The Pokémon franchise has always been an ever increasingly popular phenomenon. Especially the last year or two with the popularity of Pokémon cards getting out of control. This has caused an imbalance in supply and demand. There is so much demand for Pokémon cards and only a limited supply that The Pokémon Company can handle. This imbalance strikes up an issue of scalpers buying out inventory and every store you check being out of stock. The new Pokémon Celebrations set just released and with Fusion Strike releasing soon after, on November 12th, this is an issue we need to face as a community. It seems like the Celebrations set has been printed more than previous sets, so there hasn’t been as much of a shortage lately, but this is likely due to it being a huge set that The Pokémon Company has been promoting the most. This has also lead to scalpers losing money on Celebrations packs. But the same can’t be said for other subsets of Sword and Shield, where stores are usually sold out everywhere. Fusion Strike is likely to be printed less than Celebrations, so you may have a harder time finding available stock for these packs. Everyone should be able to get there hands on some new Pokémon cards, so here’s where you can find packs in stock.

Trusted Stores

One of the most trusted sources for buying or preordering Fusion Strike right now is GameStop. They’re listed at retail, MSRP price, so you don’t have to buy them off a scalper for a higher price. Not only will you be getting packs from a trusted source, but if you use our link below we earn commissions and you’ll help the PokePatch website stay up. Check out GameStop’s availability here:

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Get Notifications on Stock Numbers

Since it’s difficult for stores to keep up with the demand, places are selling out quick like usual. Instead of checking each store’s website to see if they’re in stock, there’s an easier method. More and more people are relying on notifications that give you information about newly released products that are being restocked or being stocked for the first time. You can get these types of notifications on different apps from certain local stores but the most universal place is Twitter. The Twitter page that goes by @CharmanderHelps is doing exactly as it promises. It helps it’s followers get updates on when new Pokémon cards are in stock at several different online stores. They Tweet when an online store has preorders available for Fusion Strike. By turning on notifications for this account, you’ll be able to get updates on when Fusion Strike is in stock. This is a great way to help the community and make sure everyone gets to participate in the experience that is opening a new pack of Pokémon cards.

What Is Scalping?

Pokémon has always been an increasingly popular franchise and that goes double for the past year or two. Specifically, the Pokémon Trading Card Game is getting a lot more attention than previous years. This has created a large increase in demand while supply has relatively stayed the same. When this happens it opens the door people to buy up these products that are already scarce, making it even more scarce, and they sell them at outrageously overpriced margins. We call these types of people scalpers. Scalpers hurt the community by making them pay more than they need to for the same product and preventing many people that don’t have that type of money from ever obtaining these packs. We advise everyone not to buy Pokémon card packs and boxes if you think they’re overpriced. Buying packs off scalpers just funds this cycle even more.

Scalpers Are Losing Money

In the recently released Pokémon TCG sets, scalpers have made a lot of money reselling these packs for more than they bought them. It seems now the scalpers are actually losing money from the new Celebrations set. These Celebrations packs have been promoted and advertised by the Pokémon Company more than any set we’ve seen in a long time. This shows that they were ready for the high demand that they were targeting. When scalpers went in to buy up stock and pre-order products everywhere, they managed to get a lot of products. Now that the set has been released on October 8th, we’ve seen that many stores have more inventory than previously released sets. This means The Pokémon Company planned for the high demand and matched it with more supply than usual. A higher supply of these cards has left the scalpers with a lot of inventory that they can’t sell for a profit because no one’s going to buy them from a scalper when they can just go to the store to get them. This doesn’t mean scalpers will stop what they’re doing completely, future sets may not be printed as much as what we’re seeing with Celebrations. This is a big win for the community but we need need to do our part and not buy anything from scalpers.

If you’re looking to buy some Celebrations packs, look no further! Gamestop will provide you with the retail MSRP price on Pokémon packs and boxes, so you don’t have to buy them overpriced from some scalper. Not only do you get them for the actual price, but if you use our link below, we’ll earn a commission and you’ll be helping the PokePatch website stay up. Thank you!

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The Numbers on Pokemon Cards

Whether you’re new to opening Pokémon cards or you’re a veteran collector that’s just now getting back into the hobby, you may not know every detail about your cards. You may have noticed by now there are numbers on the bottom right or left of each card that look something like this.

