Kotaku⁠73%

Pokémon’s Big 30th Anniversary TCG Release Is An Even Bigger Mess Than Usual ⁠70%

By Rebekah Valentine⁠48%

7/15/2026, 3:30:50 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 21 faulty reasoning types, including Hasty Generalization, Availability Heuristic, and Pessimism Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 45.1% saturation with 251 hits. Analysis detected 1,315 faulty-reasoning hits from 556 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 63% and a BS Rank of ⁠70% (6,597 of 21,887 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 69.90% of the article peer group.

There’s a brand new Pokémon TCG set on the way, and it’s a special one, celebrating the franchise's 30th anniversary. 
So as you can imagine, everyone is being totally normal about this, and the process of purchasing some colorful cardboard used for a children's game is very simple and smooth. 
Right? 
Right? 
Yeah, no, it’s a mess. 
An even bigger one than usual. 
Pre-orders opened this morning for the 30th Celebration set, a TCG expansion featuring favorites like Pikachu, Mew, Mewtwo, Eevee, Ditto, Lucario, and a number of others. 
It includes a lot of different products, including booster packs bundled with stickers or a binder or figurines, lots of special foil promo cards, a coveted Elite Trainer Box, and a bunch of other ways to buy cards from the set. 
And the set itself, in addition to focusing on classic favorite monsters, contains a whopping 30 different Pikachu variants. 
Buying Pokémon cards is already an ordeal even if you just want a regular-ass pack of cards. 
Scalping is absolutely rampant everywhere, from online retailers to in-person stores, and The Pokémon Company seems totally uninterested in increasing production even as retailers start hiking prices to capitalize on the demand. 
It’s gotten bad enough that most stores are limiting purchases per customer, and some are even breaking seals at checkout to deter people from buying them just to resell. 
Really makes you feel bad for any kids who just happen to enjoy playing or collecting cards. 
So of course, the 30th anniversary set is even worse. 
Right now, pre-orders are only available through the official Pokémon Center website. 
But to even look at what’s available, you have to sit in a lengthy digital queue first. 
My wait time, as I write this, is 20 minutes long, but that’s because I’m coming in at the end of the day when just about everything is sold out. 
I have a friend whose time showed at six whole hours at one point this morning. 
Those who tried to jump on the pre-orders when they first went live were met with a technical mess, with some people being booted back to the waiting screen, CAPTCHAs goofing up, rampant connection errors, and blank screens. 
As Polygon reports, some people who have repeated errors are getting flagged as bots for trying multiple times to get in, and are banned from buying cards entirely. 
And none of this is really deterring scalpers. 
The Elite Trainer Box, easily the most in-demand item and costing $60 through The Pokémon Center website if you can secure a pre-order, is already sold out. 
It’s being listed on TCGPlayer for hundreds of dollars, though, and it’s almost certain that retailers will mark up their own limited inventory significantly when the time comes. 
As I write this, the only remaining available pre-orders are for a couple of bundles of booster packs; nothing fancy. 
I’m sure those will be gone in the next few hours, too. 
The set's not out until September 16 (with some products arriving later), but I'm not optimistic that inventory will be able to meet demand. 
It certainly hasn't for the last several sets, and this one's got that shiny anniversary veneer to it. 
Truly a very fun time to be into the Pokémon TCG! 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 6.8%Rebekah Valentine: 4.5%Kotaku: 4.4%Confirmation Bias6.8%This article: 1.1%Rebekah Valentine: 1.3%Kotaku: 1.6%Anchoring Bias1.1%This article: 27.9%Rebekah Valentine: 3.5%Kotaku: 4.0%Availability Heuristic27.9%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.5%Kotaku: 1.1%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 1.1%Kotaku: 1.0%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 2.2%Rebekah Valentine: 2.3%Kotaku: 1.7%Overconfidence Bias2.2%This article: 7.7%Rebekah Valentine: 3.8%Kotaku: 5.8%Framing Effect7.7%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.0%Kotaku: 1.1%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.4%Kotaku: 1.1%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 1.1%Kotaku: 0.4%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 4.3%Rebekah Valentine: 3.5%Kotaku: 2.9%Optimism Bias4.3%This article: 26.3%Rebekah Valentine: 3.7%Kotaku: 3.4%Pessimism Bias26.3%This article: 45.1%Rebekah Valentine: 9.1%Kotaku: 13.5%Negativity Bias45.1%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 3.9%Kotaku: 2.0%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 5.8%Rebekah Valentine: 0.5%Kotaku: 1.5%Fundamental Attribution Error5.8%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.2%Kotaku: 0.3%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.5%Kotaku: 1.3%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.1%Kotaku: 0.3%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 4.9%Rebekah Valentine: 5.3%Kotaku: 3.6%Halo Effect4.9%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.2%Kotaku: 0.3%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.1%Kotaku: 0.1%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 12.2%Rebekah Valentine: 1.9%Kotaku: 2.4%Recency Bias12.2%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.9%Kotaku: 0.6%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.1%Kotaku: 0.0%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.1%Kotaku: 1.3%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.3%Kotaku: 0.6%Straw Man0.0%This article: 5.0%Rebekah Valentine: 1.9%Kotaku: 2.6%Appeal to Authority5.0%This article: 1.8%Rebekah Valentine: 1.3%Kotaku: 2.3%False Dilemma1.8%This article: 5.2%Rebekah Valentine: 0.4%Kotaku: 1.0%Slippery Slope5.2%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.1%Kotaku: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 30.2%Rebekah Valentine: 5.8%Kotaku: 9.4%Hasty Generalization30.2%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.2%Kotaku: 0.3%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.9%Kotaku: 1.1%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 15.1%Rebekah Valentine: 2.8%Kotaku: 5.8%Appeal to Emotion15.1%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.2%Kotaku: 0.9%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 3.2%Rebekah Valentine: 1.5%Kotaku: 2.4%Post Hoc (False Cause)3.2%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.4%Kotaku: 0.3%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 3.6%Rebekah Valentine: 1.0%Kotaku: 0.7%Burden of Proof3.6%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.2%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.5%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 14.9%Rebekah Valentine: 3.7%Kotaku: 4.3%Anecdotal14.9%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 1.4%Kotaku: 2.0%Ambiguity (Equivocation)0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.2%Kotaku: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.7%Kotaku: 0.5%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.2%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.1%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 1.5%Kotaku: 2.8%Unattributed Quote0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.2%Kotaku: 1.6%Quote-first Misdirection0.0%This article: 5.8%Rebekah Valentine: 7.7%Kotaku: 15.3%Biased Writer Voice5.8%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.2%Kotaku: 2.4%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.1%Kotaku: 0.6%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Rebekah Valentine: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.1%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 7.4%Rebekah Valentine: 0.8%Kotaku: 3.5%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…7.4%

556 words analyzed.

Speakers

1speaker5.0%attributed speech528writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 13 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 20 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 30 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 1 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 1 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 5 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 6 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 26 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 41 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 19 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 17 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 32 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 29 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 17 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 10 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 17 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 30 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 16 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 38 words • 0.0% coveragePolygon • 28 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 8 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 27 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 28 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 20 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 24 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 18 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 11 words • 0.0% coverage
Selected voice

Polygon

100%flagged-word coverage
28 attributed words100% of attributed speech89% writer coverage
0%5.0%10.0%Attempt to Sell a Product -7.8 ptsWriter: 7.8%Polygon: 0.0%0.0%Biased Writer Voice-6.1 ptsWriter: 6.1%Polygon: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.