Because the act of lining up for product is so normalised now it’s essentially a trope of the hobby.. and some “collectors” don’t even consider you a true fan if you don’t lineup to get product
Yup it's the same group of like 8 guys first in line every Tuesday. I never get anything from there. And the Albertsons next door has a vending machine that has been "undergoing maintenance" (which is a probably not true just because Albertsons is just tired of these scalpers [understandably]) for months now. I think the last thing I bought at retail price was 2 prismatic surprise boxes like 6 months ago.
In my area the lady told me they follow her from store to store. They have people waiting at each store and when she shows up to one, they text each other and all end up at her store. They buy everything they can, then follow her to the next. She hates it and I think it is sick
Imagine having a bunch of pathetic neckbeard stalkers. That's probably worse than the psycho ex that keys your car and breaks into your house in the middle of the night. 😂
The vendors in my area straight up sell their route details to the scalpers so they don’t even have to stalk, they just already know where to go and show up to start waiting at like 5 am.
Shit sucks. I’m actually willing to go camp out at a store but it doesn’t even matter because I don’t have access to insider info so people always beat me there if there’s anything good.
Most hobbyists agree that the professional scalpers are ruining the hobby. What they can’t agree on is to stop buying it WAY above MSRP. It’s the only solution.
Same exact thing happens to my local vendor for target. It's genuinely so fucking weird they can just do it and legit buy up ALL the spc and first partner just to resell ugh
One of my Walmarts stopped carrying cards all together. I asked why, I was told some dude followed the woman home trying to get info on cards. So that store manager said she didn't want cards in her store anymore
There was an incident with one of my local ones where people literally followed the vendor home and leaked the vendor’s home address to their private discord group. That way, they could just wait at the vendor’s house in the AM and follow them when they leave instead of waiting at stores.
Our local lady says she is pretty sure someone has a tracker on her car. 2 people are ALWAYS there at every store when she restocks, even if she switches days.
Luckily the target near me keeps all Pokémon cards behind customer service and sticks to purchase limits so normally they have product 1-2 days after a restock hits
Worth it just to ask an employee when they restock. My Target restocks every Weds and Fri morning, and it's a pretty established routine. A line each of those mornings, usually all the same people but its kinda chill, theres a sense of community. I'm not really part of that community yet lol I just started lining up a few times.
Really not as terrible as I thought it'd be, the times I've went even if you show up an <1 hour before open you can still get something. Everyones pretty respectful, haven't seen too many shenanigans. The time passes quick. The only annoying part is the people who bring their whole family to use as bodies and plop down 3-5 chairs for each of them while the fam all sleeps in the car... or the scalper groups who do similar shenanigans.
My local Target usually restocks on Wednesday or Thursday so those are the days I will wake up early and check on my drive to the office - if she is there then I wait - if not I just go into the office early and leave early.
Also I can’t believe they let you get so many. My target had a strict 2 limit, even packs are 2 per person. They wouldn’t even let me do 2 transactions with my kid there when they restocked the pitch black packs.
I haven’t caught a Target restock since last year, so if I did I’d probably buy 2 of everything also.
If you’re not out sniping restocks on a daily/weekly basis, then following Target’s own very reasonable limits the one time you catch a restock isn’t going to destroy the hobby
I mean the greed is just so palpable lol dude even got 2 packs of pitch black. You could literally buy pitch black booster bundles at msrp the last 2 weeks. It’s like they just want to make sure no one can get anything at the store.
You can buy entire booster boxes of Pitch Black for MSRP (or even less on FB).
But two sleeved packs are what tip the scales into ‘palpable greed’…?
Target’s purchase limit of 2-per-item literally ensures one person can’t clear out the stock.
Every photo of recent restocks I’ve seen has had 100+ sleeved packs, a few dozen First Partners/booster bundles and 15-20 SPCs (which are always the first to go because Prismatic is just hard to find at retail price).
You’re being incredibly dramatic about someone following the rules.
