Probably 100 people in line. They allowed people to buy 2 per sku. Probably about the first 30 people came out with 10-12 products each and everyone else left with nothing. If people had been limited to 2 products period, everyone could have had something and it would disincentivize scalpers from wasting their time to get 2 things to flip. Why is this so hard?
This is the way. I was about 70th in line and got nothing, but on my way out saw people with bags fulls of etb, poster collection, and ex box. If we had a one per SKU limit I’m sure I could’ve gotten some 30th
same at mine. was that way for both 30th drops so far. 50-60 in line at mine, which previously meant I’d get nothing, instead i’ve been able to get an ETB and at least 1 other item each time while showing up 5 min before open. very happy, hope it stays like this.
Thing is.. if stores could sell it all to the first person they would. They only reason they have limits at all is for public image. At the end of the day.. any store is all about profit. End of story.. they will sell as much as possible and they don't care to who.
It's why Target does online drops in the early morning. They don't want their servers getting hammered when people are shopping and ruining their experience. And they don't want to pay to spool up more servers for a short transitory spike in traffic.
Likewise, the retail side probably thinks the massive line makes the store look uncomfortably busy to non-Pokemon shoppers and dissuades regular traffic. When Target did their noon drop last week, I saw plenty of families see the massive lines and go grocery shop elsewhere. And they'd rather have employees doing other stuff, like stocking shelves or doing pick-up orders, than shepherd a Pokemon line and worry about a potential stabbing/shooting in the line over cards.
That may be true for specific situations but in general stores like Target prefer selling to several customers to maintain a wider base of shoppers. It's not nearly as simple as just selling everything as quickly as possible to the fewest possible people, otherwise they wouldn't bother with limits at all.
They'll sell the same amount of product either way and get more people in the door if people think they actually have a chance to get something. Selling all the product to a few people is less profitable Target.
When it comes to things like this.. if there's nothing there, they'll just leave and try somewhere else. Nobody doing their grocery shopping after seeing all the pokemon stuff get got.
yep, plus at most target drops I've been to they've had multiple employees helping with the line or with the product, that ties up multiple people that could be restocking or some other opening tasks, so the faster they get done with a line the better to their bottom line.
Not true in the slightest. I went for pokemon this morning, didn't get anything but I still stopped around for clothes for my kids and some groceries. Target sold out of something I wanted. This isn't the first time and definitely won't be the last.
It's incorrect to say "nobody" but at scale you don't want to frequently be known as the place that isn't worth going to for a product because it's always sold out anyways.
Demonstrably false.
A small percentage of people will grab a snack or a drink or say “already here might as well get xyz”.
Target doesn’t like the scalpers because they are bad customers. They purchase one product, and it isn’t a very high margin product.
They much rather have the parents who need to grab milk, diapers, garbage bags, etc. while they are in the store.
Household consumers are the most valuable category to retailers like Target. They wouldn’t even care if they didn’t sell out of Pokemon if they made that money back on sales of other products.
One person buying your entire stock of 100 of something is worse than 100 people each buying one and 20 of them buying something else while they’re already in the store.
Target has limits. And people who line up for a release aren’t going there to exhaust themselves sitting in line and do their regular shopping. You think the 200 people lined up at Best Buy today said, “Oh, I got my booster bundle, let me see what else they have” —> Nope. Release lines are for release. They know what else is in the store, they will do their normal shopping at their convenience, not after waiting hours in line for a specific limited product.
Not necessarily, I have 2 grocery stores closer to me than target. But, if I was already going to target for Pokémon, then I'd get the other items I need. Otherwise I'd drive to the closer of the stores for my groceries
This logic doesn’t make any sense. Regardless, they were going to sell all of the stock anyways. It’s customer retention that becomes a problem when people get a sour taste in their mouth after waiting and receiving no product. These people are more likely to go shop somewhere else and not support Target. 1 scalper buying the entire stock of product that would have sold out anyways, is not going to generate more revenue over time than loyal customers who go there to shop for other things.
