As parents, we've all found ourselves in a situation where our kid has a toy on their wish list that, despite all our efforts, we can't get our hands on them. Parents have waited in lines for hours, had family members searching the stores near them, and we've put callouts on social media.
Whether it is the most popular toy on the market at the time or our kid has obscure interests and we have to go on a digital scavenger hunt, it's happened. And for pandemic parents, this year's hottest item — apparently for kids and adults — is Pokémon cards. That's right, the cards from our childhood are back with a vengance and they've been causing some major problems for retail stores.
Maybe we can just blame it on the pandemic
Many people took to social media to share notes left on store shelves
On Twitter, people started sharing store notes placed on the empty shelves where the trading cards would normally be stocked.
So, I guess Pokémon, MLB, NFL, and NBA trading cards are no longer going to be sold at Target stores starting this Friday. pic.twitter.com/pUzbQ9Esey
— Alan Johnson (@TheAlanJohnson) May 12, 2021
"To ensure the safety of our guests and team members, effective May 14th, NLB, NFL, NBA, and Pokémon Trading Cards will no longer be sold in stores until further notice," one note posted in Target read.
Some Walfarts are banning #PokemonTCG sales. I don't think the scalping problem will go away until Pokemon is able to resume normal (or increased) printing production.
We covered the production problem last year: https://t.co/LZ8mqNnNRJ pic.twitter.com/T4nEcbedCo
— PokeBeach.com (@pokebeach) May 6, 2021
"The trading card categories have been removed from the sales floor, and sales of these items have been suspended due to inappropriate customer behavior and increased demand," a note posted at a Walmart location read.
This move seems to be in response to an incident at a Target location
According to Vice, an incident in a Target parking lot in Wisconsin broke out over a dispute over the trading cards and the challenges people have had come across them. The local Target location had restocked the trading cards on the shelves, and it ended with someone pulling out a gun.
"The man never fired his weapon, and no one was seriously injured, according to a police press release about the incident," according to Vice. "The incident [occurred] on May 7 at 8:20 a.m. outside of a Target store, which has a policy of only selling collectible merchandise at 8 a.m. on Fridays. According to the police report, four men attacked the fifth man when he exited the Target carrying a box of sports cards."
There are no details on when — or if — the trading cards will be restocked
These trading cards have always been a big draw for people. Still, when the pandemic hit, supply went down, demand went up, scalpers hit the stores and bought everything up, and that's fueling the drama of people not being able to act like adults.
"When Covid-19 hit, a lot of Gen X and Millennials were looking for things to do, and we found a lot of these guys and girls started playing Pokémon again because they grew up with it," Joe Maddalena, executive vice president at Texas-based Heritage Auctions, explained to Reuters earlier this year when the demand skyrocketed.
While we don't know if the cards will ever come back in stores, both Target and Walmart say they can now be purchased online — but something tells us they'll still be hard to find.
