Anyone who has tried to buy Pokemon cards lately will likely have noticed that they’re sold out everywhere. It’s practically impossible to get a Pokemon: Trading Card Game booster pack these days, which is effectively blocking many from playing. Fans are wondering what’s causing this trend of Pokemon cards being out of stock.
Why are Pokemon cards sold out everywhere?
Pokemon TCG cards have always been a hot item, but recently it’s become impossible to buy them at retail locations. They’ve also become incredibly expensive to purchase second-hand on eBay (even common rarity cards). The game has seen spikes of popularity over the years, but nothing like this.
There are two related reasons that Pokemon cards are hard to buy at retail prices right now. The first is streamers. All it takes is a brief look at YouTube and Twitch to see that card-opening videos have become incredibly popular. Some of the biggest influencers have made multiple Pokemon card pulling videos. This has caused a major surge in enthusiasm and led to them flying off the shelves as soon as they’re stocked.
Of course, whenever there’s anything popular, scalpers have to start slithering out of their slimy holes to suck the fun out of everything. Pokemon cards are popular, so often, scalpers are camping out to buy them up ASAP to sell on eBay. Since there’s so much demand, it doesn’t take much for scalpers to create artificial scarcity by buying up all the Pokemon cards they can and trickling their stock out on eBay.
For Pokemon card enthusiasts, the only solution to this issue is to wait out the storm. While the early releases will likely continue to command outrageous prices, more recent and new sets should eventually come down in price. Another fad will hit, and many people will move on. It’s all just a matter of time.
