Target stops selling all trading cards in stores on May 14

weaselpuppy

WalMart also doing same soon, springs from a recent attack on a customer who had large purchase of cards in a parking lot. Likely gang related, intentional. All kinds of stories of distributors being followed from store to store etc. Target is done with it.

https://bleedingcool.com/games/target-stores-to-halt-sales-of-all-trading-cards-from-may-14th-forward/

giantsfan20

Target finaly takes serious action on this matter. Lets see how long they stop sales. Target probably does not care as its a good source of revenue selling out all stock. Target should have clamped down in 2020 but instead let ppl buy entire stock and just recently 1 box or one sku guess this store did not follow store policy what ever it was?

thedutymon11

Evening,

So where does this product go? Is this going to be Boon to Local Card Shops? I could see it as helping them out!

YeeHaw!

Neil

Porkins

This is disheartening news to me. I loved to pick up a blaster or 2 at each grocery trip, almost as a reward for getting through the weekend Walmart madness. Since we’re around our elderly parents very frequently, the wife and I try to do the right thing by using WM pickup exclusively for the last year, and now that we’re all just about fully vaccinated, some bozos have ruined everything.

giantsfan20

On that link above read the article on the wal mart stoping sales of cards and it mention bad bevaior of customes.

Pr news just watch in a couple of weeks business as usual i bet.

Justacommeman

Things like this often signal that the party is over.

Sportscard shops are probably more apt to be targeted by crooks then gold/coin shops. Go figure

m

giantsfan20

https://bleedingcool.com/games/wal-mart-allegedly-suspending-trading-card-game-sales/

Wal Mart respone?

weaselpuppy

The general idea is the sales will move online....and promptly be scarfed up in seconds by bots,...

coolstanley

So blame the cards? LOL

billwaltonsbeard

I haven't seen any cards for sale at walmart or Target for over a year now.........and Im not going to stand in line. So, this news affects me 0%

WQuarterFreddie

It was getting ridiculous because of the same group of scalpers in my area. They would run in at Target store opening and scoop up all of the football and basketball boxes. Some would even hide them in the store and come back later for them.😤

Then they finally implemented a policy of Friday morning at store opening release that was fairly organized and gave everyone a chance. 😎

So because of some losers everyone else gets punished. Target and Walmart are playing right in to the hands of the scalpers again because they can now scoop up all of the online inventory with their bot programs.

This is not good for the hobby and I feel sorry for the kids that just want to rip some packs and now their parents will have to pay scalper prices.🙄

gobraves39401

I am glad about this. It was ridiculous seeing men stand in line for hours and hours to grab some cards just to sell them on the internet.

Alfonz24

@weaselpuppy said:
WalMart also doing same soon, springs from a recent attack on a customer who had large purchase of cards in a parking lot. Likely gang related, intentional. All kinds of stories of distributors being followed from store to store etc. Target is done with it.

https://bleedingcool.com/games/target-stores-to-halt-sales-of-all-trading-cards-from-may-14th-forward/

But they still have Black Friday Sales

72skywalker

@weaselpuppy said:
WalMart also doing same soon, springs from a recent attack on a customer who had large purchase of cards in a parking lot. _Likely gang related_, intentional. All kinds of stories of distributors being followed from store to store etc. Target is done with it.

https://bleedingcool.com/games/target-stores-to-halt-sales-of-all-trading-cards-from-may-14th-forward/

Likely Gang Related- You have to watch out for those sport card gangs. Bad News. They will mess you up.

Estil

I can't imagine a real collector would get their cards from some retail store anyway. Aren't the best inserts and such usually in hobby packs/boxes? Not to mention retail packs/boxes are quite likely to have been picked through

Mcvillagehtx

I am glad they have done this. How pathetic it was to watch grown men sitting in the aisles all day long waiting then returning the next day to do the same until they could get a few crumbs to flip on offerup.

rsherryjr

Good. It was pathetic. The card companies should really adjust the odds to fix the problem tbh.

spanky74

@Estil said:
I can't imagine a real collector would get their cards from some retail store anyway. Aren't the best inserts and such usually in hobby packs/boxes? Not to mention retail packs/boxes are quite likely to have been picked through

