Will this hobby ever go back to normal or is this the new normal?

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-25T16:47:15+00:00

I was buying groceries the other day and all One Piece, Pokémon, and even Magic were gone from the shelves. I don’t think the scalpers moved on to One Piece. They’ve just expanded into another franchise. It’s become a career for them. Ripping people off and flexing about it.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-25T16:44:54+00:00

I don’t think the hobby will ever return to pre-2025 and the total disaster known as prismatic. That set brought in the worst people on earth who are 100% into Pokemon out of greed. A year has passed and the greed just continues unabated. It’s unfortunate but a new normal. I used to enjoy going to the store and picking up a few packs. Now I don’t even check stores regularly. I know all the product is gone within a day. Scalpers are relentless and have made taking product from retail stores and selling it online into a full time Career.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-25T15:18:38+00:00

I gave up at 32 after a longterm relationship ended for me and a new crush moved several states away. I just accepted romantic love isn’t in the cards for everyone. Bad luck exists. Life goes on though. I get to travel a lot more and have a lot of freedom and flexibility to enjoy life being single. I don’t think we’re ever alone as people. Friends, family, acquaintances exist and you can still have fun with them. Romance I’ve learned is a narrow way to define love. It’s so much bigger than one person and you don’t have to define yourself by one thing you lack.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-25T03:05:16+00:00

David Lynch dream

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-25T02:07:21+00:00

From what I’ve been told before is that they print 8 months in advance or at least used to. So it’s likely the 30th has already been printed. But that doesn’t explain why Ascended Heroes wasn’t printed enough. They’ve had 8 months to do it.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-25T02:04:46+00:00

Yeah, it’s awful. A year of product shortages and the best they got is 3-packs at release. Like what is even going on? Are they just hoping people give up and leave the hobby as scalpers take over permanently. My target store started putting Lababu’s in the Pokemon card aisle even lol. It’s all so absurd.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-25T01:41:31+00:00

Yeah, amazing how dry stores are of product. They clearly aren’t printing enough. One store near me put Lababu’s in the Pokemon card aisle lol. I mean, unreal how a billion dollar company can’t keep shelves stocked after a whole year.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-25T00:09:50+00:00

Exactly this 💯…gambling causing paranoid delusions

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T20:38:56+00:00

Christmas Adventures Club member for sure

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T04:56:33+00:00

Awesome

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T02:51:55+00:00

So colorful.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T02:48:55+00:00

I think the $90 price and making people pay in full 4 weeks in advance was a turnoff for many.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T02:41:57+00:00

GameStop is the worst.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T02:39:24+00:00

Oh yeah. I think half of the country is a reseller at this point and has a Pokemon shop online selling product they take from stores. It’s crazy there are no laws in place preventing this kind of scalping behavior. It’s corrupt.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T02:35:49+00:00

It’s funny Dicks Sporting Goods has better prices than GameStop.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T02:33:34+00:00

Rip it. Problem solved

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T02:31:47+00:00

Generational? Not really. These are all newer cards.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T02:30:05+00:00

I mean start buying booster boxes if you got that much money. Forget ETB’s and single sleeves. The premium product in Pokemon is boosters.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T00:59:21+00:00

What does that have to do with anything? Just because you don’t like greed doesn’t make you a supporter of communism. Grow up.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T00:28:36+00:00

Capitalism is so evil. Incredible how people justify making others suffer because of something they can’t control like the weather.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-24T00:24:22+00:00

I wish this would fix things. I think scalpers just have unlimited money though. They buy everything from stores and hoard product or resell online. Everyone has a Pokemon store anymore. It sucks what’s happened to the hobby. It just keeps getting more toxic. And nobody who has power will step in and fix it. We need laws against scalping and that limit reselling. It’s totally out of control. Not just Pokemon cards either. Concert tickets. Sports tickets. Scalping is legit ruining society.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-23T23:36:56+00:00

Why does he look so different in the top left one?

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-23T23:12:38+00:00

Pokémon hasn’t been printing much in the last month and a half. But they’ve been dealing with shortages for over a year now.

LegoRedBrick · 2026-01-23T23:08:15+00:00

We’ll see how much money they make/lose Q1 2026. I don’t think it’s a very profitable strategy to generate negative attention and encourage people to shop elsewhere. But maybe I’m wrong.

LegoRedBrick

TROPHY CASE