eBay has started to remove in-hand listings of 30th Anniversary cards and merchandise under its Stolen Property Policy after receiving communication from TPCi regarding the unauthorized distribution of Pokemon TCG products. Sellers who listed the items early have received the following message from eBay:
“The sale of stolen property is not allowed on eBay. eBay has received communication from The Pokemon Company International indicating that 30th Anniversary Pokemon trading cards are not distributed or made available for public sale through authorized channels as of today. […] To help ensure compliance with eBay policies and intellectual property rights, we recommend that this item not be relisted unless documentation can be provided demonstrating that it was obtained through an authorized and legitimate source.”
eBay further states that because the items “may have originated outside of approved manufacturing and distribution processes,” they are removing the listings under their Stolen Property Policy.
For the past month or two, openings of 30th Anniversary merchandise have been circulating across social media. Most of the products appear to have entered the secondary market through an unauthorized source somewhere along the distribution chain, such as a distributor or warehouse. The earliest widely circulated openings originated in Australia, with additional products from other countries surfacing later.
Factory thefts and distribution leaks have been a recurring problem for TPCi since the pandemic, beginning with Shining Fates in 2021. TPCi has an internal task force that attempts to track down and prevent these leaks from occurring.
The removal of the 30th Anniversary listings from eBay is the latest effort to prevent the unauthorized sale of Pokemon TCG products before their official release.
Outside of eBay, some platforms continue to allow Pokemon TCG products to be sold before release, with sellers offering the leaked merchandise for exorbitant prices. These platforms appear to turn a blind eye to the practice because they profit from the transactions, even when the products have entered the market through unauthorized or illegal channels.