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Patricia is the former editor-in-chief of Kotaku, where she spent a decade writing and editing. Prior to that, she served as the Culture Editor at Polygon, and as a reporter at The Verge. Hernandez specializes in Pokémon TCG, Nintendo, and offbeat internet culture stories.
The Santa Cruz Pokémon blind bags cost as much if not more as the actual cards do
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Oct. 17 marked the release of Santa Cruz skateboard blind bags containing illustrated decks of some of the Pokémon Trading Card Game's best art. Classic cards like the base-set Charizard and more modern cards like the "Moonbreon" from Evolving Skies are randomly packaged in these new products. If that sounds cool to you, here's the bad news: You're probably not going to find any of these in a store.
There are 30 decks in all, and three rare "chase" golden foil variant designs, of which only 500 exist in the world. The boards aren't just blown-up reproductions of their cardboard counterparts, though. The designs expand beyond the cards, usually in ways that capture the monster's elemental essence. The Blastoise skateboard, for example, is flush with water waves.
Much like their inspirations, the Santa Cruz blind bags are selling out immediately through a combination of eager fans and salivating scalpers. The skateboards normally retail for $139.99, but on resale sites like eBay or Facebook Marketplace, the prices quickly become exorbitant. On the low end, for less desirable designs, there are boards going for somewhere around $250. In the mid-range, for fan-favorite cards depicting Eeveelutions or starters, price tags hover around $1,500. The scarce chase boards, which depict a cacophony of multiple cards in a single picture, are listed between $5,000 and $9,000.
To put this into perspective: You could probably purchase a handful of the rare cards depicted on these boards and still have a healthy chunk of change left over. It's bonkers, yet par for the course for nearly anything related to Pokémon these days.
Can I buy a Santa Cruz blind bag from The Pokémon Center?
Yes. You have a few options, actually. You can sign up for restock notifications on the official Santa Cruz website, or you can use the tool on the bottom of the page to find a local skate shop that carries the boards. Realistically, most, if not all, of those retail locations will be sold out.
According to restock Discord servers, there's a decent chance that The Pokémon Center will drop a new wave of Santa Cruz skateboards sometime on Monday — but there's no guarantee. The drop could also be the highly-anticipated 30th Anniversary Ultra Premium Collection. Whatever it ends up being, you'd better believe that scalpers already have their bot programs ready to strike. Drops via TPC will likely come with long queues, whereas drops via the official Santa Cruz website will likely return connection errors or sell out immediately.
Good luck out there, trainers.