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If you’ve been out of the Pokémon the Card Game (TCG) world or didn’t grow up in the Pokémon craze you might not fully realize what you’ve gotten yourself into when your kid comes home from school asking for Pokémon cards and you agree to get some. Unfortunately, for some kids, and parents, Pokémon cards have hit a resurgence and have become highly sought after, joining the ranks with Nee-doh and squishy dumplings.

Pokémon cards hit a big resurgence during the pandemic. Some fans found their old collections during a pandemic deep clean and were shocked to learn the cards held their value unlike Beanie Babies. Others wanted to chase that nostalgic dopamine when you open a pack.

There was another influx in 2021 when Logan Paul bought a rare card for over $5 million and shared the process with his fans. Even recently there seems to be yet another bump in popularity with card vendors like Coop’s Collection and Beard.dad.cards who stream themselves selling at conventions (by “selling” I mean usually giving away “chase” cards to kids and people with touching stories).

Those often blurry-through-my-tears videos are why I picked up my binder from my childhood and showed my six year daughter my collection. Immediately she wanted to start her own. Her excitement mixed with and my nostalgic love for TCG hit me pretty hard. Soon I was researching how to get my hands on some packs.

I knew going into it that cards would be hard to find but it was still a shock to me how much you had to know in order to get Pokémon card packs. You can’t just simply walk into a store and grab some. Well, sometimes you can, if you know which ones. And that’s why we’re here.

Now this is a list for packs, ETBs, and box sets. Individual cards you can get easily online from places like TCGPlayer and in person at card shows so we won’t focus on that for now. Let’s go through where to find real Pokémon cards for Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price or MSRP.

Today, October 2nd, they are releasing another wave of the highly sought after Pokemon TCG: 30th Celebration. It will include the mini tins, which feature Espeon, Umbreon, Mew, Mewtwo, Greninja, Pikachu and more. Each tin comes with 2 Pokemon TCG: 30th Celebration booster packs, a sticker sheet, and art card. The release will also feature the Celebration booster bundle which comes with six packs. And the mini portfolio which comes with one pack.

You can also get the Mewtwo promo card after spending $15 or more on Pokémon TCG products at the following retailers. While supplies last.

On November 6th, Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution—Delta Reign drops. It’s highly anticipated with the return of Mega Rayquaza ex and the feature of a new traditional artist Tayu who is an embroidery illustrator.

Not all stores are official suppliers of Pokémon cards. I was honestly a little surprised by the ones who did have them. I broke down this list (that I got help with from Reddit user drewuptown) by who has cards for MSRP based on the drops, who has them for a slightly higher price (still better than resellers), and who has them ‘every now and then.’ It has become fun to check the “every now and then” stores to see if we get lucky.

The bigger stores usually have Pokémon cards when there’s Pokémon set releases. Usually new sets are released over the course of a month and a half and then a new one will pop up. Keeping us addicted! That being said, once a new set comes out it’s usually easier to get packs of the previous set. But ETBs and box sets will be hard to come by after the drops. So prioritize those when shopping. This list is also for in-store shopping. I’ll get to online shopping later on.

Retailers that have them for MSRP in store and have consistent drops:

Stores that have them at a higher price but will them consistently with the drops

Stores that are inconsistent but will have them for MSRP or close to when they do. Usually not the most recent drops

If you’ve tried to get Eras Tour concert tickets then you basically know what it’s like to get TCG goodies from the Pokémon center. Basically in the US it’s an online store for all things Pokémon. There will be certain days that they do TCG drops at an unknown time. Many people will follow creators like PokéRestock HQ and set a notification when they tweet. I’ve seen many places offer Discord groups you can pay to join that will also notify you of drops. I wouldn’t do this since there’s so many accounts sharing this info for free.

If you’re lucky you get in a queue (on your desktop not phone!) by going to the page and making sure it knows you’re human. If you’re ever luckier the queue will work and you’ll get a chance to buy some ETBs and packs at MSRP. The queue will give you a wait estimate that’s crazy like 13 hours. Keep the page open, do not refresh, and don’t access the Pokémon center site on any other device on the same wifi. This will greatly help your chances and keep you from getting kicked off.

You can usually get a few things though there’s limits and sometimes certain products run out. Now the ETBs from the Poké center are especially great as they are marked as “Pokémon center” on the packaging. These sealed ETBs go for a bit more money, usually after sitting on them for a bit. Especially once they are out of circulation. In this house though, we rip everything.

Going to a Pokémon drop can be exciting or a long process depending on how The best way to find out about what it’s like at the store you’re planning to go to is to ask customer service at that location. I would do it the day before you’re planning to arrive. They will let you know how their queue is going to work and can confirm if they are even getting a shipment in. They should be able to tell you how quickly they ran out at previous drops as well. Though sometimes it’s hard for them to even know how much they will get in.

Some stores will have people lining up outside for hours, like Target, since people are able to get more TCG products there. I was successful in waiting at my Barnes and Noble since they have a stricter limit, less people showed up to wait and I was pretty close to the front of the line there. I would say expect to wait at least an hour and a half to feel confident on getting cards. Of course earlier is better. It will greatly depend on how much your store gets and how many Pokémon fans show up and if the workers know when their shipment is coming in. My cousin does drops in a bigger city and is able to get cards since they send more product to those stores with higher traffic but he’s also been burned a few times and left with nothing. You have to be ready for the disappointment as well. Or at least have another store to go to as backup.

