---
title: 'Only Continues to Get Worse'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=fMdMnn3xytE'
video_id: 'fMdMnn3xytE'
date: 2026-06-21
duration_sec: 0
---

# Only Continues to Get Worse

> Source: [Only Continues to Get Worse](https://youtube.com/watch?v=fMdMnn3xytE)

## Summary

The video discusses the severe scalping crisis and retail markups plaguing the Pokémon TCG hobby, highlighting how both scalpers and companies like GameStop inflate prices, leading to aggressive behavior. The creator also shows footage of a man flashing a gun and physical fights at vending machines due to the hype.

### Key Points

- **Pokémon Fandom Compared to Danger** [0:09] — Saying 'Pokémon' in a crowded area is more dangerous than yelling fire, as scalpers swarm like piranhas.
- **MSRP vs. Actual Prices** [1:36] — The First Partner Illustration Collection Series 2 has an MSRP of $15, but GameStop sells it for $60, matching scalper prices.
- **Best Buy vs. GameStop Pricing** [3:16] — Best Buy sells the collection at MSRP $15, while GameStop marks it up to $60, showing inconsistent pricing across retailers.
- **GameStop's Justification Debunked** [4:46] — A Facebook post claims GameStop raises prices to deter scalpers, but the creator argues this makes products unaffordable for normal buyers.
- **Proposed Solution: Cut Plastic** [5:35] — Cutting the plastic on Pokémon products would stop scalpers from reselling while allowing genuine collectors to buy at MSRP.
- **Gun Display at Vending Machine** [8:06] — A man showed off a gun at a Pokémon vending machine, apparently to intimidate a child and others waiting in line.
- **Physical Fights Over Cards** [11:08] — Two people engaged in a sloppy fight at a vending machine over Pokémon cards, prompting calls to shut down the machine for the day.
- **Call to Action: Stop Buying at Marked-Up Prices** [12:04] — The creator urges viewers to stop paying inflated prices to reduce scalper activity and restore normal pricing.

### Conclusion

The Pokémon TCG hobby is plagued by scalpers and retailers price-gouging, with aggressive incidents escalating. To combat this, the creator advocates cutting plastic on products and refusing to pay above MSRP.

