Target Has an Unconventional Way of Stopping Scalpers from Buying Pokémon Boxes, but Customers Aren’t Thrilled

The battle between retailers and Pokemon card scalpers has taken a strange new turn, and this time the fix does not involve slapping purchase limits on items, in-person queuing or ID checks. Target employees have started giving scalpers less reason to purchase multiple Pokemon Trading Card Game products with the intention of reselling them by purposely slashing the shrink wrap before putting items on the shelves.

Footage and photos shared by shoppers online show dozens of Pokemon products with gaping holes in the plastic wrap that is usually required by scalpers to sell them on as mint in box. The logic behind the ploy may be simple, as the minor damage to a pristine piece is sure to deter some people from attempting to buy up items in bulk, but it also means that genuine buyers will also get the same tatty outer wrapping. As you would guess, not everyone is happy with the tactic.

Why Target Is Taking Matters Into Its Own Hands

The Target method of deterring scalpers is one that has come about at stores thanks to an ongoing issue with shelves being cleared by buyers who have no intention of keeping the items and just want to make a quick profit. It is not the only way Target has been picking off these bad-faith buyers, either. Other methods have included managers opening boxes before stocking shelves and stricter enforcement of per-customer purchase limits, all aimed at the same underlying problem.

The scale of the scalping problem explains why retailers have been forced to respond with some creative ways to address the issue. Demand for Pokemon cards has remained at an all-time high, and in the last several years, popular sets have sold out almost instantly, with reports of shoppers fighting over limited stock. Resale markets are then flooded with the same products at inflated prices, giving serious collectors the option of paying double the price for sets or missing out.

Reaction from the community has been anything but unanimous. Plenty of collectors have welcomed the move as a rare, tangible win for ordinary fans, arguing that the vast majority of people with a genuine interest in these cards don’t care about the box they come in. Others are far less convinced, with some shoppers arguing that Target is interfering with something that has been packed and priced as a fully sealed item.

It is also worth noting that this is a store-level tactic rather than an official, company-wide policy, and enforcement appears to vary from one Target location to the next. That has not really helped calm those who don’t want to have to travel around different Target stores to find boxes that have not been tampered with in this way, as they don’t know what they are going to find from one store to the next.

In a time when so much is going digital, this is a very analogue solution to the problem, especially considering some of the other technological methods that have been trialled in Japan, such as the use of facial recognition to stop the same person making multiple purchases. Whether any of this really helps to prevent scalping, considering the same thing has been a huge issue in concert ticket sales for decades, is yet to be seen, but it looks like retailers are finally fighting back in small ways.