A Pokémon TCG fan certainly had their luck come in. For about 45 seconds. After finding a big score—some of the latest card set, Pitch Black, in their local Walmart—they emerged to discover their car had been totaled in the parking lot.
As Kotaku has been chronicling for the better part of two years, the Pokémon TCG is in dire straits, unable to produce a fraction of the cards fans want to be able to buy, and incapable of fighting back against the power of scalpers who are cleaning out stores both brick-n-mortar and online. So it is that with each new set, finding any packs to open can be a miserable challenge, often requiring standing in long lines and occasionally even evading physical fights and shoot-outs. It’s not pretty, and with the 30th Anniversary set due in September, it’s certainly not showing any signs of improving. So when Minimum-Idea115 struck upon a few three-pack blisters and an ETB of Pitch Black, they must have thought their day was blessed.
Posting to Reddit’s r/PokemonTCG, Minimum-Idea115 explained that they’d “scored some Pitch Black,” but then accompanied this with two photographs of the disastrous state of their Honda Civic, the rear left side of the car looking like it got picked up by an excavator. The damage extends all the way around the rear, with the trunk completely buckled and looking pretty beyond repair.
“I unfortunately walked out to find an elderly woman somehow totaled my car and 4 others,” the poster continued. “Hopefully I’ll have better luck with these packs.”
This all seems to be being taken in extraordinary good humor, given the extent of the damage done to the car. Minimum-Idea115 has been responding to many questions and comments, including noting how much they enjoyed the quip, “That’s not what we meant by ‘show the hits’. NOW SHOW THE HITS!”
And show the hits they have! Here they are in full:
Pitch Black is a surprisingly generous set, with a solid one-in-four hit-rate for Ultra Rares or better, and Minimum-Idea115 came away with a good haul of Illustration Rares. However, nothing that’s going to be particularly valuable, and certainly not enough to get that car fixed.