Videos Show Chaos at Costco Over Pokemon Cards

Summary

Pokemon TCG cards are highly valued, leading to desperate acts like store brawls and thefts.
Both large retailers like Costco and small specialty shops are struggling to control the chaos.
Without a solution in sight, the Pokemon TCG crime wave shows no signs of slowing down.

Trying to get the latest Pokemon TCG cards has become even more chaotic, with videos showing brawls breaking out at Costco, and thieves becoming extremely brazen when targeting card shops. It’s an unfortunate turn for the Pokemon TCG series, which has been seeing more and more crime attached to the acquisition of its cards.

Buying and reselling Pokemon cards is big business these days. While extremely limited cards like the Pikachu Illustrator can potentially sell for millions on auction, even the more recent cards are subject to being sold online for hundreds or thousands of dollars. As a result, Pokemon cards fly off shelves. With Pokemon TCG‘s Blooming Waters set appearing early in some stores, it seems they’ve inspired a few fists to fly, as well.

Pokemon TCG Fan Shows Off Incredible Butterfree Illustration

An artistically talented Pokemon TCG fan is being lauded for their unique Butterfree card design with a distinctive art style.

New videos have emerged on the internet of Costco getting swarmed by Pokemon TCG buyers. One video shows people stampeding into the store, similar to what one might have seen on a classic Black Friday sale. Another shows a Pokemon-related fight breaking out between two men over a set of cards a man in a hat apparently snatched from a man wearing a green jacket. Another video shows the same hatted man aggressively shoving people out of his way to try and get to the cards, and he then went on to elbow the man in the jacket in the face in an attempt to get away from him.

Pokemon TCG Retailers Big and Small Aren’t Immune

Unfortunately, big stores like Costco aren’t the only ones dealing with this. Smaller specialty shops have also been subject to aggressive customers and thievery. One fan recently shared an image from a store’s shop that had been crashed into by a Suburban. The person or people in the car reportedly stole Pokemon TCG sets before escaping. It’s far from the first time thieves have targeted a store for Pokemon cards, and probably won’t be the last.

Sadly, this problem seems to be getting worse, and there’s no real known solution for it. Locking up the cards won’t help if thieves are willing to go so far as to break into warehouses to steal Pokemon cards and destroy anything in their way to get to them. Since the cards have no individual identifiers that would help to track down stolen cards, like a serial number, it’s also practically impossible for customers to know if the sets they’re buying from a reseller are stolen goods. Unless Pokemon cards start to plummet in value, it’s likely these problems will continue.

Pokemon TCG

Pokemon TCG (Trading Card Game) is a collectible and strategy based card game based on Nintendo’s Pokemon franchise. Two players face off against one another, battling one Pokemon at a time and attempting to knock them out to claim one of six prize cards. The cards have also become highly collectible with some in particular selling for thousands of dollars.