Pokemon TCG Strife Leads To $300 Queue Holders

Pokemon Cards Are Now So Hard To Get, People Are Paying $300 For Others To Queue For Them Image credit: Target Corporation. Published Nov 6, 2026, 8:00 AM EST Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 3,000 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, provided context on some AI drama, and revealed that Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on three occasions. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. Pokemon cards are basically impossible to get hold of right now. I am terminally online, have friends who own and work in TCG stores, and regularly frequent supermarkets, and I can barely get hold of them, so I know just how hard it is for the average collector. The trading card game is now seen as a prime investment opportunity by crypto bros and scalpers, and as such, nefarious techniques, like bots, are deployed to scoop up as much stock as possible. That's also why we see queues forming outside stores 12 hours before they open, since people have no other option unless they want to miss out. Unless... It turns out, avid Pokemon TCG fans/scalpers/people with too much money are using services and paying hundreds of dollars for people to queue for them to get the hottest products. People Are Actually Paying Hundreds Of Dollars For People To Buy Pokemon Cards For Them Price Tag credit: Shahid Mehmood via flaticon. The Pokemon Trading Card Game's 30th Anniversary expansion is one of the best in a long time. I called it "the most refreshing in years," and aside from Ascended Heroes, I think it's the best set produced since Evolving Skies. Naturally, such a set has drawn major attention. Lapsed Pokemon TCG fans are returning for the 30th anniversary, long-time fans are, of course, there, and scalpers are seeing it as the perfect chance to make a quick buck—despite tons of stock, competition has never been fiercer. Things have gotten so bad that people are actually willing to fork out their hard-earned cash, just so they don't have to queue. Odd-job websites like Airtasker have been flooded with requests from said Pokemon TCG fans/scalpers/people with too much money, asking people to queue for cards. One listing, which has, unsurprisingly, been filled, is paying $300 for somebody to queue at a Best Buy in California for Pokemon cards. It read, "November 6, there's a Best Buy release of Pokemon cards. Apparently it will start much earlier, so will budget for a 3am start. I can no longer go with my son and I don't want him to miss out. I am open to paying for a couple or two friends to go..." That's right, somebody has paid $300 on top of RRP just to get their hands on the latest product. At this point, it's almost certainly cheaper to pay scalper prices. That's far from the only listing, either. A second in California offered $200 for somebody to queue for Best Buy's UPC drop, and multiple other listings for $100+ were made in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The world has gone mad. Franchise Pokemon Original Release Date October 20, 1996 Player Count 2 Age Recommendation 6+ Length per Game Variable Franchise Name Pokemon