This morning, all hell broke loose for Aussie punters trying to secure the upcoming 30th Celebration Pokémon TCG set, which launches starting on September 16, 2026.
Select Australian retailers, including EB Games, JB Hi-Fi and Toymate all went live with pre-orders at 10AM AEST, and users were faced with issues like broken checkouts at JB and hours-long queue times to even look at the Toymate website, but the situation at EB was dire for an entirely different reason.
Already locked behind a $49-a-year EB World Plus subscription, shoppers who arrived at the product pages on the EB Games website found that the retailer was also charging double or near-double the presumed RRP. The Ultra Premium boxes, for example, were running for $360 at JB but a whopping $599 at EB Games, likewise the Elite Trainer Box could be had for $100 at JB or double that at EB for $199. This trend continues through pretty much every product that was made available for pre-order.
It’s not unheard-of behaviour from a local retailer to sell a highly-coveted TCG release at above recommended retail. For example Toymate’s prices were a touch higher as well, but nowhere near as much. And this is usually isolated to “smaller” collectibles retailers, not under the banner of one of Australia’s largest retailers with a membership fee to even access the product.
Naturally, the sentiment on social channels and forums dedicated to Pokémon TCG collecting in Australia has been… not great. EB Games’ own Discord server is still, now some three hours later, blowing up with calls to report the retailer to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), with some users admitting they’d still rather pay EB’s inflated prices than brave the likes of eBay, where things are even worse:
Despite all this, many of the hotter products have already sold out at EB’s higher prices, meaning your chances to get an Ultra-Premium Box or some of the cooler character packs and decks are all but gone outside of paying actual scalpers. And for the rest, well, EB presumably knows it’s going to get your business now whether you like it or not.
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Born into the world of video games through SEGA, and in particular Sonic the Hedgehog, Kieron’s gaming tastes now consist of the latest, shiny AAA thing, an indie darling or two, and an embarrassing number of hours of Balatro.