Clearly desperate to find Pokémon cards, an Ohio man named Kent Kubasta admitted in June to placing a tracking device on a Pokémon delivery driver's vehicle to track card restocks, according to records from the Wayne County Municipal Court. After being arrested in June, Kubasta was found guilty on Monday of using an illegal tracking device, which is a misdemeanor in the first degree. That carries a punishment of up to 180 days in jail and up to $1,000 in fines.
The Pokémon delivery driver, whose name is redacted in court documents, presumably for her safety, found the tracking device on her vehicle while delivering Pokémon cards to a Walmart store. An affidavit signed by Wooster, Ohio police said Kubasta "later admitted to placing the tracking device on [redacted's] car to track her location/delivery of Pokémon cards." The device placed was a SpyTech GPS, which connects to a smartphone application to track real-time movement.
Interest in Pokémon cards is at an all-time high, and somehow keeps getting higher. The hobby has been ransacked by scalpers trying to make a quick buck; there's countless videos and headlines about vicious fights at retail stores and Pokémon card vending machines as scalpers attempt to gobble up cardboard. It's been rumored for years that people put GPS trackers on delivery driver vehicles to track where Pokémon card restocks are happening. Somehow, scalpers always know where to go; you'll see massive lines at stores like Target, Best Buy, and Walmart when scalpers think a restock is about to happen.
Discord servers and Facebook groups pass information around to both collectors and scalpers, and lines fill up fast. But it's rare to see someone actually arrested for putting a tracking device on a delivery driver's vehicle. Last year, a woman who stocked Pokémon cards for Target stores in South Carolina filed a police report after people in a Pokémon card collecting Facebook group posted her personal information online, according to ABC 4 News. This sort of behavior is not uncommon in these sorts of online groups.
Last week, The Pokémon Company released its highly-anticipated 30th anniversary set, and, as expected, grown men continued to fight each other not only over cards, but about their places in the overnight lines. Ironically, the Pokémon Company has printed the 30th anniversary collection a ton, which has caused the market for individual cards to decrease. Cards are actually affordable, but it's still near impossible to find sealed products on store shelves because of scalpers. Still, the amount the Pokémon Company has printed the set is causing some scalpers to crash out.
The Pokémon Company's 30th anniversary Elite Trainer Box, which comes with nine booster packs with five cards each, a promo card, energy cards, card sleeves, and other accessories has a suggested MSRP of $50. But unless you can catch an in-store restock, it'll cost anywhere from $150 to $180 from a reseller. Even retailers like GameStop are pricing their stock above MSRP; it's $100 to get the 30th anniversary Elite Trainer Box from the store.
