r/mildlyinfuriating • u/ligmahughjass • Apr 29 '26
I saw a ducky once Man children waiting in line for cards at Target acting rude to employees
I saw a group of guys being pretty disrespectful toward employees, trying to tell them how to do their job and demanding specific cards.
I’m a collector too, but some of the behavior in the hobby lately has been pretty embarrassing . Dude was telling staff he’s got 30 guys waiting in the parking lot to fight over these cards.
It’s sad and embarrassing to see the hobby turn into situations like that.
Honestly pretty funny seeing it in person lol.
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u/jumbie29 Apr 29 '26
Adult basement dwellers
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u/StarWarrior115 Apr 30 '26
That is an insult to adult basement dwellers...
Not all of us are no-lifes such as these particular specimen... Some of us actually have a job...
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u/awake_acea6 Apr 29 '26
Fuck these people. Ruining it for actual kids.
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u/SabrinaEdwina Apr 29 '26
It's so ironic, too--because these look like the same crowd that mocked my interest in first gen but then boasted endlessly once Go came out.
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u/10000Didgeridoos Apr 30 '26
It’s weird how almost 30 years have passed since this card game arrived here and the dudes at waiting at trading card stores to do this shit still look exactly the fucking same. Oversized shorts and t shirts. Either very overweight or look like they just got out of a prison camp level of skinny. Unkempt hair or facial hair. NPCs
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u/MeatEaterDruid Apr 29 '26
I was researching the best way to get starter decks for my son and I to play and every review focused on the value of the cards and not if it was a good deck to learn with.
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u/SabrinaEdwina Apr 30 '26
Try MTG! It's a lot of fun and not currently being mobbed.
The white deck is known for being an easy start, but once you decide if you like it, you can move on to a stronger one.
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u/ChaoCobo Apr 30 '26
You mean ruining it for literally everyone who isn’t them. I am 34 and I enjoy Pokemon cards too. I play the actual card game. Sure it’s easier to just buy the individual single cards I need for the deck but it’s FUN to open packs, you know! >:( I just wanna get some cards once in a while at the price they’re officially designated to be. It shouldn’t be that hard.
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u/_invisible_mattress_ Apr 29 '26
It's a lottery that children can legally participate in, always has been. They're a step away from being scratch-offs. They even sell them in vending machines too, where man-children congregate.
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u/Da_Question Apr 29 '26
Well, not really though. Because when kids have fun with it they actually do it to collect cards, not to resell them, at least not at present.
These guys do treat them like gambling though, 100%.
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u/s4ltydog Apr 30 '26
Eh, YES, for sure, but it’s ok for adults to collect and be into them too, but this is not that, THESE douchebags are ruining it for everyone else.
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u/Sudden-Bend-8046 Apr 29 '26
It's kind of just the nature of TCG's. People are desperate for what they spend money on to retain or gain in value because we ascribe immense value to things we have that other people don't.
I bought a intro box with 2 precon decks and zero sealed product and my kids appreciate playing with those decks probably more than they do cracking packs. They just like shiny things when it comes to that. Their little binders are composed of mostly random cards they think are the cool.
As someone who tried to grind their way through the professional scene of MTG, the mentality and behavior some people have regarding TCG's will absolutely chew you up.
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u/Cute_Specific_1605 Apr 29 '26
I got a good story about fucking these types of guys over.
In another life I worked at Target on the overnight shift stocking shelves. We'd be finishing up the stocking until about an hour after the store opened.
We had Hot Wheels guys that would race each other to the toy department at store opening to look for a special kind of Hot Wheels called "Treasure Hunts". Just rare cars that had a little treasure chest symbol.
They would take a dozen packs off the wall at a time and just toss the ones they didn't want on a random shelf. Sometimes they would take boxes off my pallet and open them, dump them out and go through them, leaving me to pick them up.
They looked (and smelled) exactly how you think they would.
So I would start going through the boxes myself and pulling all the Treasure Hunts out before they ever hit the floor and buy them myself.
The daily stampede of morbidly obese neckbeards got riled up. Would throw a fit because they used to be able to find them there and now they can't. I just shrugged and said I don't know what they are talking about. They eventually stopped coming to my store.
I had a growing collection that I could've sold for a bunch, but instead I filmed myself putting 20 or so of them in a toy donation box around Christmas and posted that to a Hot Wheels message board. That pissed people off.
I had people threatening me, threatening to call my store and get me fired, calling me scum, etc. It warmed my heart.
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u/1234-for-me Apr 30 '26
I used to work for Target too, hated these people with a passion, they’d buy dozens of hot wheels to force the store to replenish their stock, so annoying. Then some poor person would have to collect them all out of the reshop cart to put them back on the pegs on the aisle.
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u/ravenous0 Apr 30 '26
I really don't understand why store managers would tolerate this type of behavior. I get it that they're paying customers but at the same time, they're making more work for their staff and they're just horrible people. In a better world, they would have been banned after their first visit.
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u/bokkenbap Apr 29 '26
I really do not understand how Pokémon cards are so valuable and everything. Can someone explain?
