TCGPulse

Daily · Mixed · 7 min

GPS conviction and a shop break-in. Mihawk ban still the Official lead.

· 5:00 AM CT

Pokémon Center Night Out merch goes live online today (Sep 24) — Culver City’s pop-up is already open (Sep 23–27) for photo ops and the social ticket giveaway, with no merch for sale at the pop-up. Concert remains Oct 24 at Intuit Dome. On the hobby side of the tape, ICv2 reports Celebration singles cooling hard after fat supply (special illustration cards somewhere between 40% and 50% off; some rare Pikachu illustration cards down over 80%), with a Discord wave of flipper meltdown — a Reported singles story, not a sealed rewrite. Sealed anniversary bands still hold: standard 30th Celebration ETBs in the $150–170 cluster versus $49.99 MSRP, RGB Mew on the prior weekly bands. Riftbound Radiance preview season kicks main at Los Angeles RQ tomorrow (Sep 25). Official One Piece update: Banned & Restricted revised today — OP14-020 Dracule Mihawk is Banned (parallels / alt-art included), effective October 12, 2026. English Official detail is now live: replacement Leader P-163 Dracule Mihawk (new text) at future events only. The EN list hub now includes the Oct 12 / OP14-020 section; prefer the detail page for the full rationale and P-163. Asia-EN, JP, and Official EN X still cite the ban. Also on the fold: One Piece Mini Case Set [TS-03] (Oct 30), Mega Evolution—Delta Reign (Nov 6 / prereleases Oct 24), and Friday’s calendar stack (30th tournament legal + Magic Reality Fracture prereleases). Reported hobby drama: Named press this week documents 30th Celebration big-box line violence and a Lisbon CT restock punch (arrest still unconfirmed on the blotter), plus ICv2’s flipper Discord meltdown after singles cratered — a retail-chaos companion, not a sealed rewrite. Later: Crime around the cards, part two. An Ohio man has been convicted after admitting he put a GPS tracker on a delivery driver’s car to follow where she dropped off Pokémon product, and a Fresno County card shop’s break-in ended with a suspect arrested 118 miles away while allegedly trying to sell the cards. On the market side, a Wargamer opinion piece pushes back on this week’s “scalpers are crashing out” headlines, and PSA’s parent company is again asking a federal judge to send a grading antitrust suit to arbitration. The retail-chaos notes from earlier today and the Official Mihawk ban stay in this edition.

Pokémon Center Night Out Experience
Night Out PC online merch drops today · Culver City pop-up Sep 23–27 (no on-site merch) · The Pokémon Company International / Pokémon Center

How the market was

A quiet morning on sealed price — not a reset. Standard Celebration ETBs still read $150–170 versus $49.99 MSRP (ICv2 Sep 17). Fresher Pokémon Price Tracker sealed ask tape sits around ~$174 (soft a few dollars from Wednesday’s ~$179 print) — still mid-$170s / about 3.5× MSRP, inside the cluster, not a rewrite. Premium versus MSRP holds with high confidence; the exact center of the ETB band stays medium. Pokémon Center ETB ask tape looks a bit firmer overnight (~$304 vs a prior ~$298 print), with case asks ~$1,699 — watch only; no locked band there.

RGB Mew stays on the prior weekly bands: Red $6–7k, Green ~$8k, Blue ~$5k, plus the Sep 14 $20k Blue outlier (thin, pre-release). Overnight ask tape shows Red low asks flat near ~$6.9k, Green softer near ~$4.0k, and Blue thin near ~$5.5k (single listing). Asks are not completed sales — hold the bands; treat the tape as observational week-over-week.

The fresh hobby-market beat is singles, not sealed: ICv2 (Sep 23) frames Celebration special illustration cards as dropping somewhere between 40% and 50%, with some rare Pikachu illustration cards down over 80%, amid fat supply and better hit-rate talk — Reported qualitative framing only; no card-level dollar bands invented here. That singles cool-off does not rewrite the sealed ETB book.

Pokémon first. No verified fresh One Piece or Riftbound sealed week-over-week overnight — those rows stay omitted rather than padded.

