{"id":741204,"date":"2026-07-03T16:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/741204\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T16:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:42:08","slug":"nintendo-speaking-with-the-pokemon-company-over-widespread-card-scalping-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/741204\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo Speaking With The Pok\u00e9mon Company Over Widespread Card Scalping ‘Issue’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nintendo’s president has been asked to address the current state of Pok\u00e9mon trading card<\/a> shortages and scalping \u2014 a situation that many fans feel is now worse than ever, despite an astonishing 10 billion cards being printed last year alone.<\/p>\n

New card launches are continually left sold out due to scalpers looking to make a profit on eBay, while boxes of cards are now commonly the subject of store thefts \u2014 including dozens<\/a> of instances<\/a> where trading<\/a> card stores<\/a> have been broken into overnight. One card shop in New York was recently targeted by armed thieves in broad daylight, leaving terrified staff and shoppers held at gunpoint<\/a>. In May, reports emerged of a Florida man who was arrested on suspicion of stealing $12,000 of Pok\u00e9mon cards while wielding a <\/a>battery-powered chainsaw<\/a>. And in April, another desperate Pok\u00e9mon fan was arrested in Pasadena, California, after hiding inside a closed Best Buy ahead of a Pok\u00e9mon card drop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But with demand sky high, what can Nintendo and The Pok\u00e9mon Company do solve the issue for fans left unable to buy cards without having to fork out more money themselves (or turn to a life of crime)? <\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon TCG: 30th Anniversary Celebration Collection First Look\"\"<\/p>\n

The issue has become so high-profile that Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa was asked for his opinion at a recent shareholder AGM \u2014 during which he revealed that Nintendo was aware of the “issue,” and discussed “appropriate ways to deliver products to consumers.”<\/p>\n

“With respect to the Pok\u00e9mon Trading Card Game offered by The Pok\u00e9mon Company, which is an equity-method subsidiary of Nintendo, we are aware of instances where limited-quantity cards are purchased in large volume, leading to high-priced reselling in the market,” Furukawa said, in remarks<\/a> now officially made public by Nintendo.<\/p>\n

“In response, The Pok\u00e9mon Company is taking various measures, including made-to-order sales and agreements with marketplace operators. For online priority drawings for certain products, I understand that The Pok\u00e9mon Company also plans to use an account verification method that utilizes My Number Cards [Japan\u2019s official government-issued ID cards].<\/p>\n

“Nintendo also communicates with The Pok\u00e9mon Company as needed to discuss appropriate ways to deliver products to consumers,” Furukawa concluded. “We believe that The Pok\u00e9mon Company will continue to take measures to respond to this issue.”<\/p>\n

The Pok\u00e9mon Company recently released a set of astonishing sales figures<\/a> which showed the enormous popularity of Pok\u00e9mon cards, of which 85 billion have been produced to date. 10 billion cards were manufactured in 2025 alone \u2014 more cards than the number of people on the planet, and still nowhere near enough. <\/p>\n

Card manufacturing has been boosted significantly in recent years to try and keep up with demand. 43 billion cards were printed in the 25 years between October 1996 and March 2022, but essentially the same amount again has now been released in just the past four years. And with the brand’s eye-catching 30th anniversary set<\/a> due in September<\/a>, the situation is unlikely to calm down anytime soon.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Mario Tama\/Getty Images.<\/p>\n

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nintendo’s president has been asked to address the current state of Pok\u00e9mon trading card shortages and scalping \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-741204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}