Pokemon Apologizes for Van Gogh Sellout Debacle

The Pokemon Company has apologized for the botched rollout of a limited edition line of merchandise released to celebrate a collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam. Today, The Pokemon Company apologized after an extraordinarily quick sellout of merchandise tied to a brand new collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam. Announced earlier this week, the Van Gogh Museum line included plushes, figures, artwork, and card accessories featuring pieces of Pokemon art inspired by the works of Vincent Van Gogh. A massive crowd of scalpers descended on the museum when the exhibit formally opened on Thursday, and a similar scene unfolded today on the Pokemon Center online store. 

The major issue with the quick sellout was that the Pokemon Center briefly had live links for the various listings on Thursday, which provided re-sellers and those with access to bots to flag the pages and determine when the items actually went live. This was compounded when, instead of announcing that the sale was live on social media, the Pokemon Center chose to let the listings go live quietly, allowing those who used bots to get a valuable first pass at the merchandise before the common fan knew they were available. Unless you were part of a Pokemon merchandise Discord or Facebook page, or followed a social media account that used bots to alert followers of sales, you probably never had the chance to actually grab a piece of Van Gogh merchandise. 

While there's no indication that the Van Gogh Museum line will receive a restock, The Pokemon Company confirmed that they were looking into ways of getting more of the promotional "Pikachu Wearing a Grey Felt Hat" card out to Pokemon Center customers in the future. You can read the full statement below: 

We apologize to all the fans eagerly awaiting our Pokémon Center x Van Gogh Museum release today.

Due to overwhelming demand, all our products from this collection have sold out. We understand this is disappointing to many who were looking to our official email and social media… pic.twitter.com/KM3ZCO1EQZ

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) September 29, 2023

What's Next for the Pokemon TCG?

While Pokemon fans are understandably disappointed about the Van Gogh flub, TCG players still have plenty to look forward to. Recently released is the long-awaited Scarlet & Violet – 151 set, which includes all 151 original Pokemon, including the first Kadabra card in nearly 20 years. After that is the release of Paradox Rift, a new set that contains Pokemon with the Ancient and Future labels and will likely mark the beginning of a new trend of decks focused around both cards. The last labels (introduced in Battle Styles) are still the foundation of the most dominant deck in the meta right now, so players are expecting Paradox Rift to be the start of a major shakeup in the metagame.