## Transcript

Anyone remember from back in the day
that whole thing about yelling fire in a
crowded area being like a big no no
because of you know how dangerous it can
be to do something like that? Well, I
think there is a word more powerful that
instills more fear and it's Pokemon. If
you say Pokemon in a crowded area, get
ready for dead bodies to just start
hitting the floor. If you covered
yourself in raw meat and dove into the
middle of open water in the ocean, there
would be less sharks that eat you alive
than had you covered yourself in Pokemon
packs and walked into a target. You are
just surrounded and completely devoured
by scalpers. Like it's it's piranhas
that just attack you from out of
nowhere. If they smell that you have a
Pokemon pack nearby, it's like a Looney
Tune scene where they come in and just
eat all your flesh off and it's just a
pile of bones that collapse. Now, before
I start passionately [ __ ] and
spitting about the terrible state of
Pokemon and the scalpers that infest it,
I do want to put something positive on
your radar. Right now at Star Forge,
we're doing our big summer sale. So, if
you if you've been looking to upgrade
your PC, now is the perfect time to do
so. huge savings across the board on
everything at Star Forge. There's a link
in the description if you're interested.
So, obviously, I'm going to be yapping
about some more scalper degeneracy where
they go out in public and fight and [ __ ]
each other to get their hands on some of
these cards in order to flip it online
for a slight profit. But before doing
that, I want to show you just how out of
control this is across the board from
companies as well that are trying to
capitalize off the Pokemon hysteria. A
new product from Pokemon here. First
Partner Illustration Collection Series 2
launched yesterday with an MSRP of $15.
That means that's the price you should
expect to pay for that product through
retailers. It's the manufacturer
suggested retail price. And this new
collection here was suggested at $15.
But as you can imagine, that's a fairy
tale. That's a [ __ ] pipe dream. I'm
more likely to hit a growth spurt in my
30s than you are to find this product
for anywhere close to 15 clams. And it's
not just from scalpers. If you try to go
into a GameStop, for example, to get it,
they are selling it for $60. That is
shameful. That is downright
embarrassing. GameStop is already like a
pathetic joke that is only held up from
theium from the community that has
bought into the idea that they can make
oodles of cash off of them. But the
actual store itself is complete dog
[ __ ] It's garbage. The only thing it's
good for is like retro game prices or if
you're a gambling addict and you just do
the [ __ ] GameStop power packs for
Pokemon cards. But they can't even do
that competitively compared to the other
Gamba Pokemon packs out there. The power
packs from GameStop are far and away the
worst value you can find. So even if you
are just like oozing grease and like
heavily addicted to Pokemon pack
gambling, GameStop power packs are your
worst [ __ ] option. They can't even be
competitive in that space. There's still
trash there, too. It's so cringe how bad
GameStop is. So, now they
unapologetically
have these uh collection series 2 going
up for $60 when MSRP is 15. Of course,
they're not the only losers doing that.
But it's not like this is across the
board everyone's doing it because take
for example Best Buy. They are selling
it in MSRP $15. So it's not like So I
don't think that argument works in
defense of GameStop, the hiding in
numbers like, "Oh, we're blanket
protected because it's just common
practice. Everyone's doing it.
Everyone's smoking these doinks, so we
had to smoke it, too." It's just
extraordinarily shameless. Companies
like GameStop that are okay, proudly
marking up to $60 to match the standard
scalper prices, which are right now $60.
If you go to TCG Player, there is not a
single listing at MSRP. And a lot of
these come from real legitimate card
shops that are just now all gung-ho all
aboard the huge markup train to
capitalize off the Pokemon hysteria
because the simple fact is people keep
buying it. It's MSRP of 15, but there's
tons of people that are still buying at
60. Stop. Just [ __ ] stop. I promise
you're going to be okay not just
throwing 60 to balloons down the [ __ ]
to get your hands on this new product
here. You're not going to be arrested
for refusing to pay scalper prices. It's
not a requirement. And get this, if you
stop buying at that price, they'll stop
marking it up to that price. They only
get away with doing that because they're
people that still gluttonously just
consume no matter how big the markup on
this new product is. I've seen a lot of
people discussing the GameStop inflated
prices in particular. And I saw this
post here about how this individual
apparently asked the manager why they
jacked the price up so much. And of
course, take all this with a grain of
salt as a [ __ ] Facebook post. This
could have just been him in a khole and
[ __ ] falling asleep and coming up
with this dream. But this is something I
have seen expressed throughout the last
few months about certain scalpers and
companies justifying their huge markups.
So, according to this post, she said
it's to keep all the resellers and
scalpers out of the stores and buying
and to give all the nonresellers a
chance to buy Pokemon products, which I
think is completely ridiculous. And as
this post points out, so they're trying
to give people who don't resell a chance
to buy, but you've jacked the price up
so much that normal people can't afford
to buy it. It doesn't make any sense.
Also, to go a bit deeper, if the goal
was to get scalpers and resellers out,
cut the plastic. Sell it MSRP, cut the
plastic. That immediately gets rid of
