Buckle up, trainers, a queue is afoot. After a chaotic drop last Wednesday, The Pokémon Center is back with another 30th anniversary pre-order slate. This influx of TCG products covers some, but not all, of the items going on sale starting on October 2. Here's what you need to know.
What's available to pre-order?
The list includes:
- Pokémon TCG: 30th Celebration Booster Bundle: six booster packs; price expected to be $29.99
- Pokémon TCG: 30th Celebration Mini Tin Display: four different collectible tins, each containing two booster packs, a sticker sheet, and an art card; price expected to be $9.99
The wave does not include the highly sought-after Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Boxes. However, based on information shared by botting Discords, it is expected that TPC will continue releasing more products in waves.
Image: Mizuki Kamei for Pokémon Center Online / The Pokémon Company
How much can I buy?
The bundle has a limit of three per customer, while the tin has a limit of one. To contextualize this, during the last drop, ETBS — which had a limit of two per customer — sold out after five hours. The rest of the products, which had stricter limits, took nearly seven hours to sell out. That level of availability is unheard of in recent years for Pokémon TCG sets, so it's clear that The Pokémon Company is heavily printing it.
How to prepare for TPC's 30th anniversary drop
The usual advice applies. You should try to connect via PC, on a wired internet connection if possible. Mobile phones tend to refresh webpages when you don't have the tab open and go to sleep quickly. Whatever you choose, don't connect multiple devices from the same IP address to the site — you could be flagged. You could, however, connect a phone on LTE and a PC on a wired connection at the same time to double your chances.
Fans also report that trying to purchase multiple orders at the same address sometimes caused those orders to be canceled. Checkouts were plagued with issues, and it sometimes took multiple tries for TPC to accept a credit card.
Whatever you do, avoid reloading the website as much as possible. If you're actively in a queue with a timer, the screen can sometimes go completely blank. Let the website do its thing: it will eventually reload at a new time. Reloading can put you at the back of the line and may also get you an error 17. Error 17 appears when TPC deems you to be a bot, and you'll be unable to load the website at all.
Should I be worried about my timer?
Expect the first hour or so to be particularly rife with issues, including ones where TPC's website won't load at all. Once things settle, whatever your timer says won't be exact. It might display seven remaining hours, then fall down to two hours, and then suddenly go back up to three hours. More than once during the first wave, I got under an hour only to be kicked back to a three-hour wait. I did manage to get everything though — except the ETB. If you want to succeed, you have to be ready to spend a lot of time at your computer.
Sometimes, the website will crash randomly, and you'll be sent to the back of the line anyway. While frustrating, get back in the queue. Many people had to restart their wait times on Wednesday and were still able to purchase stock. All of which to say, even if you get into the queue late, don't despair. Chances are very high you'll score something, eventually.
Image: The Pokémon Company
Where is my email confirmation?
Once a purchase is made, do not be alarmed if you don't immediately receive an email confirmation. Receipts could take an hour or longer to arrive, so it's a good idea to screenshot your confirmation screen.
Godspeed, trainers. While it appears that scalpers with bots ate well on Wednesday, normal people were also more successful than usual. If all else fails, hey: the new Pitch Black set came out last Friday. Most retailers are flush with single packs of Pitch Black as of this writing.
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