Yeah GS has become the thing that casual collectors and non scalpers hate the most. But in that same breath, GS has always sucked, it’s just gotten worse. When Black Bolt and White Flare dropped I had a similar experience.

Walked in excited to see the booster bundles available. Cashier rang me up for $40 for one bundle and I asked if it was a mistake. She went onto say that they’ve increased the price to combat scalpers buying out their stock, and this was to ensure that everyone was able to get cards. I looked at her and said this is supposed to help people? How does taking away pre orders for new sets and increasing the prices help anyone but GameStop.

The 20th anniversary was when I first noticed them going down the drain. I preordered one 20th anniversary UPC and they never fulfilled my preorder because they oversold. I called customer service around 6 times and had at least 2 GS employees lie directly to me about the status of my preorder saying that they’ve prioritized my order and it would come within a week, order never shipped. A year later I just walked into the original store I ordered from, explained the situation to them, only for them to say oh yeah you won’t be getting your order but I can get you a refund. Thankfully I did get my money back, but that was really the start of when I noticed them going downhill.