Day movers

  • Pokémon — 30th Celebration ETB (standard) — $150–170 vs $49.99 MSRP; overnight ask tape ~$174. High confidence on premium vs MSRP; medium on exact center.
  • Pokémon — RGB Mew — Red $6–7k / Green ~$8k / Blue ~$5k (+ $20k Blue outlier). Overnight asks: R flat ~$6.9k, G soft ~$4.0k, B thin ~$5.5k. Medium confidence (asks ≠ completeds).
  • Pokémon — Celebration singles (Reported) — ICv2: SI cards ~40–50% down; some rare Pikachu illustration cards over 80% down. Qualitative only — no invented card $.
  • Our read — Hold the prior weekly sealed bands. Softer standard ETB ask tape, firmer PC / case asks, and mixed Mew asks are observational only. Singles cool-off is a separate Reported story — not a change to the sealed ETB book.

Hobby pulse

  1. Official · One Piece

    Banned & Restricted — EN detail + P-163

    Breaking. OP14-020 Dracule Mihawk Banned (parallels/alt-art included), effective October 12, 2026; announced Sep 24, 2026. English Official has now posted the full detail page. As a replacement, Bandai plans to distribute new Leader P-163 Dracule Mihawk (new text) at future events — Official does not name which events or dates. The EN list hub now includes the Oct 12 / OP14-020 section; still prefer the Sep 24 detail page for the full English rationale and P-163 (the hub may not show P-163). Asia-EN, JP, and Official EN X still cite the ban. Do not invent extra ban names. TCGplayer (Peter Day, Sep 24, 2026) calls the replacement a “weaker promo.” That “weaker” line is press opinion, not an Official power claim.

    Source: https://en.onepiece-cardgame.com/news/restriction-261001.html · https://en.onepiece-cardgame.com/news/restriction.html · https://asia-en.onepiece-cardgame.com/news/restriction.html · https://www.onepiece-cardgame.com/news/restriction.html · https://x.com/ONEPIECE_tcg_EN/status/2103092451015864739 · https://www.tcgplayer.com/content/article/Mihawk-Leader-Banned-in-One-Piece-to-Be-Replaced-with-Weaker-Promo/4e9a3785-5647-448c-9891-2404aa61897e/

  4. Reported by Kotaku · Pokémon

    30th Celebration retail lines: fights, arrests, ghost chairs

    Kotaku (John Walker, Sep 22, 2026) rounds up nationwide post-launch footage: a Northridge, CA Target parking-lot dash with kids shoved; a Gilroy, CA overnight camp with an alleged knife, then parking-lot punches broken up by sirens; “ghost chairs” holding overnight spots; a South Carolina Target line-cut, a manager ejection, and a handcuff scene, then an alleged hop to Best Buy; a Conroe, TX chair scream-off; a Hawthorne, CA Best Buy self-appointed line boss; a New York Target ticket #27 rewritten to #12 in pen; and a peaceful cookout in Langhorne, PA. Instagram and PokéStreetz clips inside the piece are a social claim — unverified. Embedding them is not an independent confirm. Knife and fight details stay outlet-framed and alleged.

    Source: https://kotaku.com/pokemon-tcg-30th-celebration-target-best-buy-scalpers-lines-fights-2000736414

  5. Reported by IGN · Pokémon

    Lisbon, CT Target punch

    IGN (Virginia Glaze, updated Sep 21, 2026) is the account to cite: Aug 28 at a Lisbon, CT Target around noon; a conflict over Target’s two-product limit; a punch at self-checkout; a phone dropped; scuffle audio and a child crying. PokéStreetz claims the person recording fell into a four-year-old (elbow hurt), and that the puncher fled leaving a wallet and was reportedly arrested and trespassed on return. Local Facebook restock talk corroborates “Lisbon Target was a nightmare,” with no names. IGN found no police records or local reports on that supposed arrest and trespass, so the arrest stays reportedly, according to PokéStreetz. No charges or case numbers. Nintendo Life is secondary wrap only and does not override IGN. A Japanese discarded-cards social post inside that wrap is a social claim — unverified.

    Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/pokemon-scalper-reportedly-arrested-after-punching-man-in-the-face-over-30th-anniversary-target-drop · https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/09/pokemon-tcg-scalper-reportedly-arrested-for-punching-a-man-in-latest-pathetic-incident

  6. Reported by ICv2 · Pokémon

    Celebration singles cool-off / flippers Discord

    ICv2 (Jeffrey Dohm-Sanchez, Sep 23, 2026, 9:16 a.m. CT): flippers melt down on Discord as 30th Celebration singles drop hard — special illustration cards “dropping somewhere between 40% to 50%”; some rare Pikachu illustration cards “down over 80%” (TCGPlayer + eBay cited qualitatively), amid fat supply / better hit-rate talk. ICv2 notes some Discord posts may be satirical. Those Discord lines are Reported via ICv2, not identities checked here. The percentages are that Sep 23 outlet framing — not our comps. Not a sealed ETB rewrite.

    Source: https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/63449/pokmon-tcg-flippers-meltdown-discord-wave-schadenfreude-washes-over-some-fans

    • ICv2 thumb for flippers Discord meltdown
      ICv2 thumb for flippers Discord meltdown · ICv2

  7. Reported by SheKnows · Pokémon

    Walmart Sep 23 30th drawing window

    SheKnows (Sep 23, 2026) is draw-day follow-up only for a limited-time Walmart collectibles drawing on 30th Celebration products. How the drawing works is not the lead. The piece cites a standard Elite Trainer Box at $70 and a Knock Out Collection 4-count at $48, with a window around 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET for about an hour. The Walmart collectibles drawings page shows those listed products as Drawing ended Sep 23, 3:00pm PDT, ETB $69.97, Knock Out 4-count $47.92. A writer’s note about an earlier win is not a Walmart press release.

    Source: https://www.sheknows.com/living/articles/1235077001/pokemon-30th-anniversary-tcg-walmart-september-23-2026/ · https://www.walmart.com/shop/collectibles/draw

  8. Reported by Aftermath, Gizmodo, and Jalopnik · Pokémon

    Ohio man convicted over GPS tracker on a card delivery driver’s car

    Per court records cited by Aftermath, Gizmodo, and Jalopnik, a 72-year-old Ohio man placed a GPS tracker on the car of a woman delivering Pokémon cards to a Walmart in June 2026. She found the device and reported it. A police affidavit quoted by Aftermath says he admitted placing it to track her location and deliveries. The charge is illegal use of a tracking device, a first-degree misdemeanor in Ohio. He was recently convicted after a no-contest plea. Outlets differ on the timing, so this note gives no conviction date. Gizmodo, reading the docket, reports a $500 fine plus costs and 12 months’ probation including 3 months of GPS monitoring, plus no contact with the victim. Jalopnik separately reports one year’s probation and 90 days of GPS monitoring. Named outlets cite Wayne County, Ohio court records; the docket was not viewed directly for this note. This is not a new arrest. The arrest was in June.

    Source: https://www.jalopnik.com/2267936/pokemon-card-scalper-charged-put-gps-tracker-delivery-drivers-vehicle/ · https://gizmodo.com/it-is-the-year-2026-and-a-72-year-old-man-was-just-convicted-of-gps-stalking-a-pokemon-card-delivery-driver-2000816145 · https://aftermath.site/pokemon-scalper-gps-tracker-guilty/ · https://fox8.com/news/pokemon-collector-guilty-of-using-gps-tracker-to-follow-woman-stocking-the-cards/

  9. Reported by FOX40 · Pokémon

    Kerman, CA card shop burglarized; suspect arrested trying to sell the cards

    This week, FOX40 / KSEE (Sep 23), citing Kerman Police and jail records, reported that someone broke into Player’s Price TCG in Kerman around 2 a.m. Saturday and took “thousands of dollars” worth of high-value Pokémon cards from the display. On Sunday, Tracy police were called to a business where a man was allegedly trying to sell the stolen cards. Police arrested a 24-year-old Fresno man after he allegedly tried to run and booked him on a felony charge plus misdemeanors, per jail records cited by FOX40. Police tied the cards to the break-in by serial number. He has been arrested and charged. He has not been convicted. Logging serial numbers on those high-value display cards is what let police match them.

    Source: https://fox40.com/news/local-news/tracy/man-arrested-in-tracy-after-stealing-high-value-pokemon-cards-near-fresno-police-say/

  10. Reported by Wargamer (opinion) · Pokémon

    Wargamer: are scalpers really “crashing out” over 30th?

