"It's now almost impossible to get your hands on newly released cards thanks to an insane rise in reselling and scalping over the past year. Selling on your old cards to collectors has always been part of the hobby, and like baseball cards or Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon cards can sometimes go for thousands of pounds. However, the resale market for Pokemon has climbed so high that even new cards are valued at hundreds, before they've even been released."
"When a pack of cards retails at about 4, there's a huge potential profit to be had. This has led to a speculative stock market developing around the card game with adults snapping up all of the cards they can get their hands on, making it impossible for kids, who may actually want to collect them or play the game associated with the cards, to get their hands on it."
Pokémon card availability has collapsed because resellers and scalpers are buying vast quantities of newly released packs for profit. Secondary-market prices have skyrocketed, with rare cards and even sealed new releases being valued at hundreds or thousands of pounds before public availability. Retail packs that cost about £4 present huge arbitrage opportunities, encouraging speculative buying and hoarding by adults. Physical stores face queues, shelf-blocking and hostile customers; some incidents include attacks and robberies. Online retailers use opaque raffles to allocate stock. The scarcity prevents children who want to collect or play from accessing cards, and incentivizes sealed resales rather than hobby use.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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