Before I begin, this story isn’t intended to be a slight on the London Card Show — the event itself was great. There were plenty of wonderful vendors, a great sense of community, and it all ran like a well-oiled machine thanks to the work of the show’s founder, Harry Reynolds, and his team. But oh boy, the scalpers were there in force.
Related
UK Retailer Game Accused Of Scalping Prismatic Evolutions Tins By Its Own Staff
The store is charging four times its regular price for postage on the mini tins.
If you’ve followed my coverage of the Pokemon TCG recently, you’ll know the collectible card game is in a bad place. Individual cards are skyrocketing in price, and sealed products are becoming increasingly difficult to get hold of, with scalpers and flippers buying as much stock as they feasibly can and reselling it at far higher prices. This event, unfortunately, epitomized that.
The Prismatic Evolutions Problem
Despite collecting the Pokemon TCG on and off for my whole life, this was the first card show I’d ever been to. I didn’t know what to expect, but as soon as I stepped into the hall, I felt the excitement. Collectors had their trades, stallholders had their wares, and there was a genuinely good feel about the place. It didn’t take long for me to start noticing the cracks, though.
It’s no secret that the launch of Prismatic Evolutions has been an unmitigated disaster. Before the expansion had even launched, people were scalping exclusive promo cards for obscene amounts of money, and even now, products are extremely hard to come by. This was reflected on the London Card Show floor.
For every genuine Pokemon trader who was there selling an assortment of cards, there was another selling Prismatic Evolutions at a markup.
As I started to make my first loop of the venue, I noticed a stall selling Elite Trainer Boxes for £90. I then noticed another at the same price and a third selling them for £100. The gouging became inescapable.
For every genuine Pokemon trader who was there selling an assortment of cards, there was another selling Prismatic Evolutions at a markup. It wasn’t just the Elite Trainer Boxes, either. Poster Collections, which retail for £14.99, were being sold for £30 or more, and Binder Collections, which have an RRP of £34.99, were going for £70 plus. Some stalls had even broken down products and were selling individual packs for £10.
It’s a damning indictment of where the TCG is at the moment. There are so many opportunists using it to make a quick buck, and in the process, making it impossible for the average collector to enjoy the hobby.
Another expansion that has been under the spotlight for similar reasons is Scarlet and Violet 151. It’s a little older than Prismatic Evolutions, releasing in 2023, but it’s faced the same fate and is arguably the reason for the current Pokemon bubble.
It’s a set focused around the original 151 Pokemon and is driven by nostalgia. Over recent months, it has been scalped to high heaven. There have been videos from Costco of people physically fighting over the latest release and others of people grabbing boxes upon boxes of the product. This seeped into London Card Show.
There was definitely no fighting, but there were people there who had clearly bought more than their fair share, selling their stock off for prices even Team Rocket would disapprove of.
The most egregious example I saw was one vendor who was trying to sell a sealed case of Mini Tins for £1,500, alongside Booster Bundles for £90.
These tins tend to retail at £8.99 or £9.99. Each case contains 10 tins, so you’re looking at a value of, at most, £99.99. They were attempting to sell it for 15 times that.
The Deafening Silence
Over the course of the event, I approached three different vendors to ask them a few questions: Why were they selling products at such an increased price? Did they get them from an official supplier, or were they taken away from other prospective buyers? Did they think what they were doing was harmful to the hobby?
All three, unsurprisingly, pleaded the fifth, and their silence was deafening. It was pretty clear these folks had no interest in maintaining a fair and healthy environment for the Pokemon Trading Card Game and instead were simply in it for their own profit.
I never get tired of charging idiots too much for cardboard.
The mindset of these people was perhaps encapsulated by a single line I heard one vendor mutter to another late into the second day of the event: “I never get tired of charging idiots too much for cardboard.” There’s so much to unpack from that single gross line. They know they’re overcharging for what they’re selling, and they see us, the collectors, as idiots who are simply there to swindle.
The argument has been made to me that this is the “market value,” and therefore, the vendors are only adhering to what others are charging, but this just wouldn’t be the case if the products were left on the shelf for collectors to buy.
It Wasn’t All Bad, Though
Although I was somewhat frustrated with the prices of sealed products at the event, overall, I had a really good time.
Yes, there was a portion of vendors, probably around 40 percent, selling products at massively inflated prices, but the rest seemed to have a genuine love of the hobby. I was able to walk up to stalls and have conversations about cards, and they were more than willing to work out trade deals for those I wanted.
I came away having only spent around £100, filling dozens of gaps in my binders and grabbing a couple of chase cards to boot. Don’t let this deter you from future events; just give these scalpers a wide berth.
Pokemon TCG
- Original Release Date
-
October 20, 1996
- Player Count
-
2
- Age Recommendation
-
6+
- Length per Game
-
Variable
- Franchise Name
-
Pokemon