Yesterday, the Pokémon Company launched its latest Trading Card Game expansion, Destined Rivals, via its online store. As was predicted, the set proved to be massively popular, and many of those hoping to pick up one of the sought-after Elite Trainer Boxes were hit with site crashes and multiple hour-long wait times.
If that wasn’t rough enough, we’ve today learnt that even those who managed to place an order may not actually be able to get their hands on the elusive ETB, as The Pokémon Company appears to be retroactively cancelling orders (thanks for the heads up, VGC).
As flagged across social media, customers who are still waiting on a confirmation email after what appeared to be a successful pre-order are discovering that their purchase has been quietly cancelled. This hasn’t come in an apology from TPC, but rather by heading to the Pokémon Center website and entering their order number. In short, if you think your Destined Rivals order is in the post, you might want to double-check.
What’s more, it doesn’t seem like this is an isolated incident, as a quick glance at social media told us:
As many fans left yesterday’s queues empty-handed, Destined Rivals Elite Trainer Boxes quickly began to crop up on eBay with massively inflated asking prices — a sign of another TCG launch marred by bots and scalpers.
The Pokémon Company has started to take some action against such profit-based practices, such as removing plastic wrapping on select orders in the Philippines, but until the demand dies down, we’ve no doubt that the madness will continue.
Yesterday, the Pokémon Company launched its latest Trading Card Game expansion, Destined Rivals, via its online store. As was predicted, the set proved to be massively popular, and many of those hoping to pick up one of the sought-after Elite Trainer Boxes were hit with site crashes and multiple hour-long wait times.
If that wasn't rough enough, we've today learnt that even those who managed to place an order may not actually be able to get their hands on the elusive ETB, as The Pokémon Company appears to be retroactively cancelling orders (thanks for the heads up, VGC).
As flagged across social media, customers who are still waiting on a confirmation email after what appeared to be a successful pre-order are discovering that their purchase has been quietly cancelled. This hasn't come in an apology from TPC, but rather by heading to the Pokémon Center website and entering their order number. In short, if you think your Destined Rivals order is in the post, you might want to double-check.
What's more, it doesn't seem like this is an isolated incident, as a quick glance at social media told us:
As many fans left yesterday's queues empty-handed, Destined Rivals Elite Trainer Boxes quickly began to crop up on eBay with massively inflated asking prices — a sign of another TCG launch marred by bots and scalpers.
The Pokémon Company has started to take some action against such profit-based practices, such as removing plastic wrapping on select orders in the Philippines, but until the demand dies down, we've no doubt that the madness will continue.
