After 15 regions, 29 years, over 120 games and 1025 Pokémon, the Pokémon franchise has made its way into all our lives at some point. All of us have at least heard the name or know the “little yellow guy,” as my mom likes to call Pikachu.

Whether you know someone who likes the games, collects the cards, watches the anime or, like my cousin and I, spent many late nights engulfed in the dull glow of a DS battling and trading game exclusive Pokémon, the ubiquitous nature of the multi-billion-dollar franchise is undeniable.

It is clear Pokémon’s creator, Satoshi Tajiri, loved his creation and continues to nurture it. Pokémon is an unstoppable force in the gaming industry; as long as developer Game Freak continues to create new content, there will continue to be Pokémon fans. If there are no Pokémon fans left in the world, I am dead.

Over the past year or two, the trading card game has rapidly risen in popularity. My TikTok feed is consumed by videos and livestreams of people opening Pokémon card packs, each hoping for the infamous god pack — a pack with all rare cards. There are also collectors showing off how they format their card binders with specific themes, each unique to the person designing them.

I have loved watching Pokémon grow in popularity and transform into something that isn’t cringey. For many of us, Pokémon is something that has followed us into adulthood from when we were children who woke up early and begged our parents to turn on Cartoon Network before school so we could watch Ash go on a new adventure.

In many ways, my current interest in Pokémon is how I choose to honor the passions of myself as a child who couldn’t express herself because of the fear of being made fun of at school. The excitement and community that surrounds Pokémon now isn’t elitist or entitled. Instead, it’s filled with people who enjoy sharing their passions without fear of being judged. After all, to be cringe is to be free.

However, in more recent times the franchise has become a volatile battleground for fans of Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG). Resellers, or scalpers as they’re more commonly known, have led the community in a dark direction. Everywhere that Pokémon cards are sold, scalpers are sure to follow; constantly waiting for shelf restocks and new releases. Often, they get their hands on coveted sets long before collectors can.

A box set of cards that was bought in stores for $40 can easily reach prices of over $100 on reselling websites, such as eBay and Mercari. This, of course, depends on the series of the box sets and the rare cards that collectors have the chance of pulling. The rarer the cards, the more expensive the product.

This poses a grave threat to the future of Pokémon TCG collectors and players alike as shelves are often wiped clean minutes after employees finish stocking them, and fans are continuously being priced out of the game they have grown to love by resellers who solely find interest in the money they make off it.

The rise in Pokémon card scalpers has pushed collectors and players to put pressure on box stores like Walmart, to create limitations as to how many boosters or blister packs a single person can buy at one time.

While certain stores like Costco have placed limits on Pokémon sets, in many cases, this hasn’t been implemented as a store policy across a chain’s entirety and it is usually left to the discretion of local owners. However, when faced with quick profit over the benefit of a fan base, nine times out of ten, big box stores will choose quick profit.

But what does this mean for the future of the Pokémon card game? Will collectors and players continue to be priced out of the game? And what direction should box stores take, if any, to prevent scalpers from ruining the collector experience?

If I know one thing after watching nearly all the anime’s, Ash, Misty, Brock and the rest of the gang would be fired up over this Team Rocket level greed.