Picture this: you're sitting around at the airport, twiddling your thumbs and waiting for your flight. Dressed in vacation-appropriate attire, the time seems to crawl when you spot a bright light in the corner of your eye. A vending machine, but instead of being filled with delicious snacks, it's packed with hard-to-find Pokémon cards. Plot twist, this isn't a dream - it's reality, baby. But sadly, if it were a dream, it'd be closer to a nightmare as these Pokémon TCG products are overpriced. Seriously overpriced.
Considering how many Pokémon TCG expansions are having their prices inflated right now on the third-party market (and through some retailers), that shouldn't be too surprising. However, the idea of a vending machine, in an airport, filled with super expensive cards, sounds particularly silly. Many of the recent Pokémon sets can be bought through them, but unless you've had a Final Destination-style vision and you know you want one last bit of joy before the plane crash, it'll be hard to justify the expense.
There's a bunch of these Topps 'The Fan Stand' vending machines scattered across the US, and it's entirely possible that some of them offer cards at reasonable prices (well, reasonable by 2026 Pokémon standards, anyway). But this airport-based one, spotted and shared by Reddit user Handicap_Noodle on the r/PokeInvesting subreddit, under the (hopefully) ironic title "Are these overpriced?", is a different matter. Sure, everything is extra expensive at the airport - but these prices were so bad, I felt my heart stop when I saw them. I needed Yamper to come and start it again.
$179.95 for a Black Bolt ETB. Yes. That's deadly serious, it would charge you almost 200 smackeroons for an Elite Trainer Box. That's not just a glitch, as for $5 less, you could score yourself a Phantasmal Flames ETB. 'Aren't Phantasmal Flames card prices dropping hard?' I hear you ask, and yes - that's why it's ridiculous. It's not just English packs that are overpriced, sadly. At press time Terastal Festival ex, the Japanese version of Prismatic Evolutions, has a market price of around $110 for a booster box. This vending machine? $230.
Are these overpriced?
byu/Handicap_Noodle inPokeInvesting
I've written a lot of words about this vending machine, but I am speechless. Even if you decide to buy the first bunch of products you see on Walmart, Amazon, or TCGPlayer (which I don't recommend), it'll still be cheaper than this. $240 for a Japanese Surging Sparks booster box? Absolutely ridiculous. Sorry, I'm rambling again, but every time I look at the image, I hurt more.
If you wanted to visit this blasphemous machine, the user who shared the post said it can be found at the Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas, specifically Terminal 3. I almost want to see it for myself, like it's the eighth Wonder of the World. In fact, I think it might be cheaper just to buy some flights to Japan and get some cheaper booster boxes than to spend out at this machine. Don't quote me on that, I do love being facetious.
Failing that, if you actually want to get some decently priced Pokémon booster packs, I'd recommend regularly checking the following retailers:
- Chaos Cards (global)
- Walmart (US)
- Sam's Club (US)
- Magic Madhouse (UK)
If you want to see some actual deals, well, I'd suggest joining our Wargamer Discord. While retail, and especially below retail, are fairly rare, there's no shortage of below-market discounts, and we'll make sure to ping you essentially any time a bargain comes along.