The Pokemon Company just officially unveiled its upcoming Unova set, Scarlet & Violet – Black Bolt and Scarlet & Violet -White Flare on May 6th. So, most Pokemon card fans weren’t expecting to see the first items from the new collection go up for pre-order just yet. This exciting new set featuring illustration rares for every Unova Pokemon will include several different items, similar to the Prismatic Evolutions lineup. Today, the first new release, the Black Bolt and White Flare Elite Trainer Box, went up for pre-order on the Pokemon Center just a day after they were announced. Predictably, it’s been chaos.
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At this point, Pokemon TCG fans are used to the frustrations of the Pokemon Center queue. However, the Black Bolt and White Flare ETB pre-orders seem to have taken things to another level. This looks to be a larger-than-usual pre-order, with trainers successfully checking out with their Black Bolt or White Flare boxes for several hours after they first went up on the Pokemon Center website. Typically, pre-orders like these sell out incredibly quickly even with the queue, so many fans have been surprised and delighted to actually snag an ETB pre-order. It helps that the Pokemon Center has limited customers to just one of each ETB.
Alas, amidst all the excitement of fans actually checking out, there’s another story to tell. Despite many Pokemon fans successfully pre-ordering these brand-new Pokemon card ETBs, several others have experienced sweeping issues with the Pokemon Center website. A few glitches and oddities with carts have become the norm. But this time, it seems the massive number of people waiting in the queue and sheer number of customers checking out led to widespread IP blocks and Pokemon Center website crashes.
Some Fans Luck Out with Black Bolt and White Flare ETBs, Others Get Endless Errors
For some Pokemon TCG fans, this latest round of pre-orders has introduced them to brand-new error codes. Fans trying to add the ETB to their carts are seeing a few different error codes, including Error 17 and Error 15. For others, including this ComicBook writer, the Pokemon Center website simply won’t load at all when trying to view the ETB page. This is a bit of a different situation from the usual infinite queue, followed by a full sellout, that Pokemon card collectors have gotten used to.
So, what do these error codes mean? The message for both Error 17 ad Error 15 on the Pokemon Center reads “this request was blocked by our security service.” Fans typically interpret this to mean that a user’s IP address got banned from using the Pokemon Center website. This is, in theory, meant to help avoid suspicious behavior from bots, but it seems to be overenthusiastically impacting multiple users just trying to add the Pokemon Black Bolt and White Flare ETBs to their carts.
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If you see this message when trying to check out at the Pokemon Center, it’s likely you won’t be able to access the site for a while. Thankfully, this doesn’t appear to be a permanent ban. Many people who initially got Error 17 or Error 15 have been able to get back into the site eventually, though it often takes a day or more for the ban to lift. So, it’s best to take a break from any potentially suspicious behaviors like refreshing the page or repeatedly trying to add items to your cart if you’ve gotten this message.
This is just the pre-order round for the newest ETBs. Black Bolt and White Flare don’t officially release until July 18th and aren’t expected to ship to customers who got them until that time. For those who missed out due to an IP ban or website crashing, it’s possible the ETBs will be available on shelves at release. At any rate, based on the number of pre-orders the Pokemon Center allowed, it certainly seems they plan on printing more of this latest set than previous ones.
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