Pack Attack

Jake Richmond on Sept. 16, 2022

These packs are from the original Pokemon set and Jungle expansion. Most shops wouldn't have their Pokemon cards sitting out like this, but especially not these sets! Packs sometimes sell for more than $200! I considered using some newer packs, but the designs are a lot more complicated! 

I worked at a Wizards of the Coast owned store waaaaay back when the Pokemon game first came out. Magic the Gathering had been around for years so the idea of a card game with packs of random cards wasn't new, but a lot of kids and their parents didn't understand it. Kids would often want to give back their packs because they didn't get the cards they wanted, and sometimes parents would get really made about it. There were a number of times where angry parents came into the store demanding that we had to give their kids the exact card they wanted, or refund their money because they didn't get the card they expected. We had to start explaining how the whole thing worked every time we sold anyone a pack. One time an angry parent waited for one of my coworkers after they got off work and tried to force her to give them free packs. Another time I was visiting a local comic shop and one of the customers recognized me and actually punched me because they had spent so much money on cards but never got a Charizard. I worked for Wizards of the Coast for 3 years and ended up sustaining a number of Pokemon related injuries.