Unfortunately, I have to agree. The world will not end, no one will die, if I don’t get XYZ product. Hurts a little, but that builds character.
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AAAAaaand, it’s an Arita card. FML. But also, Awesome!
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Well, y’all have a stronger will than me. *gives all my money to the scalpers*.
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Lottery solves this problem though. Simply allow people to “opt-in” for a certain amount of time and then limit everything to 1 per shipping address and block reshippers/PO box and so on.
Personally, I like the idea of having hard to get stuff. It increases the mystique around certain items and creates hype. That eevee box with the promo should be limited to 10,000. That’s it. Pokemon co. needs to have products for players but also products exclusively for collectors. Printing every modern product into the ground is a stupid idea IMO.
@pikachuisbestpokemon, bots will just take all the lottery slots. Sure, you can attempt to manually limit the shipping address and quantity per “person” to 1 but I doubt that Pokemon is going to care to do that because thats just an extra cost. Once they’ve been paid for the product, anything else they have to do just reduces profit margins. The only way they will start caring is if there is enough damage to their brand caused by upset customers that the increased investment in vetting buyers is worth it.
I disagree that printing modern into the ground is a bad idea. As we’ve seen in the last year, nearly every release has been instantly sold out and people have been scalping products left and right. At some point, Pokemon is going to stop leaving money on the table and print to what it perceives as “demand”. Look at the stories of people who are purchasing product from distributors. Many of those people ask for crazy allocations because they know they will only get shipped 10-20% of what they are asking for. I’m not sure what set that will happen with, but it will come at some point.
Players benefit from more product because they have better access to the cards they need. Collectors can purchase the cards they want at lower prices. The only people who don’t benefit are the people who want to scalp product
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Actually, lottery does NOT solve this problem. Whatever crowd-thinning solution we solve, networked bots have it beat. To defeat lottery, just set-up more bots. The only way to defeat sneaker bots is to create loops they have to jump through, or to setup bot detection algorithms. Not hard, we do it for other things, but it would be a totally new implementation for most online retailers, and that means money and investment…
I don’t mind hard to get stuff, but when it’s not MEANT to be hard to get and then intentionally hard-to-get stuff is impossible to get, that’s when it’s just unacceptable, in my book. Especially when we know how to prevent it.
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@lamplamp , Of all companies around today, I would say that TPC is relatively more concerned with their brand image and the image of their product. Several interviews over the years have indicated this, and I think it’s very safe to say that they’re taking a vastly different approach than other trading card game producers… So, I’m actually hopeful they’ll see the need to adjust for the scalpers/bots. You say this, I think, that ultimately, if the product is initially purchased by bots, printing a lot more won’t hurt them because those who want it will then buy it after the scalpers have wasted their money. The only ones who lose ar ethe scalpers, and in the long run, that’s a BIG win for TPC and true enthusiasts.
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If anyone has not seen already Pokemon has issued a statement - www.pokemoncenter-online.com/?s=information/20210507
*“In response to this situation, in order for customers to purchase safely, the following target products will not be sold over-the-counter at Pokemon Center / Pokemon Store, but will be sold by lottery at Pokemon Center Online.”*Interesting that they have decided not to sell it in store either, if they are picking and choosing who gets the product via lottery i can only imagine they would prioritise actual Japanese addresses rather than middlemen services. It will be interesting to see how many of you that enter the lottery get picked 
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I’ve been predicting critical disruption in Japan caused by western demand for quite some time now. Bots may have accelerated it, but ordering from Japan has become so mainstream these days that even if you shut down all the bots, the organic demand would still cause shortages, albeit without destroying Pokemon Center Online’s servers.
I do not doubt of TPC’s ability to deal with this though, for several reasons:
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Customer service is king in Japan, and the loss of face from not being able to provide product to their customer base will play a big role. Solutions will be found and will be deployed.
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From a Japanese perspective if the data shows that the disruption caused by bots was a consequence of western demand, they will look at it as ‘white neanderthals’ doing their thing, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see exclusive products revert to in-store only once Covid restrictions are lifted in order to curtail bot activity altogether.
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The lottery system is a good enough solution for the time being as it allows orders to be reviewed for fraudulent activity prior to shipping. I wouldn’t underestimate how methodical and thorough Japanese can be at completing seemingly redundant tasks, especially if the objective is to save face.
Just because TPC hasn’t been proactive at dealing with foreign demand, it doesn’t mean they won’t be able to come up with efficient reactive solutions to protect their local customer base.
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I think a good way would be using a lottery system that uses the participants’ identity card numbers. Upon winning, the participants need to collect in person with their identity cards.
Another way is to sell the products in “unsealed” form but that means foreigners will be disadvantaged (hard to tell whether products have been intentionally tampered with).
When I’ve pre-ordered from Pokemon Center Japan before they haven’t taken any money until its shipped… for the Eevee Heroes lottery they’ve taken payment for all of the products I’ve signed up for, before I even know if I was selected in the lottery.
I’m guessing taking money upfront is to deter bots from swamping the lottery? Hopefully it works!
Hey this set looks pretty cool I can’t wait to pick it up on release at my local Target.
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Just placed and order for the eeveelutions box via a tenso address, and if i dont get it i will buy promo off ebay for $200 and buy a booster box for $100 if the alternate arts are worth chasing (because the other vmaxes arent great for me, i did buy an umbreon for $18 off ebay as a preorder jff). If i dont get said alternate art(s) after 1 or 2 boxes ill buy the singles off ebay or on a local platform. I can guarantee most people are going to do the same😁
Really wanted the special set box but with the prices I’ve seen on eBay for these it hurts my heart 
. Buy or Bye as Mr. Pratte says </3
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I’ve done my sole lottery submission for the special box. Wish me luck boys!
It’s the only thing I’m interested in, will go well with my special sealed Japanese box collection.
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I did the same but im now learning that Pokemon Center is sending a confirmation letter through the mail. Will Tenso read the mail to you to purchase or are you going to have to wait for the mail to be forwarded to you? Would it be too late at that point?
regular set list has been revealed, secret rares to come next week.
www.pokeguardian.com/675195_s6a-eevee-heroes-main-set-list-revealed
Double sowsow and sui illustrations - could’t ask for more
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This looks so good! Looking forward to more leaks, hoping there’s going to be an alternate art for this card
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Holding out for the SR cards as so far the set looks pretty meh except for the espeon promo
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