Rob Hall

I’m hearing from distribution that Pokemon is shifting even more to ancillary products and focusing less on ETBs and Booster Boxes until there new facility is operational next year sometime in 2027. This has been evident from the release of collection boxes and tins and no booster box reprints in MONTHS. The last true reprint came via Surging Sparks in August, 2025 and was only a few boxes for my account. Pokemon wants to get as much product into the hands of as many people as possible. Those are products such as blisters and booster bundles. Pokemon also looks to be purposely setting up their MAIN sets to be relatively small. We have seen that Phantasmal Flames, with Perfect Order and now with rumors of “Chaos Rising” being small again (speculation on CR). This makes sense and allows Pokemon to not print as many cards and focus on getting more product out there. Recently we have had virtually zero new product releasing and won’t have substantial product for another month still. (Ascended Heroes ETBs) I think this is leading to Pokemon focusing heavily on printing 30th Anniversary right now. That set is going to have INSANE demand and they know it. With hardly any product releasing, main sets (with booster boxes) being small, shifting away from Booster Boxes and ETBs and focusing on smaller ancillary products. All this basically confirms that Pokemon is struggling immensely right now to keep up with demand and they NEED that facility up and running. It seems like this crazy run in Pokemon is not slowing down anytime soon.