On 27 February 2025—the 2025 edition of Pokémon Day—The Pokémon Company announced that official Pokémon TCG vending machines would be set up for the very first time. This was supposedly done to counter the impact of scalpers on the Pokémon TCG market.

Among the regulations imposed on the use of these vending machines included the following: all products sold via the vending machines would have purchase limits, the machines would be restocked on a periodic basis, and would-be buyers would not be allowed to loiter near the machines.

However, less than two weeks since their launch, these vending machines have been beset by a wide range of issues. Most of the issues are related to enforcement of the aforementioned regulations. For example, several videos of people buying quantities of TCG products from the vending machines which are well above the purchase limits have made the rounds on social media recently. In addition, the anti-loitering rule isn’t properly enforced at all the vending machines.

Adding to the problem is the fact that the product restock times are regular. As such, those who know—whether scalpers or legitimate buyers—can go straight to a machine with sub-standard enforcement and buy massive quantities of items at once without having to loiter to wait for the restock time to arrive. Others have even paid those who already know for inside information on when the restock times are.

Finally, many machines carry an inadequate level of product stock. Several buyers have reported the machines running out of stock even after a relatively low number of purchases following a restock.

In other TCG-related news, check out the promotional Charlotte Smoothie card. Alternatively, you can also head over to the SNKRDUNK App via the banner below and find the top trending and latest single cards and boxes.

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