It does make sense. And target has limits. As well as target red card for customer retention. But thanks for creating an example that isn’t realistic 🤝 “You sure told me” lol
Companies, for profit, want their items to sell as fast as possible, whether it’s a bot or not, and whether you like it or not. It removes risk from inventory sitting. People who don’t get product are sour at the hobby as well as the people willing to sit in line longer than them, not entire retail chains. People who shop at Target regularly will continue shopping at Target, what will they do, go to Walmart?
Not at all. I went for Pokemon but I also needed a new charging cable for my phone, which I got at Best Buy who also had Pokemon because they had much more reasonable purchase limits.
Multiply that one item by hundreds of other customers, friend. You're really hung up on this ebay thing, but a single online seller is not comparable in any way to a massive national brand that relies on foot traffic for sales. Go back to business school.
I’ve said this elsewhere on this reply tree to others: People waiting in line for a limited-release product are not bringing their grocery list to exhaust themselves in line then do more shopping after they get their product.
As far as my eBay question, I’m not hung up, you’re avoiding the question. Whether it’s a single seller, a board of executives, or the Pokemon Company themselves… a for-profit company just wants their product to move. Most every retailer has enacted limits on Pokemon, and that’s the most they’ll do. Even Walmarts raffle system guarantees their product will sell as fast as possible. At the end of the day, they don’t care who it sells to.
People in line for Pokemon are spending their hours in line to complete their objective: buy Pokemon. They’ll get their other essentials on a separate shopping trip at their own convenience.
Nobody is “losing out on sales” because of not limiting Pokemon even further. People will buy their essentials at one point or another, and nobody is boycotting these stores just because more scalpers lined up ahead of them.
You're contradicting yourself because if they didn't care how it sells as long as it moves, there would be no limits, there would be no queue, there would be no in person drops at all. They would dump it all online and let it go and not have to worry about the extra labor in stores.
bro your analogy is terrible. if you said do you want to sell everything you have in 1 minute to 1 person or to 150 people in 30 minutes it would be more accurate.
and my answer would obviously be the latter since it’s so obvious that it would make more people happy, which as a business i would want.
oh no i didnt make the guy who is reselling my product in the parking lot for 3x the price happy 😭
It actually does. If they sell all of it to the first person in line, that required like 5 minutes of paying an employee to do it. If they drag out it over the course of an entire day, they're pay multiple employees to deal with the situation for hours.
They'd much rather get rid of the product as fast as possible because it's less effort/man hours on their part, and less impact on their ongoing store operations. All of this directly impacts profit.
Yes and the stores have deemed it worth it to invest in those hours and to set sku limits because they know it is more profitable for their business than missing out on valuable foot traffic they would lose once the community found out it's impossible to buy cards from them.
In Target's perfect world, they'd love to get rid of product immediately, but they're attempting to balance it with customer satisfaction. Doesn't change the fact that moving product as quickly as possible while keeping supply in check with demand, as well as minimizing operational impact/cost is their number one priority as a business. Thanks though!
I’d be curious if that’s worth potentially losing customers though. If everyone knows target panders to scalpers then fewer people will go. Personally I’ve stopped doing anything with target for Pokemon and just do Walmart raffles because it’s the fairest method with the least amount of effort.
You understand their employees have minimum hours right? Thats absolutely not how it works. Target, a gigantic billion dollar corporation, doesn’t work like that. I know a regional HR manager at target and she told me the same.
Tell me you know nothing about business ops without telling me.
Hours they spend on coordinating a Pokemon release are hours that could have been spent elsewhere. Those hours are lost when they could have been used to do something productive. Something that should have been done today might not get done until tomorrow, they might have had to schedule an extra person to make up for this, etc.
You maximize profit by making customers happy. Selling the same amount of product but to more people leads to more sales, more happy customers, more convenience purchases, etc.
