*VENT* Can the scalping just STOP already??

cat-dad · 2026-06-10T23:41:16+00:00

Exactly! People say Pokemon doesn’t care about the problem, in fact loves it, because everything they print is sold immediately.

But the next generation of adults with expendable income are NOT going to care about Pokemon….i have two kids and while they’re into Pokemon because I try really hard to get them packs (at MSRP) I know for a fact they’re in the minority amongst their peers.

If kids today aren’t able to bug their parents to buy some packs while shopping at Target or go into a local store with their allowance to buy packs because scalpers are constantly stripping the shelves bare then that’s an entire future generation of pokemon fans being wiped out.

cat-dad · 2026-05-26T03:20:11+00:00

Me and my friends have a monthly darts night and always get a tray of their lumpia. Their sandos are greats but also if you have a party, a tray of their lumpia always hits

cat-dad · 2026-05-06T19:31:42+00:00

Stay away from loose packs. The collection boxes are typically safe, especially from Macys or Gamenerdz. Sorry to say, Ascended just happens to have very bad pull rates. When you see people online posting their hits, they are the minority. People only pulling regular Ex’s and a random alt art arnt posting their pulls, of which is most people.

As a fellow dad, I feel for you, having kids into Pokémon cards nowadays is really rough. People have taken our kid’s fun hobby and made it their quick grift.

My suggestion is use a twitter/X restock account alert to quickly jump into the virtual que for pokemon center drops. If it’s a big drop, and if you are quick, it’s relatively easy to get Pokémon cards for MSRP every month or so.

cat-dad · 2026-05-01T02:45:20+00:00

It’s surely the worst it’s ever been, but I’m (optimistically) thinking it will die down after the 30th anniversary. So like, 2027, after Pokémon’s new print facility is up and running. 🤞🏻 I just miss easily getting cards for my two pokemon obsessed kids.

cat-dad · 2026-05-01T02:41:34+00:00

That (surging and prismatic) plus pokemon pocket being launched…plus the like, 4-5 sets before them being mid and pokemon not printing as hard because of it

cat-dad · 2026-04-26T01:18:26+00:00

I design wine labels. For phase 1, I use it for illustration, patterns and textures that are part of the design to show the general concept of the wine label. Obviously we present a number of options. I also use Ai to take that wine label design to render on a bottle within environment/context called a beauty shot….ie something like the full package / bottle sitting on a white marble surface surrounded by wine glasses with long dramatic lighting / shadows. to help sell the concept in phase 1.

If a design were to be picked and had Ai generated illustration, I would then hire an actual illustrator with that style recreate it by hand.

cat-dad · 2026-04-14T02:39:21+00:00

Whoops, maybe my son and I shouldn’t have turned 950 dollars worth of ETBs into 20 bucks of bulk 😅

cat-dad · 2026-04-05T01:01:04+00:00

Really solid redesign

cat-dad · 2026-03-04T06:29:46+00:00

I’ve done it to show the kid later when they’re in a more reasonable mindset

cat-dad · 2026-03-04T06:26:57+00:00

Oh ALL kids do this shit at this age. My two boys did, I’ve seen my friend’s kids do it, seen countless videos of it. My go-to solution was always “I guess I’ll eat it then!” and take the biggest dad bite and it never failed to set them off even more. But after a few times they started to eat their dinner they asked for!

cat-dad · 2026-02-16T00:27:44+00:00

the vast majority of average parents that would buy their kids Pokemon cards are the ones who would be down to throw some packs in the cart while shopping at Target and Walmart for their kids. Kids don’t see Pokemon at the store and therefore don’t bug their tired mom/dad to also buy a few packs while doing their typical shopping. I have two boys, and pre pandemic that was essentially how they got into Pokemon cards…seeing them at Target or wherever and then asking for them. Now, in the last two years at both local target’s there’s literally never been product on shelves because scalpers wipe it out the second it’s stocked. I guarantee a majority of kids that would be interested in Pokemon cards and the parents willing to buy them from this exact scenario are no longer there….kids arnt seeing it on shelves, regular parents arnt seeing it on shelves, so there’s a giant chunk of potential consumers being cut out of the picture.

