Given the persisting hysteria surrounding the Pokémon TCG, which has been ramped up even further by this September’s upcoming release of a 30th-anniversary celebration set, we’re seeing more and more retail stores getting in on the scalping game themselves by artificially hiking prices for their legitimate customers. So when GameStop’s Australian branches, operating as EB Games, did exactly the same with some horrendously gouging pre-order prices for the forthcoming set, it seemed par for the course. Except, it seems it was a bait-n-switch, a deranged way to put off scalpers, with legitimate pre-orders now having their costs reverted to the correct pricing. Um, what?
If you were, perhaps, a particularly naive alien, you might possibly think this ridiculous ruse could come off as a delightful bit of chicanery The scalpers were put off by vastly inflated prices, and the hardcore fans who took the hit are now getting rewarded with a far fairer price, so everyone’s a winner! Except for, you know, absolutely everyone who couldn’t even contemplate placing a pre-order at the fake higher prices. Oh, and still those who did, given the prices are still far too high.
“It’s been a huge week,” reads EB Games’ message posted to the company’s Instagram. “The excitement around the Pokémon TCG 30th Celebration collection has been incredible.” You bet it has. “Our priority from the beginning was simple, even though we knew it wouldn’t be universally popular,” the retail chain explains, claiming, “We wanted genuine Pokémon fans to have the best possible opportunity to secure these once in a generation products while making life as difficult as possible for scalpers.”
The post, ascribed to EB Games’ MD Shane Stockwell, goes on to describe the original prices as “outrageous,” saying this was part of a “strategy,” because “scalpers don’t build communities. Fans do.”
Now, with this first step of the dastardly master plan complete, EB claims it’s shifting to the “next phase,” where the company will review pre-orders, somehow weed out those it believes to be ineligible, and then notify those whose pre-orders were successful of the lower price they’ll actually be charged. So an ETB will cost customers just $120AUD ($83USD), rather than the inflated price people thought they were paying. Except, even this is some shit, given The Pokémon Company International has yet to announce prices for the various elements of the 30th Anniversary set, and the standard MSRP of an ETB is $60. So those fans are still getting gouged for twenty bucks.
And that’s nothing compared to the “lower” price for the two Ultra Premium Collections that will be released as part of the set. Again, no prices have been announced, but all previous UPCs have been sold at $120. EB Games Australia’s price—the non-“outrageous” one—is $305 US dollars.
Trust in EB
Incredibly, EB then goes on to praise the unwitting marks of this scheme, and chastise those who reacted negatively to the stunt pricing. “To those who trusted us,” says the corporation that absolutely deserves no human trust on any level, “placed a preorder, and backed us through the process, thank you.” Brrrrr. “Backed us,” like it’s a plucky underdog mom-n-pop store fighting for attention. “We’ve seen your comments across forums and community channels, and we genuinely appreciate the faith you placed in us.” Gross.
But to everyone else! “To those in the Pokémon community who chose to express their frustration with insults, personal remarks and unnecessary hostility, I’d simply ask this, let’s be better than that.” Certainly personal remarks are always uncalled for, especially if directed at an individual employee, and we absolutely condemn that sort of behavior. However, insults and hostility aimed at the corporate entity itself would seem very necessary when a company as massive as GameStop is already actively gouging its customers, then pulls off a stunt like this, and one that ends in still gouging its customers anyway!
We’ve reached out to GameStop to ask if the company can appreciate why this stunt might not have been so well received, and to ask why the final prices remain so inflated.