If you’re aPokemon Trading Card Gamecollector, you’ll know how tough it has been to get products over the last few months. Asprices of single cards skyrocketed, opportunists flocked to the TCG, buying products andflipping them for much higher prices.
It’s been happening for years now, but in the last 12 months or so, things have gotten exponentially worse. Pokemon Center drops forPrismatic Evolutions,Journey Together,Destined Rivals, and the upcomingBlack Bolt & White Flareall sold out instantly, with exclusive Elite Trainer Boxes immediately appearing on reselling websites like eBay at inflated rates.
It’s not just the Pokemon Center that has faced these issues. Independent retailers, likeBremnerTCG, have been forced to password-protect Pokemon drops for repeat customers to avoid products being bought by scalpers and botting services.
Now, to make matters worse, messages obtained by TheGamer and conversations with those close to the situation appear to indicate that one UK retailer is revealing drops early and occasionally even locking RRP Pokemon TCG products behind a paywalled Discord server.
In these messages obtained by TheGamer, a member of UK Retailer Zavvi’s C-suite was seen allegedly offering discount codes that “reduce the product back to RRP” in a private Discord server. It’s claimed by multiple people close to the situation that Destined Rivals Elite Trainer Boxes were listed on Zavvi’s website at above RRP, but this code, only available in the ‘Supporters’ section of the aforementioned Discord, would allow customers to buy them at RRP.
A message sent three days later from the same Zavvi staff member said that the release of Destined Rivals was “nailed down nicely” and that, because “nobody leaked,” they shared a list of upcoming products that would be available. They also claimed they were “standing behind the marketing team to see when they do stuff so that I can tell you guys.”
We spoke to customers unrelated to the Discord server who showed proof that Zavvi had been holding their money for eight months for products they couldn’t fulfill, like 151 Booster Bundles. Consequently, this had a negative impact on the company’s Trustpilot reviews, which the Zavvi employee sought to correct. “Any chance, once you’ve had your Destined Rivals items from Zavvi, you could leave us 5* feedback,” he said. “Don’t put my name in it, and keep our club a secret.”
Don’t put my name in it, and keep our club a secret.
Zavvi was also noted for selling products on a third-party marketplace associated with this employee at slightly inflated prices. Members of the paid Discord server were alerted ahead of time when products would be dropping here. Another message we saw from a member of the paid Discord server seemingly confirmed the symbiotic relationship between the two, stating that “Zavvi gets a better deal out of it, he [Zavvi employee] gets a cut and continues to get us deals from Zavvi.” All Zavvi products have now been removed from the marketplace.
We managed to speak to one member who paid for server access. They claimed that while they didn’t know anything about the RRP discount code, the Zavvi employee alerted them to the time a product was going live on the website so they could get their hands on it ahead of regular consumers on at least two occasions.
We also briefly spoke to the employee in question, who told us the messages “lacked context”. Zavvi later scheduled a call with us at TheGamer, but canceled it less than an hour before we were due to speak, saying, “We are dealing with the situation in question.” The company declined to give any further comment on the record.
