Pokémon TCG Pocket Trading Has Spurred a Strange Black Market for High Rarity Cards

Pokémon TCG Pocket's controversial trading system fuels a thriving black market for digital cards. Numerous eBay listings sell individual cards for $5-$10, exploiting a loophole in the game's mechanics. Sellers exchange friend codes with buyers, exchanging unwanted cards for higher-value ones, essentially profiting without losing inventory due to the game's same-rarity trading restriction.

This practice directly violates Pokémon TCG Pocket's terms of service, prohibiting the buying and selling of virtual items. However, sellers face minimal risk, as they simply acquire a replacement card of equal rarity.

The situation is further complicated by the availability of rare cards like ex Pokémon and 1-Star alternate art cards on eBay, along with entire accounts containing valuable in-game assets like Pack Hourglasses. While account selling is common in online games, it remains a breach of service.

The trading mechanic itself sparked controversy upon its release. Criticisms centered on the "Trade Tokens" system, requiring players to delete five cards to trade one of the same rarity, and the high cost of acquiring these tokens. The need to be friends with another player to trade further limits the system's accessibility and contributes to the black market's emergence.

Many players, like Reddit user siraquakip, advocated for a more user-friendly in-app trading system, eliminating the need for external platforms. The current system's limitations, coupled with the inability to trade higher-rarity cards, incentivize players to spend significant sums on packs to obtain desired cards, potentially contributing to the game's substantial revenue (estimated at half a billion dollars in under three months).

(52 Images total - Note: Only 6 images are displayed here due to limitations. The remaining images are implied to be similar alternate art cards.)

Developer Creatures Inc. has warned against real-money transactions and cheating, threatening account suspensions. Ironically, the Trade Tokens system, intended to prevent exploitation, has inadvertently fueled the black market and alienated the community. While Creatures Inc. is investigating improvements to the trading feature, concrete solutions remain elusive despite ongoing complaints. The current system's limitations raise concerns about its role in maximizing revenue for the game.