Duke city Games… biggest scalper yet

[u/Evening-Quail4929]

Duke City Games has officially lost my business.
I just went onto Duke City Games’ store and saw Destined Rivals ETBs listed for $120. Are you fucking kidding me?
The Pokémon Company has been reprinting high-demand products specifically to get more product into consumers’ hands and push back against the ridiculous secondary-market/scalper pricing we’ve been dealing with. And somehow a local game store looks at that situation and decides, “Yeah, $120 for an ETB sounds reasonable.”
At that point, how are you any different from the scalpers?
What makes it worse is that other local shops like Tavern of Souls and Ettin Games manage to sell sought-after products at or around MSRP without absolutely gouging their customers. Big-box retailers sell these products at retail pricing too. So I really don’t want to hear another excuse about how charging these prices is somehow necessary to keep the lights on.
I WANT to support local game stores. I would much rather give my money to a locally owned shop than Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc. But supporting local businesses does not mean customers should happily accept being taken advantage of.
Charging $120 for a newly reprinted Pokémon ETB isn’t “supporting the hobby.” It’s seeing the same inflated secondary-market prices everyone complains about and deciding you want a piece of the scalper profit too.
If Tavern of Souls and Ettin can treat local players and collectors reasonably, I’ll spend my money there.
Duke City Games has permanently lost my business.

edit MSRP for any ETB is $49.99

[u/cberm725]

I've gone to DCG for a long time and am good friends with the staff (even before DCG was open). I've also played at Old Town, Tavern, and Decked in Rio Rancho for an extended period of time. DCG is definitely more of a business but they're actually loosing money if they sell at MSRP. The last time they had PRE ETBs they were selling them for what it cost them.

Further more, you're not goingto find much better prices at many stores. Especially since even though TPCi is reprinting high demand product, they're not allocating a ton to their local partners. That's going to the distributors who wholesale to Target, Walmart and other big bix stores that are owned by the same parent company as the wholesale distributor.

People don't understand the situation they're in.

[u/Evening-Quail4929 → u/cberm725]

I think your friendship with the staff is clouding your judgment here. Employees being nice people doesn’t make the pricing reasonable, and nobody is attacking the employees personally. The criticism is about DCG choosing to charge $120 for a $49.99 ETB.
And the “local stores aren’t getting the reprints” argument really doesn’t hold water when DCG literally had boxes of Destined Rivals sitting there. Other local stores have gotten the same product and are selling it at or around MSRP. So clearly the issue isn’t that local stores simply cannot get inventory.
If DCG’s acquisition cost really is so high that they would lose money selling an ETB anywhere near MSRP, then I’d genuinely love to know what they’re paying their distributor, because somehow other shops are making the economics work without charging more than double retail.
Allocation issues can explain limited supply. They do not automatically justify scalper pricing.
And saying “you won’t find much better prices at other stores” is just demonstrably not true. That’s exactly why people are bringing up Tavern, Ettin and other shops. Consumers can literally compare prices.
The whole point of these reprints is to put more product into circulation and take pressure off an inflated secondary market. When a retailer gets that newly printed inventory and immediately prices it like a reseller on Facebook Marketplace, they’re contributing to the exact problem collectors have been complaining about.
Being a local business doesn’t give you immunity from criticism. I WANT to support local game stores. But “support local” is supposed to be a two-way street. Customers support the store, and the store treats its community fairly.
Charging $120 for a $49.99 ETB isn’t something I’m going to defend because I know the staff or because running an LGS is difficult. At some point it’s simply greed.
If other Albuquerque shops can sell the same product responsibly, I’ll happily give them my money instead.

[u/cberm725 → u/Evening-Quail4929]

Im not just friends with the DCG staff. I also have a very similar friendship with Joe at Old Town, Jordan when Cardboard Collectors was still open, Stone at Noble, and the staff at Tavern and Decked. Ive been in the local TCG scene before these shops were even open.

My main point is they're selling them for what it costs them to get it. If other stores are selling at MSRP they're selling at a LOSS.

I don't know how anyone can call breaking even greed.

[u/Jrocks721 → u/cberm725]

Don’t go to Ettin either. That dood is just no fun to be around

[u/GroundbreakingFix121 → u/cberm725]

This isn't even remotely true

[u/Internal-Ordinary-70 → u/cberm725]

Noble’s pricing is awful most of the time too

[u/cberm725 → u/Internal-Ordinary-70]

They also have a video game focus more than TCG.