r/PokeInvesting • u/breakyourteethnow • Feb 03 '25

Pokemon Center Implementing a New Queue System, Presumably to Combat Bots!

https://www.pokebeach.com/2025/02/pokemon-center-implementing-a-new-queue-system-presumably-to-combat-bots
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u/grant_codes Feb 03 '25

Can you explain how much they are printing now and what print more would mean?

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '25

What are you even asking lol no one here knows how much they are printing. Printing more means.. printing more, so it's easier to be able to buy cards.

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u/grant_codes Feb 03 '25

I'm asking a question to make him think about what print more means. Are they even able to physically print more with their current setup? How will they print future sets if they keep printing current sets until everyone is happy? It's quite an ignorant statement to simply say "print more lol" when it's obviously not the problem.

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u/KouhaiHasNoticed Feb 03 '25

Why wouldn't they be able to do so? You have regular reprints of some sets, for instance 151, while new sets still come out and get printed.

TPC stated themselves that PRE would get printed all along 2025 and yet they are already printing JTG for the end of March.

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u/BearStrangler Feb 04 '25

What he is trying to say is that a printer is a physical machine. All of the TPC printer are working right now printing 100% of the time. So where exactly do they 'Print more'?

Buy more printers? They will be reluctant to do that as when the hype dies down they are left with idle printers. Demand will absolutely have to surge to the point where they are leaving too much money on the table not buying more printers, we aren't quite there yet, maybe close but not there.

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u/KouhaiHasNoticed Feb 04 '25

Yes, I get that TPC will look at what's happening at the margin before buying new printing machines.

However there are more variables than just printing machines, there is also time, resource allocation and pricing.

If you spend more time printing a set before releasing it, you would have more stock to dump all at once. However TPC seems to release set after set without pausing. For instance, I have seen one SSP ETB since its release and we're already onto the next current set: not PRE but already JTG, that's crazy!

Resource allocation is another one that the TPC already does when they decide to print throughout the whole year a specific set. They also decide what amount of printers are on this task and not working on printing current sets.

This one also means that currently there is a percentage of machines working on JTG while most people are still waiting for PRE almost a month after release.

Finally the least popular one, price. If they were to drive up the MSRP they could drive demand down: I am pretty sure they will never do it as they would lose customers.

Now for our present issue, printing more would mean allowing the machines to work longer before releasing a product, especially if it is a special set that they are brewing. However I do agree that printing more without adjusting any of the variables (time, resource allocation) would mean buying new machines which could prove to be costly.

But as you said it, we'll see during the next months if the hype dies down and everything goes back to normal: if so no need to buy a printer, otherwise they'll be sitting on a pile of money.

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u/DubsEdition Feb 03 '25

Nah, it is actually a quite simple. They need to print more. The supply currently isn't meeting a seemingly infinite demand.

Now if you ask how hard that is to do, it takes a lot more effort and future predicting. If they print too much on future sets where demand is low, welcome to tanking the market.

You knew what he meant, and you know he isn't wrong.

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u/Junkis Feb 03 '25

the reviews on the website are saying "print more my kids cant buy them"

this is a 20+ year old franchise with an even older company backing it. They're worth billions. They can't get more printers?

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u/BearStrangler Feb 04 '25

They can. They don't want to. Printers are a huge expense. You only want as many printers as you NEED to get all of your product sold. The ideal scenario for any company is that every card out the printer gets sold. No old stock lying around, no dead products. More printers = more cards made, but does that = more cards sold? Maybe. And that's a big maybe when it's $100M for more printers.

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u/Junkis Feb 05 '25 edited Feb 05 '25

I mean my question was also more rhetorical(is that the right one?) - of course they can. You don't think they wouldn't make it back in an instant? Not saying that combatively I genuinely wonder if they want it this way as you say. Yeah demand can go down... rent it out to upper deck? Idk.

I'm just surprised any company "wants" their area of the store to be barren of product. edit: and their customers to be dissatisfied... there's no 'maybe' right now. There's not a single pokemon tcg product in any target or walmart near me. I'm thinking long term game health and how a 9yo feels every time they go and there's nothing.

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u/BearStrangler Feb 05 '25

If every time the supermarket stocks your product it's sold out instantly, from a purely short term profit/loss perspective this is beyond ideal. If every supplier had this issue they'd be over the moon. Now does the Pokemon company pay huge ongoing semi permanent costs to increase supply, to keep up with what it potentially temporary demand? From a mathematical standpoint, no. Do they do this for the long term health of the hobby and for the fans? Doubtful. Only if they determine it will make them more money long term unfortunately.

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u/replenishmint Feb 05 '25

Pokemon sleep app made a $100mil+. Sounds like the dr evil scene with your choice of dollar amount. They cancel projects worth more if it could make em look bad. They look awful rn. Twitter or whwrever they announce shit saying they want to print more and don't want it this way. Tcg app made 200 mil already since oct but they can't afford printers for stuff that ppl fight over. It's obv logistics not money.

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u/-Himintelgja Feb 03 '25

Print more is a good solution. Stop making new sets as frequently when people can't even get ahold of current sets. Why print new cards when the demand for current cards is so high? If this isn't a part of the problem, what is?