While I did do this with my one year old, I would actually not recommend doing this with kids. There were a lot of smokers in my line and in my cousin’s. There are a lot of scalpers, adult fans, and other parents trying to get cards for their kids. So expect some adult language. I’ve seen videos of these drops leading to fights and dangerous situations, I do believe that those are rare but there’s still a possibility. I’ve also heard many sweet stores about drops being fun and making sure kids get a chance at some packs. So use your best judgement.

I do not like these. I haven’t been successful and I haven’t heard of anyone who isn’t using a bot (please don’t) getting cards this way. Again you’ll find out about a drop from an account like PokeTCGAlerts and refresh the page until it let’s you add to cart. These happen usually somewhere between 3am and 5am EST. I’ve tried this and after waking up in the middle of the night I lost all interest in refreshing pages after 2 minutes.

Walmart drops seem to be more fruitful than the Target ones. Basically on Walmart drop nights, often Wednesdays but not always. Again, Twitter accounts like this one will tweet out around 9pm EST when they start dropping products. The twitter accounts will tweet out links to the products, you click the link and join the queue for each individual item. You’ll have to wait a couple of hours and eventually you’ll either get through or it’ll be out of stock. So it’s a time suck but at least you’ll be cozy. Might be something to do while making dinner or have on in the background while you have take out coming.

I’ve been lucky to get some cards from the Walmart raffles. I love this method because I can do it from my phone from wherever and it seems fair. The hardest part is knowing when the raffle is live and entering before the window is closed. Accounts like this one can help alert you. Have a Walmart account ready before the raffle is open. Select enter under the product you want. If you win, your account will automatically purchase the cards so make sure you are prepared to buy anything you enter. This is also a great one to send to grandparents to help out.

You can find a list of them here. These release product randomly so it’s good to check. Some have issues with scalpers waiting for the “drops” and checking them constantly. Some stores are better than others in dealing with this. I’ve also seen videos of people making sure kids have first dibs if there is stock inside.

There’s a chance that a couple weeks after the drop that the cards are more readily available once the craze has gone down. However this isn’t going to happen with every set. I’ve seen plenty of some of the more recent sets like Perfect Order, Chaos Rising, and Pitch Black on shelves in stores a couple of times. While they still have hype, these sets don’t have major chase cards in them. I doubt series like the 30th Anniversary will be that available. Any series that has a big chase Pokémon like Charazard or Eevee will be much harder to find. Plus you’re probably only getting loose packs and not ETBs or special box sets unless you’re really lucky. For example I’ve yet to see a series one First Partner pack in store but I’ve seen series two and three in the wild.

It’s really hard to avoid scalpers sometimes, especially as the holidays approach and you want to make sure Santa comes through. But I would really encourage everyone to help tame this reseller market by not buying from scalpers. That means a new product with an inflated price from sellers online (like on WhatNot, TikTok, Mercari, Ebay, etc) or in person from unofficial vending machines.

Now if you have to buy something, I would go to your local card, comic, toy or nerd shop and buy from there. At least support local business when feeding into the reselling market. Many of these stores provide places for the community to gather so you will at least be supporting a third space for a lot of people.

At my local card shop they tend to give my kids free cards and merch on occasion which is more true to the Pokémon community. I’ve even heard of some stores selling for closer to MSRP if buyers open the product in stores. Just make sure to check the prices on TCGPlayer to see what price makes sense and see what you’re comfortable paying. Not all local shops are created equally.

Unfortunately there’s a lot of Team Rocket-esc activity going around to try to take advantage of the lack of products in stores. The short version is, if it’s too good to be true, then it is. Here are some of the scams people do online and a few to watch out for in stores.

Trusted brands have, for some reason, allowed third party sellers to sell on their online stores. So If you go to their online store you’ll see Pokémon cards for sale but they will be for insane prices. I’ve seen a lot of grandparents try this way and get sticker shock. Let them know this is not the right way to get cards and to avoid paying these prices.

Some are good but there’s a decent amount of Live “shows” that are trying to separate people from their money as much as possible. I’ve seen many advertise too good to be true pieces like $20 ETBs. And they aren’t exactly lying, the ETBs are $20 if you win the raffle that costs money to join. There’s no way to guarantee they aren’t picking their friend and just taking all the money from the raffle entries. There was also some drama with WhatNot creators who open packs people buy (not what I would pay for but to each their own!) and will pocket any good packs instead of sending them to the person who bought it. So be cautious and do your homework on creators before spending money this way.

The bulk packs that are unofficial that you can find at CVS, Cracker Barrel, and Amazon that say they have a bunch of cards with a promise of at least one holographic card aren’t exactly scams but they are probably a waste of money. They are real cards at least but they are mostly common cards from past series. They are great for young, new collectors who don’t have much of anything and would be thrilled to start somewhere. Just know that the holographic card is probably worthless or at least pretty common. There’s videos of people claiming they’ve actually gotten rare cards that are way worth the price but most are unconfirmed. If your child (or you) have been collecting for a bit recently, chances are these sets are just a lot of doubles so I would avoid them as gifts unless it’s specifically asked for.

Well trainers and collectors, I know this is a lot to take in. You might be thinking, is this really worth it? Seeing your kids pull a SIR from a fresh pack is quite priceless. I hope in the future the resell maket calms down a bit for the true fans and children can get to it more without having to have a NFL style playbook to get some cards.

Devon Sherer is a Sleepy Hollow-based content producer and avid snack enthusiast. She writes about travel, toys, celebrities, and food. Her work can be found at Parade, Vulture, The Cut, and Romper.