101

Yes. There are some large companies working on their own bot rejection system. I also have seen a few early stage startups working on a simple API for eccommere companies to fight bots.

But tbh, most large companies don’t care. They’re making money either way. Nike has been “working” on a system forever and there’s no sign of a change anytime soon.

102

Very difficult. I used to dabble in the sneaker game and bots are so bad. Even if a company takes an interest in preventing it, the bots just get better and better at beating different safeguards. What I’d like to see if text verification to checkout. That would make it very difficult for bots to succeed on a large scale.

103

huge, annoying, and unconventional CAPTCHA

104

Hahaha, yeah that’s what I’m saying, to combat bots they made it even miserable for humans to shop on their website :laughing:

Normally companies would try to combat bots but make it so that a normal person won’t really be hindered in shopping their website, but probably snipers/more sophisticated bots can go through…Pokemon chose the other route in my opinion where they straight up nuke anybody who attempts to access the website too fast (or refreshing because the page is not loading since everyone is trying to check out at the same time)

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105

it makes it worse for humans, as the bots can just set the safe timer between refreshes

106

True, but from experience the timer is quite long…even 5-10 minute interval refreshes would get you banned. At that point if you have a bot that refreshes every 15 minutes a human can do that. Alternatively if you want to hit every single interval (lets say 10 seconds), you’ll need quite a few bots and a bunch of VPNs all hitting the website at alternate timing which would be a considerable resource since there’s a purchase limit per account. You would need to heavily invest into quite an intense bot system just to scalp a couple of pokemon products.

BTW I’m not saying Pokemon’s system is good, in fact I think it’s quite horrendous and incredibly frustrating especially since they don’t have an “in stock” filter, meaning that if you quickly browse through the store and go through pages quickly (because everything is out of stock), you can still get banned from surfing the website too quickly. I’m just saying that pokemon has probably a more anti-bot system than other retailers, but at a huge cost to actual people desperately trying to load the website to checkout :confused:

P.S Super glad you got your masterball!

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107

I’m still trying to scoop one of these up, I refuse to pay what they are going for right now and would encourage others to do the same. Of the 5,000 made, 322 are currently up for sale on eBay with over 400 sold listings. I’m going to continue being patient until this drops to around the $250 mark.

5 Likes
109

I just noticed the Lionel train set is still available. Really surprised it’s not sold out yet. Anyone get theirs in?

110

I had the exact same stance. But since 400 have been sold (likely to collectors) in the second market of 800 items (I round up the sum of 400 and 322), I assume that the price will only keep increasing as the supply will unlikely be replenished to the extent of the supply at release.

I therefore bit the bullet and bought one for USD 370. Painful (I tried buying from Pokécenter but it didn’t work), but worth it (I think, guess and hope).

KM

111

New drop just in! www.pokemoncenter.com/product/710-08889/pokemon-celebration-parade-grand-marshal-pikachu-figure

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112

I’m new here. So what’s the deal with this Pokemon center loot. Basically it’s all limited run and pretty much all of it goes up in value over time due to supply squeeze (if people like it?)

113

People are starting to think of it this way, but no not really. Not sure how much value increases “over time” - recent hyped items have had high initial resale prices, and then prices fall like a feather. Stuff that released in prior years (the Funko pikachu figures from 2019 come to mind), for the most part, don’t sell for much higher than msrp.

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114

The limited items tend to be that way. Especially something like the Master Ball that has more appeal. But there is plenty of pokemon center merch that doesn’t sell out immediately.

115

Any word on the delivery charizard promo? Missed out on the pikachu one so wanna try this one before scalpers :crazy_face:

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116

Welcome to E4!

A lot of people right now are looking at Pokémon Center items like these as investment pieces. Pokémon Center items typically sell out over time (although not usually within 24 hours) but it’s only usually the very limited art pieces that appreciate in value. Most items usually hold little value and typically struggle to break even a couple of months after they’ve sold out. This Master Ball item is a bit of an anomaly so far.

I’ve seen a few people on Facebook groups comment about how they really want to own a limited edition Pokémon item - whilst that’s very admirable and relatable, Pokémon Center sells quite a lot of limited edition items like these every year and you can find quite a few limited pieces on eBay for cheaper than their original sale price.

117

Ya I’ll sell you mine for 2,000 USD. Buy now and I’ll throw in a pair of socks for free!

Nothing new yet. I’m really surprised it hasn’t happened yet. I really thought it would be on Pokemon day.

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118

I would imagine that they want to print the crap out of it before they release it so what happened to the Pikachu doesn’t happen again. IIRC the scalping thing wasn’t even as bad as it is now when the Pikachu was released.

119

I doubt delivery charizard will be as easy to acquire as the pikachu

120

I think the opposite. They saw the success and demand for pikachu in the after market. If anything, that encourages them to print 100x more charizards than pikachus. They know as long as the promo runs, people will buy merch from their website. The most likely reason for the (perceived) delay in release is that they are waiting until they can print enough to maximize revenue on their site during the promotion.

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121

The issue could also be that their website has low or no inventory of most items. All/ most tcg items appear sold out and I clicked on some shirts and some or all sizes are unavailable on the few I saw. They just don’t have enough inventory to warrant a promo that will send everyone there buying.

1 Like