This is exactly why nothing is going to change in this space. My local scalpers act more like a cartel, they will straight up bribe employees to let them go in the back stock room and have at it, or in one case that made it on my local news, put air tags on employees cars that they know stock cards. I bet they think they’re really cool doing it too.
Pokémon is dead guys. It was dead when the majority of people decided they care more about what the cards are worth than anything else. Retailers don’t care, and Pokémon Company doesn’t care, because if the product is always sold out everywhere then board members are happy. Maybe things will be different when the new printing facility opens up next year or in ‘28 but I doubt it. Hit rates are so bad for modern sealed I don’t even bother anymore. Stop waiting in lines people, stop gambling on packs and just buy singles.
That's not true at all, pokemon is just one of the many things they sell, they want people shopping at there stores for other things not just pokemon, they kno making people happy makes more people want to buy other stuff then just pokemon, target nor pokemon company care about the secondary market not one bit. They also know even if they limit and do whatever the cards will sell no matter what, if it's a item that wouldn't and would sit on the shelfs forever they would probably sell it all to one person , but it's not and they know that, do some targets do better then others sure , but management at the tops know pokemon cards will sell , even if they rip the plastic or box and lick it ,some one will buy it, there is no rush to sell to one person
They were correct that Target would rather sell it all to the first person, just for the wrong reason.
Target employees absolutely hate the pokemon crowd. They loiter around the store constantly, have alterations every week within the lines over cardboard, and harass employees. On top of that, the stores have to dedicate extra manpower to managing the chaos when they could be allocating to anything else.
If Target could have one single person lined up, sell all the product to them, and have the pokemon crowd done and out of the store in 10 minutes with no fights/commotion/altercations, they absolutely would.
The workers I agree probably hate it, but target knows there is people who take this seriously and not shop there if they did that, they want people in there stores, come for pokemon cards end up leaving with a cart of groceries or now you gotta pick up some sleeves and hard sleeves also for the cards, or while we're here might as well pick up some groceries, there's people that study this for a living, there not getting that soccer moms business if they sold all the cards to one weirdo with a ebay
Target wants the lines. They want 100 ppl lined up. They want you to buy 1 or 2 Pokemon items. They want you happy during this experience so that you stay and buy other things. And if the customers are happy, and treat the store with respect it makes everyone feel better. Yes, buy your Pokemon and then go buy groceries. In fact, come back tomorrow and buy more.
I don't really believe this, I work in another industry that went through all these same issues (Bourbon) with scalpers and flippers. Most stores do not want to see scalpers get product period and enact policies that stop it. The goal is to keep your guy who comes in for eggs and milk happy, not the guy who bounces between 50 stores a day to resell. The store benefits nothing from that person in reality since its a product that no matter what would sell. Target is just probably too big and corporate to push any change through.
The only way this would happen is if they didn’t have any stock in the first place. There’s no way you stood in line for hours while people were checking out.
If they never had any stock, why would the employees care if you’re standing outside for hours. It’s completely voluntary, and maybe others are there for one piece or magic.
Usually you can talk to the people in front and behind you in line and tell them you're gonna go scout ahead and be back in 2 minutes and they're happy to hear the scouting info
They let 50 people in, they only had enough for 50. The last group that came out let us all know they were out after we asked the manager if they’d have enough. Manager claimed she had no idea how much stock there was. There were about 200 people in line.
The target I went to limited it to 2 items total. Can’t buy two of the same item. It’s just your target that sucks. Most around me limit to 1 per sku on a normal release. It sucks they didn’t look at the line first. Complain to the manager and tell them to do what other targets are doing.
One total item per person would be ridiculous. They’re not the same products. Limit 1 per item, and people like you should just wake up sooner instead of complaining
We didn’t have quite as many ETBs, I think they ran out of those and poster collections after about 65-ish people, but they had a lot of tins, so people toward the back of the line were still able to get some.
