A new Pokemon Center opened in Taipei recently and scalpers who queued overnight are already selling lottery tickets and promos for wild profits.
The new Pokemon Center in Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Mall, Taipei, opened its doors to fans on December 8, and eager Pokemon collectors have been attempting to visit the store and grab the newly revealed Pikachu promo card.
The Pokemon Center held a ticketed lottery to give fans a chance at buying the new promo Pikachu card, and both fans and scalpers queued overnight – despite being told they couldn’t – in the hopes of bagging even just the elusive lottery tickets.
Unsurprisingly, both the cards and even the lottery tickets quickly appeared for sale online, with wildly inflated prices. “There should be a special place in hell for Pokemon Center Taipei scalpers,” said one tweeter, EmberWolfstar, speaking of the campers and lottery scalpers.
Pokemon Center Taipei Scalpers sold lottery tickets and Pikachu Promo cards
There should be a special place in hell for Pokémon center Taipei scalpers, selling the tickets for 100USD. You have to get there before 8 AM to possibly get a ticket just to go shopping. (Store opens after 11AM)I was looking forward to getting at least one new Eevee.
— EmberWolf 🍉 🏳️⚧️ (@EmberWolfstar) December 11, 2023
These lottery tickets only get buyers a chance to win, and at $100 an entry, the price is extortionate. It’s nearly on par with the prices that scalpers are selling promotional cards for.
Some fans on Reddit like u/Zelobot are warning others not to fall for what they call the ‘foreigner FOMO (fear of missing out)’, saying that although the promotional Pikachu with a berry bag card is currently selling for “$80-100” the prices will “quickly come down”.
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“Most Japanese Pikachu promos with this type of stamp go for $50+,” said Musa_2050.
The queues for the cards and lottery tickets were so big that customers who lined up early couldn’t get in, as RTI Taiwan reports, some fans had been “sleeping on the grounds outside the venue.”.
One mother tried to comfort her “disappointed daughter” who couldn’t get in by telling her they would get there at 6 am the next morning, but her daughter told her 6 am was “too late” and that they should “line up at dawn”.
Once again, promotional Pokemon cards are subject to scalping, and it’s an issue not likely to disappear anytime soon. However, this isn’t quite on par with the mania of the Van Gogh Museum, and hopefully, The Pokemon Company is paying attention to these issues.