There have been rumblings about cards no longer being sold at Target and Walmart, 2 major sources for those of us with no local shops. Both vendors claim poor behavior of adult males jostling to get Pokemon and Yugioh packs, but will also ban all sportscards as well. I can't say I am not surprised.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Norton:
Both vendors claim poor behavior of adult males jostling to get Pokemon and Yugioh packs

What.

It takes just a few people to ruin things for everyone and I think that is the case here. I agree it was fun to shop and check out the card offerings, a shame this had to happen.

Why now? Sure you can say the money is higher, but it was always on a higher scale for the time and you always had these wise guys searching cards, action figures, dolls, hot toys, whatever. I can remember when stock boys would pull out the best figures in a case and sell them to LHS or regulars.

This is a business decision. The big box stores probably aren't making enough profit on the trading cards. They wouldn't care who was buying them, but maybe people are destroying them or just stealing them.

This could mean a big hit for any retail vendors that held these accounts. It might result in cheaper boxes directed at the hobby market.

Someone posted Target's internal document on the matter on Facebook.

They were very specific in their notice. If I recall correctly it said they would no longer sell baseball, basketball, football or Pokemon cards.

It also said they would continue to sell hockey, Nascar, UFC and Magic the gathering cards.

There is a chance this could lead to more entertainment product at retail -- that would be nice.

The odd thing to me is that this seems like a really easy problem to solve -- print more cards, make enough to satisfy demand.

When demand is met secondary prices will fall and supply can be reduced. . . but in the short term ramping up production would have solved this issue.

I thought the reason was going to be too much pack searching going on, but I guess it literally means fighting over the packs of cards. At least that means there's high demand.

OK, so that explains the why now, people are dumber than ever. At least the pack searching had a sensible motive.

I have been to target at 8:00 AM on Fridays where they were allowing everybody one pack / box of each item. I was there for Baseball Cards but most people were there for Basketball / Football / Pokemon. There were never any issues. Everybody was very nice and waited there turn and then got what they wanted. The Targets I went to (I was at 3 different ones) did a good job with this, so its sad that wherever there were issues, that Target had to stop selling to everybody.

I was at Walmart when they were stocking the cards. The 4 guys in front of me were nice, but as soon as the cards were stocked, they got a shopping cart and went right across the shelf with there hands and dumped every box of Basketball, Football, and Pokemon into the cart. I felt bad for the guy with his son who was behind who wanted Pokemon. There was basically nothing left for them.

Some Walmarts now have the cards locked up in the Electronics Section and you need to find somebody to get them and you are only allowed 1 pack / box at a time

I have not seen any Non-Sports Cards at either Target / Walmart except for some old blaster boxes of Solo

Strangely enough this story has just been reported in the news and it seems to be in response to a Target parking lot fight over cards in Milwaukee. It could be only temporary. Target will continue to sell cards online.

Sounds like a knee jerk reaction to show that the retailer is concerned, but if the demand is so great then they should have a sales associate handing out limited packs to customers and not leave unattended corner shelves. If those retail cards really were a high mark up for the stores I believe they would be doing that instead of removing them.

There are tons of threads about this over at Blowout, with plenty of people sharing horror stories of what they encountered at Target or Walmart looking for cards. I stopped looking for retail last March or April and never saw any long lines or disputes or anything but I did see a lot of empty, messy shelves.

If the ban on selling in stores gets extended to non-sports, that could be a problem because buying online from Target or Walmart is practically impossible right now because of bots and flippers taking everything.

The last non-sports retail I got online was Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 1 blasters from Target (limit 3). The last I saw in stores was Star Wars: Journey of the Child blasters at Walmart last spring.

I don't know about where everyone else shops but the card sections at my local Target and Walmart are generally a mess with all types (sports, non sports, gaming) randomly tossed together. Many of the supplies sold are of the cheapest brands.

This report says a gun was drawn.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57124256

quote:

Originally posted by WOMBLE:
This report says a gun was drawn.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57124256

Must have been a sketch card then.

Not for anything, but who is fighting over retail cards? Can't they read the odds? If there are any hits to have odds?

I think its the same as all the road rage incidents and NYC subway attacks going on right now. Some people are just at a boiling point for whatever reason you want to ascribe and any little thing sets them off.

HOW DARE YOU TALK TO ME ABOUT ODDS!!!
WHY, YOU, YOU...!!!

Oh, sorry, that just set me off...

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:

quote:

Originally posted by WOMBLE:
This report says a gun was drawn.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57124256

Must have been a sketch card then.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Not for anything, but who is fighting over retail cards? Can't they read the odds? If there are any hits to have odds?

For REALZ!!! If I'm going to jail it will be over nothing less than a hobby box!!!!

Wow... hard for me to imagine. Not even sure if they have any trading cards at Walmart here any more. I guess there's a few who still buy them. I gave up looking years ago since the selection was just hopeless...

So I looked online. Blew me away what's available. No discounts, that's for sure. A box of Desert Storm cards- $67. Charmed Forever Inkworks Collectible Trading Card Album Binder- $65. Box of 2016 Topps Walking Dead Season 5 Hobby Collector's Cards- $150. Fallout Trading Cards Series 1 - Complete Base Set w/ Bonus Cards & Packs- $150. 1994 Stargate Premium Trading / Game Cards by Collect-a-Card- $20 a pack. And on and on...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Komodo,

https://www.theverge.com/2021/...ng-cards-store-sales

Looks like Walmart has not made any official policy and is still selling trading cards. Even this article says the "grade" of the card is the valuable part.

I've read a few things here and there about individual Walmart stores deciding to stop selling trading cards. The same thing happened at individual Target stores before the recent national policy.

I haven't been to Walmart in months and the last time I did go, the card aisle was picked clean aside from MTG cards.