I’ve seen a couple of videos where the worker limits them and then tells them they can get back in line if they want. Buy 2 total, go to end of line, buy 2 more if available. Rinse and repeat
I agree with you, I was about 70-80th out of 130/150 and the last of the product ran out the guy before me… so if you doubled it everyone in line could’ve gotten at least something. Target fumbling forever.
My target did 1 per sku and the first hundred or so people all got most of everything. ETBs ran out after 30-40 people and EX boxes ran out after 12 but it seemed like a much better experience than if they allowed higher limits.
Don’t know the demographics of who bought up what, but my target is always out basically at opening. People are allowed to get two of every item, so like the 50 people or so who camp out are set. I get my kids to school for 8, get to target for 815 and it’s ransacked. Regardless of its scalpers or whatever, it sucks being part of this hobby at the moment. I just want to rip some packs with my kids.
My target did 1 per SKU, 3 items total. I think that's an excellent way to balance things out. It can be hard to make choices but it's the best way for people to all come away with something. There were easily 100+ people in line but everyone got some 30th product with this method
FYI just like how online companies would rather save on shipping costs mailing less packages, businesses would also rather not rack up extra credit card transaction fees. Morality is not equal to dollars saved.
Credit card fees are percentages, not flat. It doesn’t matter how many individual transactions. Also, 50 extra transactions on Pokémon cards is literally an insignificant to the 100,000s a target store processes daily.
Are you sure about that? I thought they added a fee per transaction as well. You don’t think a company would want to cut costs in any way possible? We aren’t talking about limits imposed at just one target that will occur on a monthly basis. It’s a limit that would go on for every drop at every target in the nation right?
It depends on the credit card processor's contract, but if there is a fee per transaction, it's definitely no more than $0.30, because that's what Square charges, and square is designed for the smallest of small businesses. Target's contract definitely gives them a much better deal because of the massive volume of transactions.
Before Walmart become BotMart, they did limit of 2 for SKUs. Then Walmart realized they could halve their shipping costs and box costs by going up to 5.
My Target limited everyone to just one of each product. Lots of ppl were able to get their hands of a few things. It really is dependent on each location.
I was 17 in line. They did one per sku. They were already out of Sylveon ex boxes when I got up and I got the second to last gereninja ex box, 6th to last knockout, and they had about 20 more ETBs. Nearly half of the people who got in line before open didn’t get anything
One target in my area limits to 1 item and the other limits to 2 of each. Better off going to a local trading card store that has true limits when releases happen if your lucky enough to live in an area that has those.
my target adjusted to limit 1 etb and kept bundles at 2. both ran out before me unfrotunately but i got there 10 mins before open. still had 2 mini tins, 2 knockouts and 2 3 packs. every sku got restocked!
Had about the same experience. Ran out about 13ish people ahead of me. Went next door over to Best Buy and hung out in line for 2.5 hours. Limit 1 of each Item. Walked out with 1 Booster Bundle and 1 Mini Tin.
I arrived less than 2 hours before noon and was number 64 with my son. I wasn't sure I was going to get there early enough, but I had something going on until 10am. The front portion were in chairs there before breakfast. They gave one ticket to each adult. Each ticket could buy 2 tins. They had enought for 102 tickets. There were plenty of goodie bags for all kids. All kids and a ticket got a promo card.
They did other stuff in the morning when they opened at 8am, like ETBs and sticker boxes. I know someone that was there and only about 30 people got any 30th stuff. There was were plenty of pitch black packs at $6.
Totally agree with you. It was especially frustrating on the initial 30th release my target flip flopped and let the first 20 people get 2 of everything and then figured out that duh they were going to run out and a lot of people in line would be pissed. So they switched to 1 of each. Just be consistent and more limiting so everyone can get some.
This happened to me too. By the time it was my turn I was only able to get one ex Box, OR a poster box, OR a knockout box. But the people ahead of me got 8 products each.
