Pokémon cards. If it ain’t a story about sudden acts of intimidation and threats of violence over them, then it’s probably one about scalpers and reselling. Thankfully, no one got hurt (physically) this time as the Mega Evolution Phantasmal Flames Elite Trainer Box (ETB), Booster Display Box, and Booster Bundle all sold out during their pre-order sale yesterday, with significant amounts of them going to folks who have no interest in actually using them to play the game. And they went fast. Some fans were lucky enough to still get through and lay claim to sets of their own, but the sting of seeing exorbitant listings on reselling sites still sucks.
Expected to arrive on November 14, 2025, pre-orders for the latest Pokémon card game expansion went up yesterday, September 15, 2025, and, predictably, were sold out within 15 minutes (h/t The Gamer). And no, these very pretty-looking cards will not be finding homes with eager fans hoping to add them to their collections. Sadly, scalpers have filled eBay with pre-order listings for the new cards. Some are set at around normal prices, but a significant number of these listings are selling the cards for five times the retail price, hovering around $300, if not more in some cases.
Scalpers didn’t soak up all the fun, however. On social media, many are celebrating a win with screenshots of successful pre-orders of the new cards. That said, others ran into queue issues, getting bounced after only waiting for a short time, or in some cases, making it to checkout, only to be bounced back in line. Others who made it to checkout were greeted by a mysterious “Error 17” that then sent them back into the queue. Others hopelessly suffered as they got bounced around in line after multiple captcha checks to validate whether they were human or not.
Adorned with a healthy splash of color, clearly the new Mega Charizard X ex is one of the main appeals of the new cards, along with Mega Gengar. I’m also really digging the moody, dark card sleeves. Shame that so few people will be buying them at normal prices any time soon.
