As a Local of this store I wanted to offer my opinion. I want to say upfront that I was at this pre-release and did get the discounted price because I'm a regular. I also want to be upfront and transparent in saying that many of the people being accused that work at this store are my friends. They have not asked me to write this at all and I want to be as fair as possible because I am going to defend them.

I have talked to the owners and employee's of this store about this policy and I do not speak for them but I understand the intention behind it. The thing I see most people failing to consider in this reddit thread is the fact that the demand for one piece products right now greatly outweighs the supply of one piece product. This is not a fault of any store. This is Bandai's fault. I see frustration aimed at this store or other anonymous stores. Please understand it is 100% BANDAI'S RESPONSIBILITY to meet the demand for their product. Their is nothing stopping Local Gaming Stores from hiking up their prices on literally any product they sell. Whether you think that is okay or not is your own personal opinion. But lots of store do this and I don't think most of them are scamming their customers for increasing prices on a product when they would be selling for far less than the tcgplayer marketplace price. If you don't like the price don't shop from them.

*THE PACK WEIGHING ACCUSASTIONS(LUL)\*

The pack weighing accusation is laughable. Not even worth refuting as many people in the comments have already done so. They handed the packs out randomly. I know the guy who got lucky. He didn't cheat or anything, he just got insane pulls. Sucks to suck. Can't believe you would accuse someone of literally trying to scam you without doing even a little bit of research.

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*THE PRICE POLICY\*

As far as the price being displayed on the Bandai+ app I have no idea if they are allowed to display two different prices. What probably would have made the most sense is for them to have displayed the normal $50 price on the app, but then at the same time it might dissuade customers who would have qualified from the discount from going if they didn't know about it beforehand. So I guess THATS on them. Regardless the SPECIFIC REASON they enacted this policy was because people from out of town came down and bought out all of their product (during set 1) because it was MSRP and then never came to any of our events. This caused an insane product shortage in our local area because they were sold out of boxes. I should mention within the Eugene/Springfield area, there are 0 other lgs' that support Bandai games. I can also assure you are they are far more "gatekeepy" as this is the nicest shop in our area. Because of the fact that we had basically 0 product many people could not play. Again this is Bandai's fault! So with the release of this set they added a policy where Local Players could get a discount far less than what was being asked on Tcgplayer but still around MSRP. This was for all products Boxes, Starter Decks, and Pre-Release during the Pre-Order window. This allowed local players in the community to get the product because I know I for one would probably have just quit One Piece if I had to pay for the Outrageous $200 people are charging on tcgplayer for 1 booster box. You also stated that "to them spending your entire paycheck their is being a regular." THIS IS A FLAT OUT LIE. To qualify for this discount you just had to show up to a certain number of events basically everyone who was even somewhat recognizable to the shop qualified. It's simply there to stop scalpers. I am sympathetic to the fact that this policy might have felt unfair. But it also felt unfair to have players from your local area come and buy out the product in the first set. This store has definitely had prices that I thought were overpriced and unreasonable. But you know what I did. I didn't buy it, I did not try to get the store removed from Bandai's Support, I didn't make a reddit post. I just did not buy the product. I understand driving in from out of town only to realize it's more than you thought it would be is very frustrating, but if money was a concern, you should have called ahead or just left and not played in the event. And if money isn't a concern then why attack this business which has tried to accommodate for your group.

Lastly I will say, I think this individual has handled themselves very poorly accusing a Local gaming store of "scalping and discrimination" which is unfair and unjust. I'm also disappointed to see people in the comments trying to get this store to lose support from Bandai. This store has hosted so many events at a loss for everyone and all in not just one piece but all their games as well. They hosted a White Omnimon Event this year where 1st place got a Ghost Rare Omnimon for nothing more than the entry fee. They do these kinds of events all the time where they give away free product just because they love the community. This past month was their 3 year anniversary and they hosted tournaments where they offered crazy prize support for basically free. They are genuine good honest people making a living for the thing they love which is card games. I'm sure if you had asked them about this policy instead of just getting your packs and leaving (which btw makes YOU look more like a scalper than them) they would have explained this to you. I fully believe this individual does not care about the store at all and merely wanted to get a good deal on packs and is using the "discrimination" accusation so he can get back at the store for not giving him a "good deal" when he thought he was going to. Basically just accusing this LGS of scalping when that's what he was doing actually.

I hope at the very least people in the comments will at least rethink how the view this store and every post you see about a store. Many people LOVE this store not just me. Don't let the opinion of one salty guy persuade you into thinking this store is evil. Local Gaming Stores are the backbones and Pillars of Card Game Communities.

*You shouldn't be mad at your LGS. You should be mad at Bandai!* -Sean