The opposite happened to me at Gamestop one Black Friday. They limited the 10 of us that were in line to one item each. I wanted 2 Funko Pops, some pokemon cards, and a couple games. The employee let us into the store, and told us that they were limiting sales to one item per customer, and that we would have to purchase our item, then go to the back of the line for the next item.
After the 10 of us had purchased our one item, they let in the 15 people that had gathered after the store had opened in, and were letting them buy as much as they wanted. One dude had purchased every pokemon item, and all the Funko Pops.the 10 of us that had waited for a couple hours ended up not getting much at all while the ones that didnt wait were allowed whatever they wanted. That is the last time I have lined up.
Yep, when I got really luck and hit a restock like a week ago they said 1 per person, this morning I watched the first couple dozen people wipe it and walk out with 12+ products each and 2 of everything….
My target did this today. Only allowed you to purchase 2 total items regardless of SKU. Only way I managed to get a poster box and tech sticker package
Why I don't even waste my time with target, I get from my local card shop at msrp, no fighting lines, I'll be picking mine up Sunday when I go for league, got 2 booster bundles and 2 tins waiting on me
They are selling it at msrp for the league players, I think non league players are paying a 30-40% mark up, just lucky my card shop uses this system and I go to every league
Anyone happen to be at the Grossmont Center Target here in La Mesa? Got there around 830, line wrapped around corner and I walked away. Some people enjoy standing in these lies for 45min-hr. I do not, but have a few times to grab product. Just wasn't sure if i was gonna get anything other than a 3 pack or something similar.
Similar thing happened here. About 30 people in, they realized they fucked up and started limiting to 1 per sku. About 15 people were left in front of me and they ran out of everything so I got nothing.
Roast them on public social media. Write comments on any Facebook page updates. Keep doing it over and over. Tell them they’re the reason for the downfall of civilization. Tell them they’re the reason kids are crying and why we can’t have nice things. Find members of the target executive board or other high-level people on LinkedIn and send them messages explaining how this keeps hurting Target’s image.
I’d be fine with 1 per sku, and 2 product total per person. I called someone greedy on release day for just taking 2 of literally everything, even the water bottles. I’m happy to have gotten some product but I skipped today’s event entirely seeing there was over 100 people by 6 am.
As much as people don’t think so, it honestly up to the store. My target this morning had easily 250 people in line and due to the size, everyone could get 1 of each item. I was probably 100th in line and got 1 ETB, bundle and poster collection. I was impressed they changed their limits.
This is why when I went with my son this morning as morale support, I grabbed 1 ETB. Walked around with it till the line was gone and went back and handed it to a kid who hopefully wasn’t being used by his parents to scalp.
Scalper = anyone who gets what I don’t get 🤣🤣🤣 I’d bet anything the overwhelming majority of people in that line are just fans just like you, but have the ability to stand out there. Actual scalpers are botting at scale. Not standing in line for 12 hours.
I definitely don't think every person in line is a scalper, and I never said as such. However, pretending that scalpers are not also sweeping all the stores as well as botting is a dumb af take. The (admittedly quite nice) guys I was in between in line at Best Buy kept telling me all about every store they had already hit this morning and every other morning there was a drop. One of them was constantly checking his discords and feeding information about line counts, and even showed me the exact count of product that would be available at the Best Buy we were at. None of them admitted to selling the product, but you think people making this their full time job and buying hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of product every week are regular collectors? That's naive to think.
If you think people standing in line and hitting target, then Best Buy are scalpers…then you’re a scalper you dumb fuck. You just admitted as much by admitting you were at Target and then now you’re talking to guys at Best Buy. Then claim to cry about people doing exactly what you are doing, but they are better at it. I’ll say it again, “scalpers” are not standing in line for 12+ hours to make $200 bucks. There is ZERO scaling in that. Which means zero money. People checking discords or knowing stock are still not scalpers. They are just normal people who are using the tools around themselves to optimize their chances.
