26/09/2026
Lets talk Pokémon. Important to customers buying from our store.
Despite our best efforts to try and hold off scalpers for Pokémon releases at the store. They are still finding ways around the limits and such we put in place.
We have been plagued with people bringing family members, friends, etc, to get extra product and bypass the limits in place. They pretend not to be together so that we have no clue, but then we see them outside/leaving together, handing over the products. Or people are now seeing if a different member of staff is on and buying again if there is. We have also been swamped by people not even living nowhere near the store as word got around we had stock coming in.
We've also have become the store to visit for people reselling packs on Whatnot and TikTok live streams. As they don't even care if we rip seals for rrp prices. As they just want the packs inside for selling on their streams. We even called out one streamer when they visited, who was apparently buying for his kids. Until we mentioned his streams. Then the attitude changed to how hard it was to get stock with no distributor.
Our first wave of Pokémon 30th went so fast we didn't even post it on the page. As soon as our delivery showed and boxes were seen. People came from everywhere and it went fast. We have seen people paying over £34 for two 30th boosters on streams online. This is bonkers.
We are expecting more 30th stock very soon. Two more waves are expected, so quite a bit.
So what's the solution to scalpers and resellers? I don't think right now there is any great way to stop them while people keep buying from them.
Even we will now not be taking in sealed product from people once our products we have left are gone. We took so much heat for doing this as then people didn't like the prices we had to put them on to make a profit. We even got bad reviews just about this. It does however mean we may now have less stock available overall. We will rethink this in the future should we need to.
Having said that we want to trial a new way for our store to handle Pokémon. Now I know it wont be popular with everybody. Change never is. But for us we felt it may help with the issues above. So we are going to be taking a leaf out of Japan's book.
Many Stores in Japan now require a valid Japanese I.D to purchase Pokémon. This then tracks who has bought, from where, and how much.
Purchasing from us for new releases will now require, an account on the stores website. This must be made at least 3 weeks prior to a new release. This will require you to add your name, address etc to make the account. When you come to purchase a new release you will need a valid form of photo I.D (Driving license/ or Passport with a matching utility bill for the address) that matches your address on the system. We will then be able to see your account, any purchases of stock you have made, and any other accounts registered at that address. Meaning it will be far harder for people to bypass limits, trick staff and not stick to the per household rule. We will still offer sealed and unsealed pricing as we have always done for new releases to also help combat this more. We will also only be selling to customers that live within a 20 mile radius of the store unless we know them as a regular who have supported the store for years.
As 30th is already in release we will be allowing purchases of this from newer accounts bypassing the 3 week rule for this release only. Deleting your account and making a new one does not delete your purchase history so that wont be a get around for people either.
This change was discussed with many of our regulars and none had an issue, and see it as a positive to help keep more stock local and in the hands of collectors. It does mean release days may be a bit slower for service but we will do our best to be as fast as possible.
We expect a very small restock of 30th on Friday 2nd where we will be using the new rules.
**Update - make sure you add your details including address on the account made or you will not be classed as a valid account for purchases**
