It’s strange times in the United States right now as both the Verge and Bleeding Cool are reporting stores are suspending trading card sales.
It’s not a contamination problem, not a ban designed to reduce the transfer of biological material as we battle against a stubborn pandemic. The problem is scalpers.
Demand is high, friendly local gaming stores are not open, and logistics are in a mess. The big stores of Wal-Mart and Target have trading cards, and so people are going in, buying in bulk and reselling for profit.
There are even reports of weapons drawn in a parking lot in Wisconsin in a row over sports trading cards.
Alan Johnson, a director of Influencer Relations at Warner Bros games, has a tweet that shows Target banning Pokemon due to safety issues.
While the big stores may have been bottlenecking cards on the shelf, restricting their numbers to stop bulk buying, the cards are still available online.
Target has plenty of Pokemon cards online including the Sword & Shields Battle Style Booster box for nearly $200.
Photograph credit: Daniel ODonnel.
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