If causing chaos and nearly destroying a hobby for Pokémon card game fans wasn't enough for scalpers, they are now targeting video games as well.
A shiny Miraidon and Koraidon giveaway for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is set to start on Sept. 26 in select stores in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand via physical serial codes. Some fans are already reporting that store owners and employees are giving these codes away early and in large amounts to people who visit their stores, clearing stocks of 50 codes before the event even started.
Special Pokémon code distributions are usually limited to only one or two per store visitor so that more players can participate in the event.
But instead, players are reporting that local GameStop stores are already giving the shiny Miraidon and Koraidon codes away to people who have asked for them early. In one case, a fan reports their local GameStop has already run out of codes on Thursday, one day before the actual distribution was supposed to start.
The issue is not only that real fans waiting for the event start date have fewer chances of getting these Pokémon, which are exclusive to the event and unobtainable in other ways.. The issue is that whoever is getting these codes in bulk is actually trying to profit from them.
These Pokémon codes, which are free at stores, are already listed on eBay from $29 to $42 a unit. Each code unlocks either shiny Koraidoin or Miraidon, depending on your game version. If you want both legendaries and can't get your hands on two free codes, you might have to pay up to $84 in the secondary market.
This scalping phenomenon has been happening in the Pokémon TCG scene for a couple of years. Since the COVID pandemic ended, it became a common problem for TCG fans, to the point where giveaways of special promotional cards, like the Van Gogh Pikachu, had to be halted shortly before they started.
The Pokémon Company is also dealing with online scalping, where scalpers use bots to buy TCG products in bulk to clear stocks and resell the products at double the price later. Retailers run out of Pokémon TCG products shortly after they're released, turning scalpers into the only suppliers with products often at 200% the MSRP. At the time of writing, the only Pokémon TCG product that includes cards that are not sold out at the company's official store, Pokémon Center, is the Battle Academy set because it has cards with low aftermarket value.
The card collecting that used to be a kid-friendly hobby has now become a kind of investment, as seen in the r/PokeInvesting subreddit, where cards are treated like products in the stock market. Casual fans are wishing that new Pokémon collabs don't feature promotional cards for fear of scalpers ruining them.
While the practice of selling limited Pokémon video game codes has been around for a while, it becomes a problem when people get these codes in bulk and limit access to them by legit fans. If people are hoarding these codes just to sell them later, they are ruining the experience that the Pokémon Company has set up for real players.
It's unclear at this point how many shiny Miraidon and Koraidon codes will be given away and how big the scalping problem with these codes is. Destructoid has reached out to the Pokémon Company to learn more about the subject.
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