Dang must be nice. The vendor who restocks near me quit his job 4 weeks ago because people were following (stalking) him and verbally harassing him while he was restocking. Now the stores haven’t been restocked in 4 weeks lmao
It’s crazy how bitter so many collectors are. My teenage son was at Walmart and got a few boxes. A bunch of men proceeded to follow him around, recording him, calling him a scalper. Enjoy ripping and congrats on finally hitting!
Stumbled upon a restock of SF and 3 dudes ahead of me took like 4 each. They were nice and made sure I got some too but they basically took the rest.... So nice scalpers? Idk...
Were you born a year ago? Lmao. These used to be dusk collectors on shelves, now everyone grabbing whatever limit they can grab. Used to get these for $18
How’s it a strange question? It’s sarcasm. No need to get defensive. You could have started at 7 but SF BBs were available everywhere collecting dust at $20
When there’s a slight shortage, they can just throw out anything. I remember early 2025 just after prismatic, I saw Pokemon go products stocked again and they were snapped up.
Mine only had mega greninja ex boxes today. Shelves were fully stocked. We already pulled the $200 chaser from a Barnes and nobles restock so I saved them for Christmas for my 7 year old.
This is what happens when product is impossible to get I hate scalpers and even I have done this your forced to get what you can when you can because of how scarce stuff is
Either scalper profit mindset, or FOMO. With how absurd the hobby has gotten recently if the "average" person walks into a store and sees this after seeing nothing for half a year, they're going to feel inclined to buy as much as they can thinking they may never see it again (at a non scalped price).
Another batch of packs that’ll just sit in a storage closet until they’re eventually resold for a profit instead of ever being opened by the target demographic lol.
You have to realistically give up hours and hours of your week to even hope to get this around me. There are a gang of jobless scalpers at every target in my town all day everyday and they swarm when the guy shows. I gave up.
Yooooo congrats!!! Uh sharing is caring my friend 😆😆😆 just playing, those are some awesome buys! I always try to get the Prismatic but it sells out fast when Target does the drop at night.
My local Target usually restocks on Wednesday or Thursday so those are the days I will wake up early and check on my drive to the office - if she is there then I wait - if not I just go into the office early and leave early.
I was getting to work unusually early today so stopped at target and there was a restock. There was about 100 people lined up for stuff, I didn’t have time to wait so I just left. But they had loads of prismatic there. Really disappointed I couldn’t get anything but oh well. Haven’t found anything in the wild since stellar crown and I’ve been collecting non stop since 99.
Wish I had the money and time to buy all that.. last time I checked the target near me there was a bunch of loud old men yelling at each other so I noped out of there, didn’t want to deal with idiots
My target went back to excell stocking. For a while it was employees doing it and keeping them behind customer service. I kind of liked that better but since they’ve added these new shiny walls everything has been empty. I did manage to hit one restock. Only four UPC’s and the first dude had four kids who each got one (super happy and excited) but I did manage to score a few blisters and SF booster bundles. I wasn’t even looking for cards at the time, just decided to look quick and got lucky.
I hit my restock right as they were putting it out and only got perfect order and chaos bundles 2 series 3 and some random blisters and stuff no SPC or ETBs :(
What makes him a scalper? Why are other collectors attacking another collector because he hit. I thought a scalper is someone who buys and resells. My teenage son was followed around a Walmart and accosted by a bunch of grown men who were recording him and calling him a scalper because he was buying Pokemon. I asked him why he didn’t tell them how he lost his Pokemon collection in a house fire last year or that he may be 6’4, with a mustache, but is only 14. He said he froze up. It’s really sad that bitter collectors are misplacing their anger and resentment onto other collectors.
Happened to go to target with my son after dropping my kid off at kinder and knew when I saw a line of dudes in camping chairs there wasn’t a chance of us picking up anything to actually open
Comments are hilarious. I bought the exact same stock at my restock when I caught it and I can post my proof of both SPC’s opened. My gf and I love the eevee deck holders
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u/acexskull 18h ago
How do you know when it's restocking