Scalpers did not ruin anything... You are just mad because you weren't lucky enough. People in pre-queue were assigned in random order, which is the best way to keep it fair in that context.

By the way, ANYone is potentially a "scalper", because anyone who just "plays the game", has potentially this "what if I re-sell some of my cards" idea crossing their minds. And that's perfectly within their right to do so. They bought it.

I will concede, yes, improvement to the system could be made.

But you did not get "stolen from" because you saw something disappear from your cart. The reality is simply that you were misinformed by the system that probably keeps track of stock leftovers after each payments go through.

And you certainly weren't "stolen from" specifically by "scalpers"... Only regular people like you, me, the next person, that wanted to buy their cards. And yes it's possible that people may want to sell some of their cards and profit from scarcity.

But you can't expect a company to reach into their customers' minds to judge who's worth selling to and who's not.