Pokémon TCG Pocket Trading Has Spurred a Strange Black Market for High Rarity Cards

Pokémon TCG Pocket's in-game trading system fuels a thriving black market for digital cards on platforms like eBay. Players are buying and selling cards for prices ranging from $5 to $10, circumventing the game's intended mechanics.

Sellers exploit the trading system by exchanging friend codes and requesting specific cards in return for less desirable ones. A typical transaction might involve a buyer providing a "unwanted Pokémon ex" and 500 Trade Tokens for a desired card, a clear violation of the game's terms of service prohibiting the buying and selling of virtual items. The seller benefits because the trade only requires cards of the same rarity, allowing them to repeatedly acquire and sell valuable cards like ex Pokémon.

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eBay listings showcase the extent of this black market, featuring high-demand cards like ex Pokémon and 1-Star alternate art cards, along with entire accounts containing valuable resources. While account selling is common in online games, this activity still contravenes Pokémon TCG Pocket's terms of service.

The trading mechanic itself sparked controversy upon its release. Criticisms centered on the restrictive Trade Token system, requiring players to discard five cards to trade one of equivalent rarity, and the lack of a built-in public trading system. Players expressed frustration with the need to use external platforms like Reddit, Discord, and now eBay to facilitate trades, contrasting with their hopes for a more integrated community trading experience.

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Developer Creatures Inc. has warned against real-money transactions and other exploitative behaviors, threatening account suspensions for violations of the terms of use. Ironically, the Trade Token system, implemented to curb such practices, has inadvertently fueled the black market and alienated the community.

Creatures Inc. is investigating improvements to the trading feature, but concrete solutions remain elusive despite ongoing complaints. Speculation suggests the trading system's limitations, particularly the inability to trade higher-rarity cards, are designed to incentivize in-app purchases, given the game's reported half-billion-dollar revenue in just three months prior to the trading feature's launch. The high cost of completing card sets further supports this theory.