every scalper and reseller there because
the plastic is now gone. Anyone who
actually does want to collect the
product or open the product doesn't care
about the plastic being cut. It's
something Target recently started doing
with that viral video that popped off
with the Target guy cutting the plastic,
much to the chagrin of a lot of scalpers
that were definitely watching in horror.
That is the optimal way of handling it.
If the goal is to get the scalpers and
resellers out, jacking the price up to
match scalper prices does the opposite.
If you just want them out, cut the
plastic. You don't hurt the normal
customer. You only hurt the scalpers,
which is a big W. But I think we are all
smart enough to realize the real reason
they have the prices through the [ __ ]
roof out the wazoo. It's because they
want to just continue to financially
capitalize off people's inability to
control their spending when it comes to
new Pokemon product. So, they move
product at $60. They're not going to
drop the price down now. And the thing
is, even if they did, they're not wrong.
If they did sell it MSRP, it would be
mainly scalpers and resellers gobbling
most of it up because they are botting
every time there's an MSRP drop for
anything Pokemon related. They are
camping out at the stores for 12 [ __ ]
hours to be first in line to grab every
single one of them that they can fit in
their [ __ ] arms. And it, they're
right, it would go to scalpers and
resellers, which is why cut the plastic.
They immediately stop. Cut the plastic
on every Pokemon product you sell. Then
it only ends up in the hands of people
that actually want it instead of the
scalpers that just look to make a quick
buck off of it. But again, they're not
they're not going to drop the price to
MSRP. The point is, even if everyone was
selling at MSRP, it would be mainly
scalpers and resellers that continue to
get the lion share of it because that's
what it is right now. They are
constantly botting. They are doing every
underhanded tactic imaginable so they
can have so much inventory to jack up
the price to absurd heights. I truly
wish that I had like a connection to a
distributor to get wholesale product cuz
I would just perpetually sell it MSRP
and cut the plastic off and do
everything I could to face [ __ ] these
scalpers. It's just it's very rare to
get MSRP product that isn't immediately
gobbled up by these [ __ ] parasites,
these disgusting worms. But anyway,
enough ranting about the prices of
what's happened to this hobby. A hobby
which by the way was originally meant
for children. Uh let's go ahead and talk
about or show you rather a guy who
showed off a gun at the Pokemon vending
machine to try and intimidate a child
while he was trying to camp it out to
get some Pokemon product of his own.
Misties.
>> Oh, you get the you get the booster box
and I'll get the
>> I'll get the booster box.
>> I kind of feel bad, bro.
>> I kind of feel bad. If you guys want the
box, we'll take the 10.
>> Oh, there you go. Taking the box and the
and the
and the ETV.
>> That's pretty cool, man. Meth out Slim
Shady here flashing a gun at the people
waiting at the vending machine,
including a child. There's actually
another kid there as well that comes in
towards the end of the video and and he
just flashes his gun at them. And I
think it's blatantly obvious that he's
doing that on purpose. Apparently, he
had been there for quite a while and the
others that were waiting in line were
getting a little antsy about it. And the
kid in that video starts heckling this
[ __ ] loser. So, the kid wasn't even
afraid after the guy flashed his gun at
him, which I believe the whole purpose
was to get everyone to pipe down. Stop,
you know, insulting him for being such a
loser.
>> You guys get it, buddy. Good luck, guys.
>> Thank you.
>> Nothing crazy.
>> We'll leave you guys to singles.
>> You're good.
>> You can hear the kid say, "I guess that
5hour wait paid off, huh?" to the guy
who's now taken the walk of shame out of
there again after he had just flashed
his gun at a child by the way. So, two
other people also left because this guy
apparently was just taking an extremely
long time to do his business here. It's
just so pathetic, man. What an
unbelievable loser. There's already been
a shooting at a Pokemon vending machine.
I covered that. So, this shit's just
crazy that that this isn't even the
first time about a gun being shown, at
least not used in this case, over
Pokemon cards at the Pokemon card
vending machine.
Security. Security.
>> Relax.
>> Little [ __ ]
>> I can't see.
>> Some wonderful sloppy fighting over
Pokemon cards there. The way that
they're just rolling around on each
other, throwing these wet noodle
punches. This [ __ ] looks like something
you'd see at a Tory Bash back in the
day. Kind of a deep cut reference, but
that game did slap. But point is though,
these two are now ground and pounding to
get their hands on Pokemon cards there
as the others look on. And one person
there even says, "None of us should get
cards." Yeah, you know what? Fair
enough. The second the knuckle
sandwiches start flying, they should
just shut the entire [ __ ] thing down
for the day. Absolutely. I feel bad for
her kid though because it seems like she
actually is there to get Pokemon product
for her kid because at least she was
mature enough to realize that fighting
over Pokemon cards is pathetic and just
disgusting. Yeah, there's so many other
scalping fights that I could cover for
today, but I've already been yapping a
lot. It's It is actually happening every
single day. It's just so [ __ ] out of
control, man. Anyway, stop paying uh
crazy like GameStop prices for Pokemon
product and scalper prices for Pokemon
product and it will stop happening. They
they'll stop doing it. Just want to
remind you of that. Anyway, that's
really about it. Tip.