Unfortunately, the store has lost a regular customer. I no longer feel the sense of enjoyment and fairness that I once experienced here.
1) Vending Machine Concerns
The introduction of the vending machine system is a serious issue. It promotes gambling-like behavior, encourages scalping, and creates a toxic environment among collectors and traders. If this feature is going to remain, the store should at least implement a more transparent, fair, and protective trade-in or insurance system. But ideally, removing the machine entirely would be the best course of action to foster a healthier trading culture.
2) Outdated Card Pricing
The store definitely needs to adjust their card value to reflect the current market value! Many Pokémon cards are no longer valued at their peak, and it's discouraging to see outdated prices that don't align with real-time sales data. They say they use "TCG Player," but always go with the highest bid value of the day instead of the cards true market value from either PriceCharting or Collectr.
3) Stream Exclusive Practices
Stream Exclusive plays and "coin"-based trade-in options are misleading and unfair. When each coin costs around $50 (after taxes and fees), and players are rewarded with cards valued far less--sometimes under $100 ungraded or one can get a $10 value Promo/Illustration Rare card --it feels exploitative. It's also discouraging to see how much profit is made from collectors who genuinely love the hobby. Please reconsider these practices and prioritize in-store engagement over streaming incentives.
The store needs to get rid of Tom! He's mainly in it for profit, stream exclusive content, and favors scalpers! He markups EVERYTHING by 1.2x; and when you ask the store if they have a particular card for trade in to to purchase outright at market value, he says no, when clearly the store does but it is being used for the Stream Vending Machine "Top Chases." In general, if you want to let us say buy Bubble Mew or JP Sylveon or Prismatic Espeon, Tom and Dion forces you to play the Stream Exclusive Vending machine at $50/play or buy out the lot of 50 cards (which is $2500) for a card that is worth between $100-$400 at most. That is $40 profit per play (cause most of the pulls are IR/AR at around $10 market value) or $2000 profit for the top chase! Additionally, there are multiple rounds throughout the day (usually as high as 3 rounds). In other words, the scalpers are catering to this and basically just paying off Tom's brand new Tesla Model 3...
The employee Kevin also needs to learn the trading card game or either just be a card stocker because he does not know how to price the cards and basically Tom's sheep. He questioned me about a card that I was looking to trade in and say it was "fake," when I told them that I got the so called "fake card" from their vending machine if they can recall.
In all, THE STREAM VENDING MACHINE NEEDS TO GO! Pokemon is a hobby, not something you can exploit for huge amount of money. It is meant for the joy of collecting for people of all ages. read more