On pretty much any Pokemon Center drop, thousands of people sit in the website’s virtual queue for hours while limited products disappear. Shortly after, those same Pokémon Center Exclusive ETBs were listed on eBay and TCGplayer at multiples of MSRP. This pattern has repeated for years.

While the current combination of virtual queues, CAPTCHAs, and aggressive anti-bot rules creates friction for the botters, it still doesn’t stop them from winning and causes more friction for regular collectors while sophisticated setups continue to succeed. Without a major overhaul in how drops are allocated to buyers, nothing will change as it will be a perpetual arms race against the botters as they adapt and continue to find ways to bypass detection.

There is a practical and simple technical improvement that would meaningfully raise the difficulty and cost of large-scale botting:

Require purchases through a native Pokémon Center app, with biometric confirmation (Face ID / Touch ID) or device passcode required at checkout.

This uses technology already built into modern phones. Apple and Google provide the necessary frameworks. When paired with proper device attestation, it forces high-volume operators toward physical device farms or fragile workarounds instead of cheap, scalable server-side scripts.

Cost reality for the business

Industry figures for building a solid retail/e-commerce mobile app with catalog, cart, checkout, accounts, and biometric authentication typically fall in these ranges:

• Mid-level / full-featured cross-platform app: roughly $50,000–$150,000
• Higher-quality native iOS + Android build with stronger security and integrations: often $80,000–$250,000+

Native biometric authentication itself is a relatively small incremental cost when using the platform APIs. Even at the higher end (including device attestation, backend validation, testing, and a maintenance buffer), this is a modest expense relative to the scale of the Pokémon franchise. Ongoing yearly maintenance is commonly estimated at 15–20% of the initial build.

If needed, a modest MSRP adjustment on limited products could cover it. Most collectors would willingly accept a small increase in price far more readily than continuing to pay exorbitant secondary-market prices to get a hold of products from this franchise we love so much.

Secondary market context

Popular Pokémon Center exclusives frequently trade at 2–4× MSRP shortly after drops, and highly sought items regularly reach 5× or higher. Us paying a bit more at retail to reduce bot advantage is a better outcome for the majority of fans than the current situation.

Audience fit

The active collecting audience for Pokémon TCG and merchandise skews young — largely Gen Z and millennials. Average TCG player age figures commonly land in the late 20s, with strong representation under 35. Online collector communities skew even younger. This demographic already carries smartphones with biometric authentication as a normal part of daily life. Requiring it at checkout would not create a meaningful barrier for most genuine buyers.

Important reality check

Even with this change, popular exclusives and major drops would still sell out. Demand is extremely high. The goal is not infinite stock — it is giving regular collectors a fairer chance instead of watching the same groups repeatedly clear limited inventory.

Japan has already moved toward stronger identity measures in some cases (national ID authentication and facial recognition at certain events). The Western online store is lagging behind what is technically and organizationally possible.

Pokémon generates enormous revenue from this franchise. Protecting the ability of actual fans to buy products at retail is not a radical request. A properly built app with biometric confirmation at checkout is in my opinion, the most concrete, feasible step that aligns with both the audience demographics and the scale of the business.

If the priority is truly getting products into the hands of fans first and foremost, this is one of the clearer improvements available.

Upvote if you’d like to see Pokémon Center move in this direction.

Would you accept a modest MSRP increase if it came with a real reduction in bot success rates?