To make it harder for resellers to resell coveted Pokémon merchandise in the future, there is a new tactic: A newsletter that fans can subscribe to, with a link that quickly loses its validity.
What problem is to be solved? Scalpers are people who buy up a large quantity of a popular item to resell it at a higher price. This can be a problem for example during the release of a highly anticipated game console, but increasingly also with Pokémon merchandise.
Especially new sets from the Pokémon trading card game are often affected by this problem. The fewer copies there are of a card, the more it is worth and can be sold for a corresponding amount of money.
For the release of upcoming Pokémon merchandise, the Pokémon Center has now come up with a solution: A kind of Early Access
with a newsletter on the site.
You can also easily collect Pokémon cards digitally on your smartphone with Pokémon TCG Pocket:
Invitation link self-destructs if necessary
What does the solution look like? There will now be action against resellers with a newsletter and a special link. Fans can sign up for a newsletter and will be selected with some luck, allowing them to choose and buy the desired merchandise before anyone else.
The newsletter contains an invitation link that is valid once. If multiple browsers or devices use this link simultaneously, it will be noticed and the link will lose its validity immediately.
If someone tries to manipulate the system in some way using multiple accounts to get more than one opportunity for the merchandise, they risk complete exclusion.
This way, selected customers, hopefully true fans of the franchise, will get a chance to buy the coveted merchandise.
It is important to mention, however, that signing up for the newsletter does not guarantee access. At least this offers a solution to a long-existing problem.
By the way, MeinMMO author Paul Kutzner recently tried out the dark side. In the game TCG Card Shop Simulator on Steam, he played as a scalper and even enjoyed the role. You can read more about it here on MeinMMO: I’m currently becoming a virtual scalper on Steam – and I love it
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