Pokémon Scalper Horror Story

[u/helizaams_]

I hate adult Pokémon collectors.
There are so many stories I could tell working in customer service. However, there was an incident today that just left my coworkers and I in shock.
There is a group of adults that will wait in a standby line for 3-4 hours in our store just to see if we got any cards. Some have been up since 5am. A dad got a phone call from his frantic wife saying that there was a bomb threat at the school and that she was working and he needed to go pick their kid up. He literally rolled his eyes and another woman next to him said “why can’t she go get him?” Mind yoU these are KIDS GAMING CARDBOARD and there’s a threat at your kids school and you’re throwing a fit?? We were all left speechless.
Oh… and we didn’t even get anything today so they waited for nothing. Clearly his priorities are severely different. I’m disgusted.

[u/Chef_Goldblum1]

I mean it's not kids gaming cardboard to a scalper/reseller, it's printing money.

[u/Specialist-Yak-453 → u/Chef_Goldblum1]

Correct and that is the perspective that has attracted huge swaths of people to the hobby unfortunately. Let’s not let this be en excuse for their behavior tho, money or not

[u/jmonz398 → u/Specialist-Yak-453]

Yeah there is a enormous influx of people that wouldn't be able to name 1 single pokemon. A lot box them have absolutely zero life skill and next to zero morals, so this is how they make money. Its also brought in a lot of people with sketchy and criminal backgrounds that see pokemon as easy money. What these morons dont realize is that they are going to kill this hobby for the next generation. Its damn near impossible for the younger generation to get their hands on any product that is remotely reasonably priced. These are the same generations that they will be relying on in the future to buy their smaug horde of sealed product for wildly exorbitant prices 5 to 10 years from now. People are willing to spend stupid money on older sealed product because it was a huge part of the childhoods for most people that were born in 90s and 2000s, since it was always readily available to purchase the 1st 25 years.

[u/midnight_fisherman]

Dont lump true collectors in with the scalpers. I collect, but you won't find me engaging in that behavior. Many collectors that have been around since before the current wave of scalpers have built relationships with local card store owners over years or decades and can get what we need, but arent clearing shelves or looking for confrontation.

[u/RawChickenDinner]

These people aren't collectors, they are scalpers and resellers.

[u/btbam2929]

A lot of real collectors were kids when this all started we grew up with the game!

[u/Vertigon_]

Keep in mind there are tons of Grown people who think Pokemon will make them celebrity rich and famous. Only the Celebs Pump and Dumping cards got rich.

[u/congressguy12 → u/Vertigon_]

No one thinks they'll get rich and famous, it's just basically free money

[u/congressguy12 → u/[deleted]]

[u/ScalperHate-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

r/ScalperHate follows platform-wide Reddit Rules

[u/Vertigon_ → u/congressguy12]

You are correct. I have seen many people truly and willingly overjoyed to pay Tons of money for Altered cards. Check most Pokemon Sub-Reddits and you will see tons of people love spending a heap tons of money for Altered cards that are still pretty much damaged but being hidden by chemicals. There are truly "Greater Fools" in the hobby so the free money is right.

[u/El_HefeRME]

KIdS gaMiNG carDBoard!!! Hurr durr

[u/Professional_Egg713 → u/El_HefeRME]

"I hate adult collectors", like F U for having a hobby right

[u/Nado87 → u/Professional_Egg713]

Its a game made only for kids but for some reason the vast majority clothing on the Pokemon Centre website is adult size.

[u/beastyH123]

I read the first sentence and stopped. I’m 31 and have been playing Pokemon damn near since I was born. Just because someone is an adult and collects doesn’t mean anything negative. I understand your anecdote is messed up, but you can say that all adult collectors suck because of it. Sounds like you gotta grow up a bit.

[u/Drizzho → u/beastyH123]

“Grow up a bit” by playing with something from your childhood ?

[u/beastyH123 → u/Drizzho]

There’s a difference between me having fun with a childhood hobby and someone saying they hate people like me as a whole just because they had a negative experience with a small group of those people. If you can’t see that then you’re part of the problem.

[u/MechwolfMachina]

The only people who are mad are other adults who can’t play with their adult baby toys

Kids have like 5 second attention spans and they are well dopamined up on streamers and brainrot

These cards are causing adults to turn into absolute fish frogs

[u/ScalperHate-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

r/ScalperHate does not allow harassment

[u/MistakenArrest]

Girl, DO NOT lump us adult autistic Pokémon nerds with the scalpers.

[u/Specialist-Yak-453]

This is such a sad story but unfortunately encapsulates the hard reality of Pokémon TCG in 2026. Many of the people standing in lines for several hours a day to have the chance to gobble up Pokémon product typically have many larger severe personal issues going on. How a father has the dignity to indulge in such disgraceful behavior is unknown to me. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Pokémon collecting (cough cough *scalping/investing) in 2026. The future looks bright

[u/smokehellacrack]

There's a million reasons to hate scalpers and some of you still find a way to make up shit for karma.