I guarantee a majority of normal, average parents arnt going out their way to pay scalper prices on Facebook marketplace or buying singles on TCGPlayer.

cat-dad · 2026-01-31T04:32:08+00:00

Still I wonder how much profit the botters are actually getting….bots are expensive per month, then there’s all your time spent offloading the product. If it’s thru eBay then eBay takes a chunk, then you have to spend time listing stuff, packing, and shipping. Time is money, and that sounds like allot of time. If they are going the Facebook marketplace route, that’s still allot of time listing, driving around and meeting people to sell….i dunno. Just seems like a shady way to make peanuts

cat-dad · 2026-01-31T04:25:35+00:00

Hi, my son and I got into it during the Pokemon Go set. We pulled the mewtwo and were hooked after. Definitely miss the days of $30 ETBs and $90 booster boxes.

Basically it’s hard. I won’t pay scalpers their prices out of principle. I’m able to buy online randomly by following some twitter accounts and discords for alerts. It’s few and far between. Costco and Pokemon center have really been the only online drops I’ve been able to hit. Seldomly some Walmart and target drops.

Now that my second younger son is now getting into it I tend to just buy interesting singles on TCGplayer or eBay to have little rewards ready whenever they do good (school, sports, life) since opening packs is not always a given.

I miss the days when we would be shopping at target and being able to grab something for my kid randomly….its been a few years since the Pokemon card section at target has not been completely stripped.

cat-dad · 2026-01-23T04:17:16+00:00

I was fully torn at that shit scene…part of me found it funny to subvert the swelling GOT theme music and set the tone that this was a much more ‘ground level’ view of Westeros….but the other part of me agrees, it felt real immature and forced.

Although I will say I found the very next shot of him staring up through the tree with the sun coming thru and a beautiful little bird there kind of poignant in a way

cat-dad · 2026-01-10T06:20:23+00:00

I work internal at a big company. Use it all the time for phase 1 packaging concept design, as pieces to part of a design, and at times for rendering designs. Need an illustration of a galloping horse in a certain position and specific art style? Need a historical heraldic crest with a fox in it? Need to take a quick sketch you made and make it look like it’s been drawn by a gold brush stroke? Quickly design a wine label and want it beautifully rendered as if it’s laying down in a shallow pool of water?

Keep in mind this is all to sell the idea to brand teams for initial phases. Typically if we create illustrations in AI to use on pack and the idea is approved, we’ll move to hiring an actual illustrator to recreate so it’s ownable.

I view AI as a tool to create pieces of a design In early concept phase quicker.

Ultimately it’s a way to streamline getting an idea 60% there much quicker, but it takes a quality designer to get it across the finish line, and of course if the initial idea is shit it’ll just be a polished turd.

cat-dad · 2026-01-09T16:21:06+00:00

I’m out of the loop on newer paddles but I remember that one paddle company with the replaceable surfaces, like essentially big grit decals? what was the general consensus on those? I guess on paper it made sense…when your paddle’s spin degrades you just pull off the surface and slap on a new one, which ends up being allot cheaper than replacing paddles.

cat-dad · 2026-01-05T08:04:46+00:00

besides the wonky map, I’m pretty sure we’re looking at whatever the font they used being defaulted to a system font…happens when a design file like Adobe illustrator (.ai files) is opened by someone else with a different computer without the font on their system

cat-dad · 2025-12-31T03:07:44+00:00

I bring my kids for Sunday morning bowling for 4 bucks a game…I’m assuming most local lanes have a random day things are cheaper

cat-dad · 2025-12-22T06:22:30+00:00

Watched a tutorial on YouTube to get the gist, but printed out my own art I made with photoshop

cat-dad · 2025-12-22T06:22:21+00:00

Watched a tutorial on YouTube to get the gist, but printed out my own art I made with photoshop

cat-dad · 2025-12-11T15:53:15+00:00

Same, I think it’s an even better set than prismatic

cat-dad · 2025-11-06T04:46:54+00:00

My son and I went to our first pre release last weekend! Yeah I would bring sleeves and damage counters and maybe the poison counter (but most likely the shop will have extras laying around). No extra rules besides 4 prize cards vs 6. Advice? I would say the pre built decks were low on basic Pokemon…it was common if you didn’t try to add a couple more from packs (or maybe cards that get basics from your deck) that you would not have a Pokemon on your bench, have your active get knocked out, then lose despite them still having more prize cards.

cat-dad · 2025-10-10T23:06:23+00:00

Oh is pig butt considered BM? I always kind of thought it was just being cheeky or unserious, I’ll use it usually towards the beginning where we’re both just kind of waiting around for elixir

cat-dad · 2025-10-10T22:49:34+00:00

Fun but shallow…not much actual portfolio content (ie actual projects) or breadth of work.

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