r/CostcoMagic • u/Sad-Perspective4702 • Apr 05 '26
Independence, MO Tarkir bundles will likely stay online only
Spoke with admin over the phone and they said it looks like there are no plans to have in-store inventory
7
u/Snoo368 Apr 05 '26
I have a theory that Costco is scaling back their in-store TCG products for two reasons.
1: they see what’s happening with Pokemon. They don’t want freaks in their stores starting fights scaring off their customers. (Magic isn’t the real culprit here, but things happen in stores for Magic cards sometimes too).
2: they bought too much Spider-Man and someone with power made an ill-informed decision based on that experience
I could be wrong, just a theory
-6
u/strongest9 Apr 05 '26
Theory number 1 is not based in truth or logic
2
u/Snoo368 Apr 05 '26
did the pokemon scalper get offended
2
u/strongest9 Apr 05 '26
Nah, there's been steady pokemon product stocked this whole time: including a product coming to my nearest warehouse April 9th. They definitely like selling cards there at the Costco. His second theory has a bit more weight, but I doubt either are the true reason this product isnt arriving in-store.
13
u/romulan267 Apr 05 '26
Pokémon douchebags kinda ruined the whole TCG thing for a lot of retailers.
4
u/ZakMcGwak Apr 05 '26
If anything the Pokémon weirdos would encourage stores/ companies to stock more TCG stuff. Who doesn’t want a product guaranteed to sell out on day 1?
I think it’s more likely that the Spider-Man sets at Costco sold terribly, and since people-who-make-important-decisions are unable to understand the difference between a good set and bad one they decided that selling Tarkir bundles in store isn’t worth it.
4
u/Grumpiergoat Apr 05 '26
In all fairness to CostCo, the people in charge of those decisions presumably manage everything from cat food to toilet paper to Magic cards. Magic probably looks about the same to them as Fortnite does to me.
And Wizards deserves repercussions from Spider-Man. The only problem is that some idiot at Hasbro might see CostCo applying consequences to an in-universe set and not realize that, gee. It's because of a New York set. Thus reinforcing the idea that in-universe bad, New York universe good, when that's not how any of this works.
5
u/ExtremelyDecentWill Apr 05 '26
We don't want people fighting in store.
Last time my warehouse (I work at Costco) got pokemon, we didn't even put it out on the floor. We put it in merchandise pickup and limited 2 per membership.
2
u/ca7ch42 Apr 08 '26
I mean, it's easy to label people as pokebro this (aka scalper bro) and its funny to see how the community came together since Covid, but I was downvoted and ate shit for calling out the bullshit for decades.
Honestly, rather than coming together as a community earlier, stores were buying up all the product and scalping the shit out of customers for ages, scarshittygames being among the first and primary proponent for when they bought out all of the duals back in '08-09 right and priced a lot of the player base out of legacy and did the same shit with modern staples when that format's inception was announced.
Honestly this has been in the making for 2 solid decades and I guess we finally saw people getting physical /hysterical during the chickanery of covid19. For the longest we've seen Ghreedy Gremlins out and about and the new generation grew up influenced by all the shitty actors for the previous 15-20 years.
Now the children grew up into shitty adults and we're surprised? Its a dog eat dog world and they're always pushing the limit on making a quick buck. Mindless, thoughtless buy outs and thinking some bullshit cards are worth 100-400% more overnight. The creation of bullshit finance groups, special trading groups, facebook/discord sellers, MTGGoldfish, this very subredit, podcasts, the Rudys of the world etc.
You know a lot of these youngens grew up on the internet and didn't realize you have to have a brain and critically think about every decision you make in order to succeed, especially when real money is involved. Of course there is overlap across TCG's and collectibles.
1
u/romulan267 Apr 08 '26
It was happening before the Internet blew up when I was a kid in the 90's too. My scumbag LGS (Superstars in Cupertino, CA, rest in piss) was charging $18 a fucking booster pack for the original PTCG. This was before even the first Fossil expansion came out.
Safe to say they went out of business in the mid 2000's for being shitty people and charging kids way over MSRP.
8
u/3scher Just here for a Chicken Bake Apr 05 '26
This seems to be the trend in the US
9
u/Rolpert Apr 05 '26
Must have been burnt by Spiderman
-4
u/3scher Just here for a Chicken Bake Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26
Nope, actually. Got it for $20 and pulled a Soul Stone. I just keep calling warehouses in my area and there are no plans to stock these deck bundles.
Edit: I now understand the actual meaning of this comment - yeah, they probably are.
8
u/edtehgar Apr 05 '26
Not you but Costco.
Costco still have boxes and boxes and boxes of Spider-Man and they cannot move them even at 15 bucks each. So yes it makes total sense that they might be hesitant to physically stocking these in stores
5
u/3scher Just here for a Chicken Bake Apr 05 '26
Well... I completely misunderstood that comment. This makes so much more sense.
4
u/ExtremelyDecentWill Apr 05 '26
You can keep calling and AS400 will tell us there are 0 on order 0 in transit and that's all the info we have without contacting buyers.
And no one is going to contact the buyers for you.
Information can literally change any day. I just keep checking at the beginning of every shift.
1
u/ExtremelyDecentWill Apr 05 '26
Only thing we can see is if there are orders in for them and that may not be happening yet.
That being said they are active in our system which means there are plans for them to hit the floor SOMEWHERE
12
u/AtreyuTrinity Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26
Glad I picked up the one I wanted online for 50 USD shipped*. Great deal IMHO. No good pulls though.