The Pokemon Company has issued an apology after its Van Gogh Museum collaboration product line completely sold out, largely due to scalpers.
Not long ago, The Pokemon Company revealed a collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum was in the works, featuring a special exhibit and themed products.
Unfortunately, the Van Gogh Museum was beset by scalpers. Flocks of people rushed to the Van Gogh Museum’s gift shop to snatch up any and all products available.
Now, The Pokemon Company has issued an official apology to fans hoping to procure merch for themselves, and revealed all of the products from the collection have sold out.
Pokemon issues apology as scalpers buy all Van Gogh collab merch
On September 29, 2023, Pokemon’s official Twitter/X account issued the following statement:
“We apologize to all the fans eagerly awaiting our Pokémon Center x Van Gogh Museum release today.”
The message continued and said, “Due to overwhelming demand, all our products from this collection have sold out. We understand this is disappointing to many who were looking to our official email and social media channels for guidance on how and when to purchase.”
We apologize to all the fans eagerly awaiting our Pokémon Center x Van Gogh Museum release today.Due to overwhelming demand, all our products from this collection have sold out. We understand this is disappointing to many who were looking to our official email and social media… pic.twitter.com/KM3ZCO1EQZ
— Pokémon (@Pokemon) September 29, 2023
Unfortunately, it seems that many of the products featured in the Van Gogh collab, such as the “Sunflora inspired by Sunflowers” painting are sold out completely. However, it seems Pokemon is still trying to restock one specific product.
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“We are actively working on ways to provide more ‘Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat’ promo cards for fans shopping at Pokémon Center in the future. Details will be released at a later date.”
The company closed a statement thanking fans for their understanding and support.
Still, this statement didn’t stop many fans from feeling disappointed in the overall outcome, with many blaming The Pokemon Company for not stocking enough products to meet demand.
“It is insane that a company with so much money and so many willing customers won’t produce enough product to even try to meet demand,” said one user, and offered ways to avoid situations like this in the future
It is insane that a company with so much money and so many willing customers won't produce enough product to even try to meet demand.If you want to promote the Van Gogh x Pokémon Center collaboration, make these products to order for a certain period of time. Limit items to 1…
— Pokemon Deals & News! (@PokemonDealsTCG) September 29, 2023
Others instead aimed their frustrations at the scalpers and bots that plagued the collab. In regards to scalping, Serebii.net’s Joe Merrick said, “I can just see this whole scenario resulting in us not getting cool collaborations again in the future, and certainly not any with any TCG Promo card. That seems to be what sets off these people. They don’t care about Pokémon. They don’t care about the community.
I can just see this whole scenario resulting in us not getting cool collaborations again in the future, and certainly not any with any TCG Promo card. That seems to be what sets off these people. They don't care about Pokémon. They don't care about the community.
— Joe Merrick (@JoeMerrick) September 29, 2023
Hopefully, The Pokemon Company takes precautions against scalpers when hosting collabs like this in the future.