Prismatic Evolutions Is The Pokemon TCG Community At Its Worst

The Pokemon TCG’s new expansion should have been an exciting time. Prismatic Evolutions focuses on Eevee and its ever-popular family of Eeveelutions, with a special set full of gorgeous art and sought-after cards.

But, once again, the community has turned the whole expansion into a farce. Scalping, burglaries, and hoarding have made Prismatic Evolutions the latest in a long line of embarrassments for the game, and the Pokemon Company keeps on stoking the flames.

One of my local stores has been broken into multiple times in the run-up to Prismatic Evolutions. Each time its Pokemon stock has been swiped, leaving it down thousands of pounds and with a hefty bill for replacing the smashed-in shopfront – a sad story that’s doomed to repeat itself.

Take one look on the Pokemon TCG Reddit and you’ll see countless posts complaining about scalpers hoarding hundreds of Elite Trainer Boxes, or stores charging two or three times the retail price. More shops being broken into, leading to shady Facebook listings for those eager to get their hands on any of the cards.

This Keeps Happening

The defining reason for such brainless behaviour surrounding Prismatic Evolutions is one card: Umbreon ex. Umbreon was one of the most valuable cards of the Sword & Shield era (colloquially known as Moonbreon), so speculators and ‘Pokeinvestors’ are vacuuming up as much Prismatic Evolutions as they can in the hopes that lightning strikes twice and they can pull the sought after card.

It’s not like we haven’t seen this before. Late 2023 saw the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam prematurely end its partnership with Pokemon, over concerns for staff and visitor safety as collectors descended hoping to get their picture of a Pikachu wearing a grey felt hat.

151, Celebrations, and Evolving Skies all sparked concerns for stores due to customer behaviour, with Target suspending sales in 2021. Even McDonald’s has felt the impact of Pokemon collectors, with it having to issue guidance to its restaurants to deal with aggressive customers and huge amounts of food waste with its Happy Meal promotions.

Every single time the Pokemon TCG does something even remotely exciting, the community loses its mind and acts like animals. Other TCGs don’t have this level of nonsense – it doesn’t happen in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Lorcana, or even Magic: The Gathering, which has more players and sells more than Pokemon. Anyone who tries to no-true-Scotsman it and argues these people aren’t the ‘real’ community, that they’re just hoping to make a profit, is willfully ignoring years of chaos surrounding the TCG.

Stop Buying In To FOMO

Of course there are bad actors hoping to inflate the market. You can go on Whatnot and see them peddling pack rips, or wearing their cards around their necks. They have no emotional involvement in the game, but to argue they’re not part of the community and therefore not your problem is just wading right into the muck those grifters leave behind.

There needs to be a cultural shift across the community towards not valuing these cards so highly, both financially and in terms of FOMO. If you bought multiple ETBs above MSRP, bought more than your fair share, or caved and went to a scalper, you’re part of the problem. You may not have been the one buying hundreds of cases, but by not giving them the finger and just missing out on Prismatic Evolutions, you’re propping them up to do it for the next promo or next special set.

I’m angry about Prismatic Evolutions. I’m angry that it’s led to community spaces for other games, like my local shop, to be closed for days at a time. I’m angry that we didn’t learn from the Van Gogh Pikachu, 151, or the countless times this has happened before it. I’m angry that it’s going to happen again because the community has accepted that this is just part and parcel of Pokemon collecting.

It sounds harsh or even hypocritical when pre-launch hype is a normal part of other TCGs, but, again, this is a uniquely Pokemon problem that has been putting businesses and the individuals who work to supply the game to fans at risk for years. Somebody is winning from this mess of a situation, but it isn’t the stores, it isn’t the casual collectors, and it certainly isn’t those who actually play the game.

You can live without your shiny Umbreon card, I promise. In fact, for the long-term health of Pokemon and the trading card game space, it might be better if you do.

Pokemon TCG

Collected by children and adults alike for more than two decades, the Pokemon TCG contains thousands of cards of your favorite Pokemon, trainers, and more. 

Original Release Date

October 20, 1996

Player Count

2

Age Recommendation

6+

Length per Game

Variable

Franchise Name

Pokemon

Publishing Co

The Pokemon Company

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