Pokemon Center’s Destined Rivals Second Drop Was Another Catastrophe, And You Bet, It’s Already Being Resold

Summary

• The upcoming Team Rocket-focused expansion, Destined Rivals, is generating significant hype.
• The Pokemon Center's exclusive releases of Elite Trainer Boxes, Booster Boxes, and Booster Bundles led to chaos and scalpers profiting.
• Despite promises to reprint products, scalpers continue to monopolize the market, leaving many collectors empty-handed.

The Pokemon TCG is on a major hot streak at the moment. The year started with Prismatic Evolutions, evolved into Journey Together, and soon, will release the Team Rocket-focused Destined Rivals expansion.

Destined Rivals will feature cards from Japan's Heatwave Arena and The Glory of Team Rocket sets, both of which are in the wild now, and both of which have generated significant hype for the English-language set.

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Quick trip to South Korea, anybody?

The hype, as has often been the case recently, has made it incredibly difficult for collectors to get their hands on any Destined Rivals products. Late last month, The Pokemon Center released its exclusive Elite Trainer Box, with the launch devolving into chaos, leaving thousands empty-handed, and lining the pockets of scalpers - an ever-growing problem with the TCG.

Last night, The Pokemon Center dropped its second wave of Destined Rivals products, including more Elite Trainer Boxes, plus the set's Booster Box and Booster Bundles, and it's clear the company learnt nothing from the first debacle.

Pokemon Center's Wave Two Destined Rivals Drop Was Another Disaster

Much like wave one, queues started to quickly build on both the US and UK's Pokemon Center websites, and in less than an hour, those queues had ballooned to almost a million would-be buyers. Naturally, the products sold out rapidly, leaving more (including myself) disappointed.

As was the case before, collectors faced issues when checking out, and there were multiple reports of people who had been queuing for not insignificant periods of time being randomly booted to the back of the virtual line.

While The Pokemon Company has promised to reprint impacted products, it will make no difference if scalpers continue to get their hands on them. Within mere moments of the products going live, the previously unreleased Booster Boxes were appearing (and selling) on eBay for well over their original RRP.

In a time when the Pokemon TCG is at its most popular, it's incredibly disappointing to see so many people left without product yet again.

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