Big store report card
How Walmart, Pokémon Center, Amazon, Target, GameStop and Dick's treat regular buyers of sealed trading cards online.
What this is
The report card grades how the big stores treat regular people buying sealed trading cards online. Part of Printed Price's mission is pushing big retailers to protect regular buyers, and the stores that already do some of this show it can be done. A public score makes it easy to see who is doing better, who is doing worse, and what each store could fix.
How a store is scored
Each store is graded out of 100 on four things. Price and fair access count the most.
- Price. How close the store's own price is to the price printed on the box (MSRP).
- Fair access. A queue, a drawing or invitations for hot items, and purchase limits that hold.
- Stopping bots. Bots stopped before checkout, so real people are not left fighting cart errors.
- Transparency. Drops announced ahead of time, and openness about how much stock went up and how orders were allocated.
Scores come from what shoppers can see for themselves: posted prices, how drops run, and what buyers report. No store pays to be scored or can pay to change its score. We update a score when a store changes how it sells.
The scores
Last reviewed September 28, 2026. None of these stores is transparent enough about how much stock goes up or how orders are allocated.
- Drawings for the hottest items, at Walmart's own price, close to MSRP
- Reseller listings above MSRP show next to Walmart's own unless you filter them out
- Bots and resellers still swarm regular drops
- Not transparent about stock or allocation
- Sells at MSRP
- Its own exclusive items, like the Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box
- A waiting room and purchase limits
- Drops and queue days are never announced ahead of time
- Checkout errors are common once you get through
- Not transparent about stock or allocation
- An invitation program for some hot items
- Many drops happen outside the invitation program
- Lots of overpriced third-party sellers listed next to Amazon's own stock
- Bots usually buy out stock in minutes
- The price can change between your cart and checkout
- Not transparent about stock or allocation
- A smaller markup than most: $59.99 for an Elite Trainer Box with a $49.99 MSRP
- Online restocks often land between 3 and 5 in the morning Eastern
- No queue or drawing for card drops that we have seen
- Sold out in minutes, with cart errors along the way
- Not transparent about stock or allocation
- Takes pre-orders in store
- Prices often double MSRP or more
- Hot items often sold only in bundles
- Asks for deposits on pre-orders
- Not transparent about stock or allocation
- A lottery for hot items
- Dick's own prices are well above MSRP, highest on release day, lottery included. The Pitch Black Elite Trainer Box was listed at $80 against a $49.99 MSRP.
- Heavy scalper activity
- Not transparent about stock or allocation
Where things stand
No big store has this solved. Pokémon Center runs a waiting room with purchase limits, and Best Buy uses invitations. Walmart's drawings give everyone the same chance, but reseller listings show up right next to Walmart's own unless you filter to "sold and shipped by Walmart". Amazon has an invitation program for some hot items, but many drops happen outside it, bots usually buy out stock in minutes, overpriced third-party sellers sit next to Amazon's own listings, and the price can change between adding an item to your cart and checking out. GameStop takes pre-orders in store, but prices Pokémon products well above MSRP, often double or more, and hot items often come only in bundles. Dick's Sporting Goods runs a lottery for hot items, but its own prices are well above MSRP, highest on release day ($80 listed for the $49.99 Pitch Black Elite Trainer Box), and scalping there is terrible. Target is the hardest big store to get through for regular buyers right now, though its own prices stay closer to MSRP than GameStop's or Dick's. Online restocks often land between 3 and 5 in the morning Eastern, they sell out in minutes with cart errors along the way, and we have not seen a queue or drawing for card drops. They all need work, and we will say so here when any of them improves.
What we would like to see from every store is on For retailers. Scores are ours, and we update them when a store changes how it sells.