Pokemon TCG players mass report scalpers after Journey Together instantly sells out
The Pokemon CompanyPokemon Trading Card Game fans are mass-reporting scalpers trying to flip Journey Together sets after the cards went up for pre-order and were cleared out.
Journey Together is a Pokemon TCG set based on the Japanese Battle Partners expansion. It will feature Trainer’s Pokemon cards, meaning human characters will be prominently featured, which is already exciting speculators about the value of the set.
Journey Together launches on March 28, but pre-orders for Elite Trainer Boxes went up on January 9. Scalpers quickly crashed the Pokemon Center website in the rush to nab boxes as soon as they became available, putting them straight up on eBay for inflated prices.
The problem with this tactic is eBay’s TOS states that items can’t be put up for pre-sale if they can’t be shipped for over 40 days. Seeing as March 28 is beyond that limit, users on the PokemonTCG Reddit have been reporting the scalpers and getting their sales taken down.
Journey Together scalpers are being reported for breaking TOS
The reports didn’t take long to bear fruit, as other users demonstrated evidence of Journey Together sales being taken down.
Obviously, this tactic won’t work forever, as the date will eventually fall into the forty-day grace period for pre-sales. However, it stalls the ability to make quick sales at higher prices when people are desperate to get hold of packs and boxes.
It’s not surprising to see this kind of behavior with Pokemon TCG packs, considering the Prismatic Evolutions set is facing similar shortages due to people buying out packs for resale as soon as they become available.
The only way to curb scalping is never to buy Pokemon TCG packs from second-hand reseller sites. Journey Together proved that Elite Trainer Boxes will vanish in seconds, but physical units will still be available in stores, and other methods are available to acquire individual cards and packs.
In the meantime, fans can satiate their hunger for new cards, like Hop’s Wooloo, by reporting scalpers online.