    Opinion. Wargamer (Matt Bassil, Sep 24) argues the “scalpers got burned” narrative rests on a few unverified social posts. The piece says 30th ETBs are still selling out at retail and, per Wargamer, show up on eBay at about three times retail. Singles are down, but the set still has high-dollar hits. Bassil expects most flippers to make their money back. The ~3× eBay figure is Wargamer’s claim, not our comp, and it does not change the sealed bands. The rants the piece quotes stay a social claim — unverified. It is a counterpoint to the ICv2 singles story already in this edition.

    Source: https://www.wargamer.com/pokemon-trading-card-game/scalpers-30th-celebration-raging

  11. Reported by Value Added Resource · Grading

    PSA parent pushes again for arbitration in antitrust suit

    Value Added Resource (Sep 23): Collectors Holdings filed renewed motions Sep 21 in California federal court to send most of a proposed antitrust class action to individual arbitration and dismiss the rest, citing the arbitration clause and class-action waiver in its submission terms. The suit alleges the 2024 SGC and late-2025 Beckett Grading acquisitions helped PSA keep its dominant position, with higher prices and slower turnaround. Collectors disputes this and points to demand. These are plaintiff allegations, not findings, and this note does not predict a ruling. It is a hobby-wide grading story, not a Pokémon-only one.

    Source: https://www.valueaddedresource.net/collectors-arbitration-dismissal-antitrust-suit/

Worth watching

  • Pokémon Center Night Out — online merch live today; Culver City through Sep 27; concert Oct 24
  • Celebration singles cool-off — ICv2: SI cards ~40–50% down; some rare Pikachu IR over 80% (Reported; not our comps)
  • 30th Celebration ETB (standard) — prior cluster vs ~$174 ask tape
  • RGB Mew — soft Green ask / thin Blue vs locked bands
  • Riftbound Radiance LA RQ — Sep 25
  • Friday calendar stack — 30th tournament legal + Magic Reality Fracture prereleases (Sep 25)
  • One Piece TS-03 — Oct 30
  • Delta Reign — prereleases Oct 24 / street Nov 6
  • One Piece Banned & Restricted — EN NA detail live; OP14-020 Dracule Mihawk Banned effective Oct 12, 2026; P-163 replacement promo at future events (Official; hub shows Oct 12; prefer detail for P-163)
  • Pokémon TCG Pocket Deluxe Pack: Mega — Sep 29 · 6:00 p.m. PDT
  • 30th Celebration retail chaos week — Kotaku Sep 22 lines/fights/ghost chairs (Reported; IG clips = Social claim)
  • Lisbon CT Target punch — arrest hedged; IGN found no police records
  • Celebration singles cool-off / flipper Discord — ICv2 Sep 23 (Reported; not our comps)
  • Walmart 30th drawing — Sep 23 window closed (follow-up only)
  • Kerman shop case — next court date reported as today (Sep 24); no outcome yet
  • PSA / Collectors arbitration motions — set for a Dec 11 hearing, per Value Added Resource
  • Weekend 30th retail events (Target, Best Buy) — possible crowd flashpoints; watch only

Note

Celebration product has been live since about Sep 16. The $20k Blue Mew print is a thin pre-release outlier. Don’t blend asks with completed sales, or Japanese tape with English. Night Out pop-up sells no merch on-site — today’s beat is Pokémon Center online merch. ICv2’s singles % drops are Reported qualitative framing, not a sealed ETB rewrite and not invented card-level dollars. Official One Piece Banned & Restricted updated Sep 24 — OP14-020 Dracule Mihawk Banned (parallels included) effective Oct 12, 2026. English Official detail is now live — prefer that page for the English rationale and P-163 Dracule Mihawk, the replacement Leader promo at future events only. The EN list hub now includes the Oct 12 / OP14-020 section. Do not invent event names for P-163 or extra ban names. No market reset in this afternoon note. Sealed Celebration ETB bands and RGB Mew hold as this morning. Official One Piece OP14-020 Dracule Mihawk Banned effective Oct 12, 2026 remains the Official lead. No new MSRP, print run, comp, case number, or extra ban name. Wargamer’s eBay multiple is attributed opinion only, not our comp, and the sealed bands still hold as this morning.