I think the saddest thing about Pokemon card mania is that scalpers are essentially the team rocket of the real world and they won

dev / collector / chef / ex-Twitter

chemical engineer in a previous life

thing #5 at @clanker

Idk imo usually scalpers are just responding to a supply problem, essentially arbitrage traders helping the market be more efficient and find the accurate price.

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My son has been getting into it so the other week we were at a Mall and there was a vending machine that was stocked, but packs were $10-$15. 

I didn't know what the going rate for a booster pack was and it was a special occasion so I bought him two. 

Then we were at a game store in the same mall and they had 6 packs left which is when I found out they usually go for $6/pack and the guy said he'd be sold out in hours.

To me that says if they were either priced higher or there was a greater supply, scalping wouldn't be profitable, regardless of the reason people are buying them.

it’s a funky supply problem

Some folks go as far as getting hired at Walmart/target etc and share info on when shipments come in

I haven’t seen a box of pokemon or yugioh cards in a store in almost 4 years 

that said there is a demand for card content, and I’m not sure I or a little kid would be supplying as it would just sit on a shelf somewhere in both cases 

similar to how there wouldn’t be traffic if people didn’t cut ahead forcing people to break, which makes traffic which makes folks need to cut