Retail giant Target is halting the sales of sports collector cards after fights broke out at several locations due to skyrocketing prices.
Prices for collector cards, including pro baseball, basketball, and football cards as well as game cards such as Pokemon, have soared over the last year as buyers surged into a market some say was goaded by people looking to make a fast buck during the pandemic shutdowns.
But as prices climbed — especially online at secondary sellers such as eBay — brick and mortar locations have experienced a similar rise in sales and a corresponding fall in new stock availability. The high demand has caused some buyers to take careful note of when stores get their new cards in stock. With this knowledge, they know when to wait outside the doors to run in and buy everything up just after the shelve are restocked.
Consequently, some of these schedule-watching buyers who are hoping to make a killing by hiking prices on resale sites have gotten into tussles outside the stores as they vie to buy up the new stock before anyone else can get to it.
By some estimates, people buy a $50 box of cards at Target or Walmart and resell them for upwards of $500 online, and competition between buyers in stores is overheating.
One such fistfight occurred between four people at a Target store in Brookfield, Wisconsin, on May 7. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, police said that the scuffle ended when one of the combatants pulled out his legally carried handgun.
Because of the fight, Target has now decided to get out of the collector card business altogether — at least for now.
Target has pulled sports cards from its shelves and posted notices saying that they’ve taken action “to ensure the safety of our guests and team members.”
Some individual Walmart stores are taking similar measures.
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