THE FUSE

As the Pokémon TCG approaches two full years of ridiculous shortages, beginning with November 2024’s Surging Sparks and growing worse ever since, retail stores are looking for novel ways to try to cope with the crisis. We’ve seen the full gamut, with some chains looking to do their best to prevent scalping and others just turning into scalpers themselves, while The Pokémon Company International continues to flail and claim solutions are just over the horizon. The latest big name to attempt a new plan is Walmart, with the introduction of an online lottery system.