10 billion Pokemon TCG cards were printed by The Pokemon Company (TPC) from March 2025 to March 2026. However, despite this massive amount of cards in circulation, shortage issues continue to plague players and collectors alike. Most of these can be traced back to scalpers constantly going out of their way to acquire these cards as they come out and later sell them at costlier rates.
As such, The Pokemon Company has started to take steps to further curb these scalpers’ efforts. These include strict ID policies, reprinting cards more often, and clamping down on bots used by scalpers.
Changes that may combat Pokemon TCG scalping
1) Collectors will need My Number Cards to buy cards in Japan
For people looking to purchase Pokemon TCG products from Pokemon’s online portal, they will have to authenticate their Pokemon Club account. This will involve using an external website (yet to be decided by TPC) to scan the chip in the buyer’s My Number Card via smartphone. Since this card serves as a Government ID in Japan, this is meant to curb those illegally bypassing purchase limits.
This ID authentication will start sometime around August 2026. It will be employed for TCG related lotteries, sales, and for the registration for the right to enter events where these products may be sold.
Keep in mind, My Number Cards are not mandatory Government IDs. So, TPC has urged Japanese citizens to start registering now if they don’t already have them. Since these IDs take 1-2 months to be issued, the announcement seems to have been made with the August 2026 deadline in mind.
Also read: Pokemon TCG full schedule (2026): English, Japanese, and Chinese sets
2) Reprinting popular sets
Not all Pokemon TCG sets are popular on the same level. Certain sets like Prismatic Evolutions (featuring Eevee and its many evolved forms) or Destined Rivals (featuring Team Rocket characters) tend to be in high demand even after a years of them being released. This makes them high priority targets for the secondary market, leaving direct purchasers high and dry.
As a result, The Pokemon Company has started to reprint cards from these popular sets as often as they can. Naturally, this has stretched their resources quite thin, leading to more cards being reprinted in recent times than ever before. For context, TPC has published 85 billion cards from 1996, but 10 billion of them were published last year.
Also read: Pokemon TCG Pocket Paradox Drive [B3a]: All cards, types, and rarities
3) Curbing bots used to purchase cards
One of the greatest issues faced by people looking to buy official Pokemon merch like TCG cards is bots. These are automated software that keep tabs on these sites and purchases any new product as soon as they are launched or get restocked. As such, regular people struggle to get their hands on anything.
To battle this issue, the official Pokemon Center storefront uses a form of anti-bot software in order to filter out actual human buyers.
4) Removing TCG vending machines from certain locations in the US
This is more of a US issue. In Japan, there are common vending machines for all sorts of items, including Pokemon merch. However, once these made their way to the US, they became prime targets for scalpers. As a result, a lot of these are being removed from key locations in the US.
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5) Cutting open Pokemon TCG booster packs
Some shops in Japan have started snipping open Pokemon TCG packs that they are selling to customers. Since sealed packs and boxes tend to be more valuable among scalpers, this can be a simple yet effective deterrent.
Also read: How has Pokemon Showdown avoided Nintendo ban hammer? Possible reasons explored
Edited by Akash Sil