Pokémon Scalpers Furious, Say 30th Anniversary Set's Generous Pull Rates Have Crushed Their Profits

Pokémon card resellers and investors are complaining that the franchise's new 30th Anniversary set is simply too generous, after unusually high pull rates sent prices for sought-after cards tumbling days after release.

Pokémon TCG: 30th Celebration launched worldwide on 16 September, bringing more than 150 cards, 30 different Pikachu cards, and a mix of Illustration Rares, Special Illustration Rares, and new Futuristic Rares.

But early openings suggest collectors have a far better chance of pulling desirable cards than in many recent expansions, disrupting expectations among people who bought large quantities hoping scarcity would drive up resale prices.

One frustrated user on the Pokémon investment community r/PokeInvesting said collectors had spent years expecting the 30th anniversary to become a major opportunity to cash out.

'The literal complete opposite happened,' the user complained. Another predicted prices would fall further as owners began selling, warning: 'It's gonna be a bloody mess.'

Screenshots purporting to show complaints from Pokémon resellers on Discord have also spread across Reddit and other social platforms.

Kotaku cited one post attributed to a Discord user identified as Reggie B., who said he was 'seriously considering taking legal action against Pokémon' and complained that the company had not disclosed exact print numbers, pull rates or the scale of supply before release.

Other Reddit users have questioned whether some of the viral Discord screenshots genuinely reflect the wider resale market, with one highly upvoted post arguing that sealed 30th Anniversary products were still selling well above retail despite falling singles prices.

Rare Cards Are Turning up Far More Often

Early pull-rate figures help explain the frustration. A 420-pack sample compiled by DigitalTQ found Special Illustration Rares in 5.24% of packs — roughly one in 19 — while Illustration Rares appeared 20% of the time, or about one in five packs.

Futuristic Rares appeared in around 0.95% of packs. The sample combined DigitalTQ's own openings with third-party data, and the site cautioned that the figures should not be treated as definitive odds.

Even so, the numbers appear dramatically more generous than several recent Pokémon expansions. Kotaku noted that the apparent Special Illustration Rare rate was around four to five times higher than rates seen across many Scarlet & Violet and Mega Evolution sets.

Pokémon has also guaranteed one of 30 Pikachu cards in every booster pack, further increasing the number of collectible hits entering circulation.

Mew Prices Collapse After Release

The impact was visible almost immediately on the secondary market. Pre-release sales of the Futuristic Rare Mew reached roughly $850 (£636.20) to $1,400 (£1,047), while Mewtwo was also initially valued in the high hundreds.

Within days of release, however, prices collapsed as more copies entered the market. Futuristic Rare Mew was routinely listed around $120 (£89.82) but struggled to sell above $100 (£74.85), while Mewtwo also struggled to fetch around $100.

The three exceptionally scarce red, green and blue Mew cards remain far more valuable, but much of the rest of the set is trading at significantly lower prices than speculators had anticipated.

That is good news for collectors who want to complete binders without paying hundreds or thousands for individual cards. For anyone who stocked up expecting immediate resale profits, however, easier pulls mean more competition and less scarcity.

Not Every Investor Thinks It Is Bad News

Pokémon investors haven't reacted universally negatively. One highly upvoted r/PokeInvesting post argued that the generous set could actually strengthen the hobby by making pack openings fun again and attracting younger or casual collectors.

'This set is extremely healthy for the hobby long term,' the poster wrote, arguing that keeping people engaged could ultimately benefit the collecting market.

Others were less sympathetic towards investors who overbought ordinary sealed products expecting instant returns.

For now, the 30th Celebration has produced an unusual reversal: collectors are celebrating because they are actually pulling the cards they want, while some resellers and investors who counted on those cards being difficult to find are discovering just how quickly easier pull rates can reshape the market.