UK collectors who got steamrolled by the Prismatic Evolutions resale chaos earlier this year will be glad to hear that The Pokemon Company has spent the gap between sets quietly upgrading its anti-scalping toolkit. With Mega Evolution Chaos Rising landing on 22 May, fresh numbers from the US show what's coming.
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Find events near youPokeBeach's data shows TPCi's US vending machine fleet hit 1,871 units across 28 states, up 27% year on year. Underneath that headline, 562 new machines landed and 207 were pulled, meaning roughly one in seven from last summer has had a quiet retirement. The replacements run stricter purchase limits, "phantom stock" displays that show "sold out" even when product is sitting behind the glass, and explicit on-screen no-loitering notices to break up scalper queues.
GoNintendo reports certain US locations are being deliberately culled to "improve stock consistency, reduce regional shortages, and provide a more reliable experience for all players." Translation: TPCi has finally accepted that scalper queues are bad for the brand, and is willing to shrink the footprint to fix it.
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Set up your group for freeUK punters don't get the vending machine experience, so for us this matters because the same allocation logic drives what arrives at our card shops on launch day. The Mega Evolution Chaos Rising Build & Battle Boxes hit prereleases from 9 May, with the full set drop on 22 May. If TPCi's anti-scalp tools work, that should mean fewer empty Smyths shelves and a calmer launch weekend.
If you'd rather pull packs around a table than chase stock alone, find a Pokemon TCG group near you. Trading the new Mega cards over a pint beats sniping vending allocations every time.
Sources: PokeBeach | GoNintendo
