u/puzzledfirebird

Don't say I never helped you guys get some packs to rip. This only counts though if your Target usually drops on Friday, others have already released them earlier.

I got in line earlier than usual today for a Target restock for Ascended EX boxes and was able to hear two scalpers arguing about resealing boxes. The first guy was an older dude in his late 40s who I've already known since last year because he's a nicer guy, gave me a lot of info on how to catch restocks like he does but he's just in this for the money(he likes Yugioh more lol). The other guy was a younger dude who was exactly the worst stereotypes you have about scalpers and was into sneakers before moving into Pokemon for the profit.

Younger guy bragged about how he's resealing Ascended EX boxes and flips them for profit so fast AND gets to keep and resell all the good pulls he gets from them to make even more money. Older guy disapproved of it, saw his scalping as a legit reselling business and said it wasn't worth the risk if he gets caught, but younger guy says they'll never know because he's also resealing packs with cheaper IR/UR hits.

So yeah, if you're buying from scalpers you better make sure your supplier is a more honest dude like the older scalper. Resealing is definitely a thing with scalping and you may not even realize it when you're still getting hits. And that's why I'd rather spend hours lining up with these dudes getting my Pokemon cards directly from a retail store.

I just spent the entire day trying to think of an alternative that wouldn't make me sick to the stomach, especially considering Pokemon's long term ROI compared to pretty much everything else.

There's already 15 people camping out at my local Target and nobody even knows for sure if they will have anything

I see so many people complaining endlessly about scalpers yet almost nothing about this problem too. It's particularly bad in my local Bestbuy because they're buying up all the best stuff the night before they're supposed to put everything out. Last week one of my friends saw them walking out at Thursday night with all the Prismatic UPCs. It's even worse in Dollar General because they just hide almost everything for themselves. And my local Target has off duty store employees who are always the first guys in line hours before any regular customers show up, which is no coincidence when they just so happen to know ETBs are dropping randomly on a Tuesday morning. We are screwed because they already know how expensive Pokemon has gotten and are taking a cut for themselves with all the benefits of working inside the store AND even get an employee discount.