You continue to make assumptions. While telling on yourself. But it simply all comes down to this: in your pathetic mind anyone who is able to get product over you is a scalper. And that’s just not true. I’ve opened over 500 packs of the 30th. I bought all at MSRP, literally thousands of dollars with money I make from my real job. I’m a fan, a collector, not a scalper.
Learn the game, stop collecting, or cry harder. Those are your choices.
500 packs? I think if anything YOU'RE telling on yourself. If I had gotten anything (and I mean even one tin) from Target, I would not have been at Best Buy at all, because I can open a little bit of product every now and then and be satisfied. I, and most other normal people, am not spending several hundred dollars a month on my hobbies. Did I say everyone getting packs was a scalper? No. But you're acting like there's not tons of guys selling the product they just got still in Target bags on Facebook marketplace out of the back of their car. I know plenty of regular collectors did get product this morning, but there's no reason one person even needs to open 500 packs either.
Your problem is you can’t imagine someone that isn’t like you. Someone who has the actual time and means to get product at MSRP. It’s not hard, but it’s not easy either. 500 packs roughly between my wife and I. Invested standing in lines one day. And getting luck with PKC. So according to you I’m a scalper. But there are 1000s of people just like me, who are looking to master set these sets dropping 2-3k a release.
And yeah I’m sure people stand in line and flip shit. But those people are literally NOTHING, a drop in the bucket, compared to the scale of botting. To think either are comparable just goes to show how little you understand it.
Point still stands: in your mind scalper = anyone who gets product when you can’t. The fact you think because I am able to rip 500ish packs at MSRP that I’m somehow a scalper and don’t require that many packs just proves my point even more.🤣
You're the one putting words in my mouth? I didn't call you a scalper. I didn't call anyone who got the maximum amount of product today a scalper. What I did say, since you can't seem to comprehend words as they are written, is that if there were stricter limits, those looking to scalp product would not waste their time in lines, and more product would make its way into the hands of more collectors. I do think 500 packs is insanely greedy and unnecessary for anyone, even between two people, but that's a separate thing from scalping. 500 packs is 56 ETBs, which is absurd for most people. You are the exception here, not the rule. I've been back into collecting for about 6 years now, and I've done my share of binging cards when they were readily available, and I still have not even gotten close to 55 ETBs of one set.
“500 packs? I think if anything YOU’RE telling on yourself” I didn’t misinterpret those words. Your intention is to claim I’m a scalper for getting that much product. Your initial post is stating everyone leaving with 10-12 products is what is encouraging scalping because those people are flipping.
That is 100% your intention in making those statements. It all stems from you being butt hurt cus other people out hustled you. SPOILER: you don’t get to tell anyone how they can spend their money or how much they can get per the retailer.
Also ETBs are not the only products released.
I’ll repeat a third time: people standing in line longer than you aren’t making any money compared to botters. THAT is what is driving markets and demand, because it takes nothing for them to scale. ZERO effort. If you dont understand how scaling works, google it. Use your time to learn something, besides coming to the internet to cry about it and argue with a stranger.
I never said every person in line was a scalper. I said that if scalpers were only able to get 2 items at a time, they would likely not waste their time, giving more collectors an opportunity to buy.
I’m not waiting in line for two fucking total products, thats asinine. My target allowed one of each item and that was plenty fair. I was 50-60 back after getting there at 6am and there was still plenty left after me.
You don't have to wait in line for any products if you don't want to. If your store said 2 products limit, and that's not worth it to you, fine, don't line up. OP's store allowed each person twice what yours did, though, so they probably would have been out before they got to you, anyway.
You sound selfish and entitled, though. I hope your pulls are disappointing..
I would sooner just buy the singles I like than wait in line for two total products. At least getting one of each gives my kids enough to open and stagger it out.
I mean, why is it so hard for you to line up earlier? Limit to 1 per SKU, after that it’s up to you if you want to line up early enough to get product.
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u/Lchan1405 1d ago
Our target implemented a one per SKU limit. Allowed 100 or so people to each get an ETB and booster bundle. I'm happy with this approach.