1/100 = X/Y

What do the numbers on Pokemon cards mean? Despite being such a small detail, these numbers give players and collectors a lot of information. They will help you identify the card you have, its rarity, and what set it came from. Here’s the meaning of your Pokemon card number.

Pokemon Card Number Meaning

We’ll break it down into two variables to get these bottom corner numbers explained because there are two numbers shown like this: X/Y. The X variable tells you which card you’re holding. The Y variable lets you know how many total cards (excluding secret rare cards) are in the set.

Identifying Rarity (X)

The numbers on the bottom right of each Pokémon card don’t always tell you how rare it is, but it can be helpful identifying what category of rarity it might be in. There are different types of rarity of Pokémon cards. Common, uncommon, rare, and secret rare. The higher the X value is on your card, the safer it is to assume that its rarer. Usually the common cards in a set are low numbers while the rares and holos are high numbers, but you can still find many regular rares with low numbers as well so this isn’t always the case. You also may encounter an x value that is higher than the y value. This indicates you pulled a secret rare. What is a secret rare? These secret cards are very rare and have a unique appearance as they’ll sometimes have a rainbow or golden holographic face.

Identifying Sets (Y)

Each set of Pokémon cards will have a different Y value. This tells you how many cars are in the set. For example, if you open a Vivid Voltage booster pack and you get the first common card, the number will show 1/185. But if you pull the first card in the Chilling Reign set it’ll show as 1/198. This means there are 185 advertised cards in the Vivid Voltage set and 198 in Chilling Reign. Of course, that doesn’t show the total amount of cards you can pull, as there is an undetermined amount of secret rares in each set as well. This can be useful while going through a custom built deck or your collection binder full of cards from different sets. You can pick out which cards came from the same sets by looking at this number.

Pokemon TCG Set Symbols & Rarity Symbols

Next to the Y variable you’ll also might see two symbols. Depending on how old the card is, one of these symbols might be near the art if it’s vintage. These small icons directly relate to what set the card is from and what rarity it is, meaning just by looking at these symbols, you’ll be able to tell rarity, and which set it belongs to. The set icon is more for fans that are very familiar with the Pokemon TCG in general and it’s not expected that you’ll memorize all of these symbols as there are hundreds of them. It’s easier to just look up the number you see on the card to find which expansion set it comes from. As for the rarity symbol, there are only a few so it’s easy to remember. Circle is common, diamond is uncommon, white star is rare, and black star is a promo card.

What is Pokémon TCG Live?

You may have heard of Pokémon TCG Online, also known as PTCGO for short. If you haven’t heard of this you may recognize it from code cards. When you open a new pack of Pokémon cards, the first card you see on top is a code card you can redeem online. Redeeming this on PTCGO will give you a virtual pack to open from the same set that you opened in real life. For example, if you redeem a code card from a Vivid Voltage pack, you’ll get a Vivid Voltage pack online to open as well. After opening the cards in the online game, you can add them to your deck, play with them, or trade them for other cards. That’s the main point of PTCGO, playing the card game and trading. Pokémon TCG Live is the new version of this game that’s coming soon. Once PTCGL comes out, PTCGO will no longer be playable and you’ll have to play the new version of their online trading card game. There’s been a lot of discussion about this change and whether it’s a good or a bad one. If so many people love the PTCGO game, why would so many players dislike the idea of a new one?

Trading In Pokémon TCG Live

Trading cards, packs, and customizable items is a huge part of, not only the online game, but the Pokémon TCG in general. It’s literally in the name “Trading Card Game”. Many players have spent real world money on these tradable items and have huge collections from trading other players. As it turns out trading will not be a feature in the new Pokémon TCG Live. This is the main point of frustration for many players because it was half of the game. There are theories that The Pokémon Company may be choosing to phase out trading because they want players to spend more real world money on packs. This way, if you want a really powerful or rare card, you’ll no longer be able to trade another player for it. You’re only option is to open more packs for a chance to get it.

Graphics and Gameplay

Oddly enough, in this situation, the graphics and gameplay aren’t the main focus of this online game but it has still sparked some conversation as well. The graphics from what we’ve seen of Pokémon TCG Live, compared to Pokémon TCG Online hasn’t surprised. Of course what we seen may be subject to change, because the game isn’t out yet, but many argue the way the old game looks is better. What do you think?