder to find than they already are.

Not unless the cards are selling for big money.

FooF · May 12, 2021

Are people collecting these cards hoping they'll be worth something in the future? Like I get first edition gen 1 cards being worth something since they're extremely limited these days but the mass majority of cards coming out today aren't going to be worth shit in the future.

echoshifting · May 12, 2021

DarthWoo said:
Yeah. It was at a comic book store in State College, PA my last year there. I knew I was likely never going to actually play again, but just wanted to see what I would get.

I bought those long after everyone I knew lost interest in the game, I just found opening them to be so much more exciting than any other game. Any time I found a main character, or a card I needed to make another card work, I would lose my shit. Reflections was even better...brilliant idea...but then they started making prequel sets and I totally lost interest.

I'm actually getting ready to toss my cards, that game didn't get caught up in this crazy boom and I'm moving into a smaller place, so away they go.

perfectchaos007 · May 12, 2021

They're making room for NFT's

DarthWoo · May 12, 2021

echoshifting said:
I bought those long after everyone I knew lost interest in the game, I just found opening them to be so much more exciting than any other game. Any time I found a main character, or a card I needed to make another card work, I would lose my shit. Reflections was even better...brilliant idea...but then they started making prequel sets and I totally lost interest.

I'm actually getting ready to toss my cards, that game didn't get caught up in this crazy boom and I'm moving into a smaller place, so away they go.

You could probably make at least a little bit of something if you sold them as a bulk set, or give them away to some relative kid or something.

Curler · May 12, 2021

Fooftin said:
Are people collecting these cards hoping they'll be worth something in the future? Like I get first edition gen 1 cards being worth something since they're extremely limited these days but the mass majority of cards coming out today aren't going to be worth shit in the future.

You should see how many Charizards came out in recent sets. They are trying to get them graded and sell them now because some people out there ARE buying them.

DemyxC · May 12, 2021

Making modern pokemon cards into meme stocks sure is something. Is this what they call late stage capitalism?

SatoAilDarko · May 12, 2021

Maybe Jan can be saved from himself.

Fj0823 · May 12, 2021

Can someone explain this to me?

I only play YGO so I'm completely put of the loop here

What's causing the sudden surge in Pokemon cards?

Target Announces "No Longer Selling Pokemon or Sports Cards In-Store"

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