The Pokémon Company is looking to curb additional scalping attempts for its highly-coveted Van Gogh Pikachu collaboration promo, reportedly changing its upcoming distribution plans in the Netherlands to focus on a wider release.
When the Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat promo card was first released as part of a special collaboration of art and products themed around the Van Gogh Museum, pandemonium ruled the museum and digital shops as people swarmed to collect the limited items. It got so bad that the museum removed the promo distribution, citing safety and security concerns for visitors and staff and even firing one employee for embezzling an entire box of the promo cards, according to PokéBeach.
A special redistribution for the Pikachu promo was planned to drop in February at select local game stores in the Netherlands for people coming in to purchase Pokémon TCG products. Less than a week after that was announced, however, it was confirmed that some of those stores were pre-selling their stock and feeding into the continued scalping issues.
In response, PokéBeach is now reporting that the TPC and one of its distribution partners, Asmodee, have cut back on the initial redistribution deal. Instead of those local stores getting 100 promo cards, they will instead only be getting 10. Meanwhile, the remaining copies will be shipped out to larger chain stores in the Netherlands such as Game Mania and Media Markt when the promotion begins on Feb. 10.
There is currently no official statement from TPC or Asmodee regarding this change, nor confirmation on how many copies of the Pikachu Van Gogh promo will be available at each of these larger stores. PokéBeach estimates that there could be upward of 100,000 new cards added to the global supply with this change—further dropping the value of the card and making it easier to obtain.