None of this applies to Pokemon. At my local target, I’d say about half the folks who waited in line were scalpers and half were collectors. Almost all the Pokémon folks were collectors and guess what, they were old men because you know a 10 year old can’t be left waiting in line from 4 am to 8 am. At least my kids can’t. I waited in line and then my kids and I ripped that evening together. And guess what else, you need more than 10 cards for a deck so you actually need to buy a lot to build something...not just to flip. It’s like telling somebody that wants to build a 500 card baseball set, they should only need one pack. This decision will just drive prices higher. Most the card shops around me already charge scalper prices, and nobody is doing preorders anymore.

baz518

Selling exclusively online is what they should have done long ago.

GoDodgersFan

Good. End this madness and move to online.

brad31

While the current status is awful - this really is a sad development. I would not be a collector today if I couldn’t have walked to my local convenience store and bought packs of cards as a kid. Target and Wal-Mart were pretty much the only places where kids could beg their parents or spend their allowance on a pack of cards. Not all parents will take their kids to a local card shop.

weaselpuppy

@72skywalker said:

@weaselpuppy said:
WalMart also doing same soon, springs from a recent attack on a customer who had large purchase of cards in a parking lot. _Likely gang related_, intentional. All kinds of stories of distributors being followed from store to store etc. Target is done with it.

https://bleedingcool.com/games/target-stores-to-halt-sales-of-all-trading-cards-from-may-14th-forward/

Likely Gang Related- You have to watch out for those sport card gangs. Bad News. They will mess you up.

One of us has about 20 lines of contact into organized crime task forces, the FBI, and has been on Discovery ID channel busting Nigerian scammer rings. One of us doesn't and hasn't.

Cell phone store robberies? It's gangs. Car thefts from dealerships? Same. Catalytic converters being torched off of cars? Gangs, and meth heads. They aren't stupid, they saw people walking out of stores with a cart that could have 5-10K in it that is untraceable? It absolutely is a target, at Target and elsewhere.

Tabe

@billwaltonsbeard said:
I haven't seen any cards for sale at walmart or Target for over a year now.........and Im not going to stand in line. So, this news affects me 0%

Been more like two years for me, if not longer.

Estil

@brad31 said:
While the current status is awful - this really is a sad development. I would not be a collector today if I couldn’t have walked to my local convenience store and bought packs of cards as a kid. Target and Wal-Mart were pretty much the only places where kids could beg their parents or spend their allowance on a pack of cards. Not all parents will take their kids to a local card shop.

I did that too; bought packs at the local convenience store, Wal-Mart, and the local flea market on the weekends I was lucky enough to get to go that had a section of card sellers. I was so pleased as punch my freshman/sophomore years at UK that there was a really good hobby store (Baseball Card Warehouse) that I got many of my first ever complete (factory) sets from! Wonder if they're still around...

3stars

packs also used to cost a quarter, and five years later were still worth a quarter.

craig44

topps and panini should just drop the current distribution network and sell direct. no need for a middle man.

Estil

@3stars said:
packs also used to cost a quarter, and five years later were still worth a quarter.

I can think of far worse things to give a quarter for!

https://youtu.be/29ebiwO4O70

byronscott4ever

It’s temporary—guessing HQ is figuring out universal plan so all stores sell it the same way

WQuarterFreddie

@byronscott4ever said:
It’s temporary—guessing HQ is figuring out universal plan so all stores sell it the same way

They had the plan in place. All Targets were supposed to be selling them on Fridays at store opening. People wait in line and proceed to guest service where the employees would allow each individual to pick out 1 box or pack.

The problem was the District Managers weren't making sure all of their locations were doing this.🙄

gobraves39401

@WQuarterFreddie said:

@byronscott4ever said:
It’s temporary—guessing HQ is figuring out universal plan so all stores sell it the same way

They had the plan in place. All Targets were supposed to be selling them on Fridays at store opening. People wait in line and proceed to guest service where the employees would allow each individual to pick out 1 box or pack.

The problem was the District Managers weren't making sure all of their locations were doing this.🙄

I'm sorry. That is just ridiculous that people making minimum wage has to get people every week to file in one line and pay special attention to them. Most managers probably don't have enough people to even work.

