I was given two of these boxes for Christmas in December. They were ordered from Walmart however, the person who ordered it didn’t know it was being sold by a 3rd party seller. So, the price was hiked above MSRP and when I received them, I noticed a few too many problems before, during, and after opening them. After opening the packs, I was livid,
My thing is, either the seller resealed the product and scammed my family, or TPCI is in such a hurry and doing such a sloppy job that they don’t care they are ripping customers off for hundreds of dollars. Either is unacceptable. I had already verified with the seller that they claim the product came from distribution. But, looking at this third party seller’s reviews on Walmart’s marketplace has 5+ buyers in 25 or so reviews claiming this seller scammed them specifically with reseals.
I told Walmart and the seller that a full refund isn’t optional so, it doesn’t matter if they cooperate and provide it or not, a chargeback is already submitted so, they need to take it up with Pokemon if they aren’t lying about the product’s legitimacy.
I sent TPCI an email and, while I didn’t mention a few more anomalies I noticed due to character count restrictions, I managed to get my point across and let them know the rarities I pulled from the hit slot in those 36 packs. The boxes were $180+ a piece, so $360, and contained 1x IR per box, 2x FA per box, and 2x DR ex per box, no SIR, no FA Trainers. The TOTAL value of all of the “hits” was $8, add the bulk and there’s maybe $15, in 36 packs…
Screenshots of their response, and my initial inquiry if you’re interested. I redacted a few things to stay classy. Not the vendor though, zero f’s on that..
As I was originally reading this I was assuming there was like an issue with the amount of packs in the boxes? But there was the correct amount and the hits just weren’t great?
1 IR, 2 FA and 2 ex is like, a bad box for sure but its not too far out of the ordinary. Ever since TPCI abandoned (semi) guaranteed hit rates from products, these non-booster box products have always been extremeeeely hit or miss
Opening a chargeback for bad pulls is fucked up - unless there were other things going on that made it seem resealed? I would assume this is the case considering you said many people also had complaints. In which case you have my sympathies brother
Edit: Just realised in the email you mentioned it was from Forge & Fire Gaming - aren’t these guys an absolutely massive company?
As far as I’m aware the 18 pack assortment are not seeded with hits, so I’m sorry to say it’s more likely that you had rotten luck from both UPC. The value comes from obtaining 2 great MAR/SIR style promos and being able to open 18 packs from 5 sets, or the complete sealed package as a Charizard item. However, the chances of scoring FA or SIR from 2-4 packs of each set is far slimmer than 36 packs of each set (i.e. a booster box). It’s better to treat them as a small sampling and not get your hopes up with opening these types of products
By the way, the value of cards on the secondary market have nothing to do with TPCi, let alone you not purchasing directly from them. In their eyes all cards are produced at same cost with a fixed RRP per pack
They lost me when they started sending angry emails (harassment!? Like what!? Hopefully they censored personal info?) to TPCi because they’re unhappy with a 3rd party seller… doesn’t really matter if the purchasing party didn’t know the risks of shopping this way either IMHO…
To give some benefit of the doubt to OP for being new as well, I have opened only one 151 UPC in my life so far I and got a Daisy full art as my top pull…
If anyone else is reading this; don’t buy stuff from 3rd party sellers if you can’t get your money back. Otherwise, poor pulls are part of opening sealed - it’s literally a gamble… sending your wrath to customer service at Pokémon/posting the evidence is about as “good of a look” as recorded road rage, haha!
Slightly below average pulls are not a justification for libel against a seller. SIRs are 1/100 packs in recent sets. I think we can close down this conversation here.