UPDATE 10/07: EB Games has now walked back its controversial pricing on Pokemon TCG 30th Anniversary products, which went live for pre-orders last week on July 3 at nearly double (or in some cases actually double) what other retailers were asking.
The company released a statement this afternoon, claiming that this pricing model was part of a “strategy” to combat scalpers, and says that everything is going as planned with its internal teams now combing through every order placed to weed out further scalping activity.
Once it’s completed this “phase” of its grand plan, EB Games says it’ll let everyone know when a final release of pre-orders becomes available, made up of any cancelled, fraudulent orders. It’s also revealed the actual pricing of the products, which will apply to anyone who’s already placed an order. They are:
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Ultra Premium Collection Espeon – $439
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Ultra Premium Collection Umbreon – $439
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Elite Trainer Box – $120
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Ditto Premium Collection – $99
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Binder Box – $79
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Figure Collection Mew – $75
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Figure Collection Mewtwo – $75
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: 5 Booster Tin – $65
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Booster Bundle – $59
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: ex Box – $55
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Build & Battle Espeon ex/Umbreon ex Deck – $49
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Sticker Blister – $32
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Poster Box – $39
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Mini Tin – $23
- Pokemon TCG – 30th Celebration: Knock Out Collection – $25
The company’s statement also calls out hostile customers and commenters, not so much for their disappointment but for any especially vitriolic words thrown at EB Games employees – which is never cool.
You can read the full statement below:
Pokémon Fans,
Firstly, thank you.
It’s been a huge week. The excitement around the Pokémon TCG 30th Celebration collection has been incredible.
Our priority from the beginning was simple, even though we knew it wouldn’t be universally popular. We wanted genuine Pokémon fans to have the best possible opportunity to secure these once in a generation products while making life as difficult as possible for scalpers.
Setting what many considered an outrageous preorder price was part of that strategy.
Scalpers don’t build communities. Fans do.
That first phase of the strategy has done exactly what it was designed to do. Our focus now shifts to the next phase. Our team is now reviewing every single preorder and will continue doing so over the coming weeks. We’ll identify and cancel preorders that don’t comply with our purchasing policies, just like we did a few weeks ago.
Once that purge is complete, we’ll announce one final preorder release made up of those cancellations. We’ll give the community notice before it goes live so everyone has the same opportunity to preorder.
As planned, we’re now confirming our final retail pricing for Pokémon 30th Celebration, which is the same as Pitch Black. Every genuine preorder already placed remains secure and will automatically move to this pricing. These will also be the prices when the final preorder allocation goes live in a few weeks.
To those who trusted us, placed a preorder, and backed us throughout the process, thank you. We’ve seen your comments across forums and community channels, and we genuinely appreciate the faith you placed in us with your Pokemon 30th Celebration preorder.
To our team, thank you. I know the past week hasn’t been easy, and I know many of you wore criticism aimed at the company simply because you were the people our community could see, whether that was instore, on the phone or behind a keyboard.
To those in the Pokémon community who chose to express their frustration with insults, personal remarks and unnecessary hostility, I’d simply ask this, let’s be better than that. Passion is what makes this community special. You can absolutely disagree with our decisions but some of the words used over the past week crossed a line.
Behind every reply, every phone call and every counter is a person who cares deeply about games and this community. They deserve the same respect they’d show you.
We’ve been part of Pokémon for 30 years.
We’ll always be for Pokémon.
We are EB Games.
Shane Stockwell Managing Director, EB Games Australia
Original Story: 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.