WQuarterFreddie

@gobraves39401 said:

@WQuarterFreddie said:

@byronscott4ever said:
It’s temporary—guessing HQ is figuring out universal plan so all stores sell it the same way

They had the plan in place. All Targets were supposed to be selling them on Fridays at store opening. People wait in line and proceed to guest service where the employees would allow each individual to pick out 1 box or pack.

The problem was the District Managers weren't making sure all of their locations were doing this.🙄

I'm sorry. That is just ridiculous that people making minimum wage has to get people every week to file in one line and pay special attention to them. Most managers probably don't have enough people to even work.

Obviously you have never stood in the line. No Target employees are involved until the door opens. At that point everyone goes to Guest Relations aka Customer Service and they sell the cards. The store makes a ton of money within 15 minutes and no one can steal the cards or take more than the 1 item.

The system works and makes sure parents have a fair and safe way to get cards for their kids instead of 1 or 2 scalpers buying everything to resell at higher prices.

What does minimum wage have to do with it? I assure you the Manager and Supervisors make more than minimum wage and they are the employees handling it along with Target security if the store has them.

yankeesman

This is why we can't have nice things.

SoxPatsFan

I hope they don't move to online-only sales. My feeling is that if someone wants to wait for hours, let them. They've earned to right to buy the cards in person. It's up to each individual to do the math and determine if what they could get is worth the time spent in line. As long as they follow the store policy, it's fine with me.

Online-only would be a disaster - just look at the Sony Playstation 5. It's sold only online, and resellers use computerized bots to buy them up as soon as they go live. Regular customers have no legitimate shot at buying one for retail price, while resellers have dozens listed on Ebay for hundreds over cost.

While everyone's circumstances may be different, theoretically everyone has an equal opportunity to show up early and wait in line. It's a fair system, unlike online.

WQuarterFreddie

@SoxPatsFan said:
I hope they don't move to online-only sales. My feeling is that if someone wants to wait for hours, let them. They've earned to right to buy the cards in person. It's up to each individual to do the math and determine if what they could get is worth the time spent in line. As long as they follow the store policy, it's fine with me.

Online-only would be a disaster - just look at the Sony Playstation 5. It's sold only online, and resellers use computerized bots to buy them up as soon as they go live. Regular customers have no legitimate shot at buying one for retail price, while resellers have dozens listed on Ebay for hundreds over cost.

While everyone's circumstances may be different, theoretically everyone has an equal opportunity to show up early and wait in line. It's a fair system, unlike online.

Agreed!

gobraves39401

@SoxPatsFan said:
I hope they don't move to online-only sales. My feeling is that if someone wants to wait for hours, let them. They've earned to right to buy the cards in person. It's up to each individual to do the math and determine if what they could get is worth the time spent in line. As long as they follow the store policy, it's fine with me.

Online-only would be a disaster - just look at the Sony Playstation 5. It's sold only online, and resellers use computerized bots to buy them up as soon as they go live. Regular customers have no legitimate shot at buying one for retail price, while resellers have dozens listed on Ebay for hundreds over cost.

While everyone's circumstances may be different, theoretically everyone has an equal opportunity to show up early and wait in line. It's a fair system, unlike online.

Theoretically NOT everyone can go stay in line for hours for some cards. Most of us have jobs. Let me tell the patients at the hospital ...Hey I have to leave to go stand in line for some cards. LOL!! So it really is not a fair system. When I did stop by Walmart/Target every box/pack will be gone and they said one guy walks in and buys them all. How is that fair at all? I am down to buying Hockey cards just to keep up with my hobby.

82FootballWaxMemorys

My guess is any money made by cards at Target was a drop in their large bucket. Seems to them the juice simply not worth the squeeze. Yeah I watched the "Girl Next Door" recently

WQuarterFreddie

Well in typical Target fashion they stopped selling in stores, tell their customers online only and then they never release them online 🙄

Did anyone else get any online from Target?

ringer

What’s up with all the third party sellers on Target’s web site? It’s like nothing on their site actually comes from Target.

dtkk49a

I haven't seen any online yet