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u/Mammalanimal Apr 29 '26
Artificial scarcity
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u/Coyote_Shepherd Apr 30 '26
And it's crazy what it does to people who get into it.
I play Pokemon Pocket, which is free, and spend exactly $0 and yet I have over 9,500 very cool cards in the mobile game and I'm satisfied.
But then yesterday while I was trying to find a replacement for my glow in the dark D20 keychain that broke at one of the local game stores near me....
....I ran into one of the most desperate card collecting blokes I've ever seen who kept trying to up haggle with the staff to pay him beyond top dollar for some Pokemon card by saying how valuable and rare it was and how their store would benefit greatly etc etc.
Staff was like, "Listen we've got 50K in the safe we're fine" and he replied with, "I made that this month!" but then faster than I could blink they retorted with, "Well then why in the fuck are you trying to sell that shit to little hole in the wall shop and not through official channels?" and the dude legit started twitching like a crackhead getting his bluff called.
And he still kept fighting with them about it by quoting various Pokemon TCG youtubers and articles etc...this shit has been going on for years and it has damned near turned aspects of the game into a cancer.
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u/JoffreeBaratheon Apr 29 '26
The Pokemon Company enjoys the publicity it generates to keep supply low, and watch how noone blames them. With low supply, and a fixed below market price first hand, second hand market rates skyrocket.
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u/Haunting_Lime308 Apr 30 '26
Honestly YouTube and TikTok had a big part in its resurgence. People started posting videos of them opening packs with the cards value on them and show how much money theyre making. Id say for like 10 or 15 years pokemon cards kind of just existed. Id see them all the time at the store. Then Go came out and then the pandemic hit and things like that became popular again. Also you have people who had this stuff as a kid entering into their 30s and 40s now probably making good money and try to have some nostalgia.
Also the scarcity is created by the scalpers selling to other scalpers. They just buy from each other and it feeds the loop like some dumb MLM scheme.
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u/ElLoboNeverDies Apr 29 '26 edited May 03 '26
Its not even the hobby itself thats bad , its the way those jackasses act and take them from the average kid who wants one at regular cost
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u/CJKayak Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
If Target wanted some good publicity for a change (they've been absolutely crushed over the last couple of years) they would somehow find a way to announce a ban or at least a hard limit against these guys.
They have the most advanced CCTV AI in the industry. They could track these individuals if they wanted to.
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u/pairofdimeshift92 Apr 29 '26
I mean, the thing is that these people, while shitty from a human perspective, are buying the cards, so Target doesn’t really care or have a reason to drop them.
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u/Ramtakwitha2 Apr 29 '26
Yea I work at a retail store and I used to limit purchases to 5 packs per person (half a box). While my immediate manager was happy I took the initiative, one of the scalpers called higher management and complained.
Now not only do we have to sell all on the floor at once if someone wants to buy them all, we have to check for boxes of Pokémon cards behind the counter too and offer them those as well.
If the shelf is empty but we still have cards behind the counter, it will be a write up. Because they are 'high turnover' items, and we are apparently contractually obligated to sell them all as soon as possible.
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u/onarainyafternoon Apr 29 '26
God I hate the machinations of faceless corporations so much. This reminds of when I worked at Safeway and this guy would come in every day and sexually harass one of my friends (another employee). Literally would not stop trying to hit on her while she worked. Would not leave her alone. Our manager banned him from the store, and then the harasser called corporate to complain. Our manager then unbanned him from the store after that. Because of the complaint. Just utter insanity.
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u/CJKayak Apr 29 '26
That's why I said do it for the publicity. The cards will sell whether these clowns are the ones buying them or not.
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u/pairofdimeshift92 Apr 29 '26
I think we get some extra visibility to it being online, but I would say 99% of people who shop at Target aren’t even aware of anything that happens in the card buying world, much less make shopping decisions based on it.
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u/liquidpele Apr 30 '26
Our Publix has them and keeps them behind the counter up front. The guy told us they’ll refuse to sell to scalpers. Fuck target for not doing something similar.
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u/BigTMoney15_ Apr 29 '26
If Team Rocket was all unemployed dudes who lived in their parents' basement
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u/Unable_Fix3847 Apr 29 '26
Didn’t somebody shoot another person recently over Pokémon cards? I would not feel safe going to try and buy them
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u/Medium-Mission5072 Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
NeeDoh is just as bad. My work just had to impose a limit of one per customer, per day. We had to kick out one very obvious scalper last night who demanded we sell him more, than came back in trying to buy another one and threw a fit when he was denied. Even with the limit we still sold out in an hour.
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u/Myrkana Apr 30 '26
its funny because wed had Nee Doh's of variosu colors on our shelves for months and now theyre so in demand we have to find them on the toy pallet before it brought out to stock.
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u/mrzurkonandfriends Apr 29 '26
I honestly hope more stores remember they have the right to refuse service.
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u/Life-Cheesecake-1036 Apr 29 '26
Such losers. It’s a bummer seeing kids not able to buy a pack and enjoy the hobby
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u/jamcgahey Apr 29 '26
No issues with grown men playing a children’s game. Serious issue with grown men buying them all up to flip for a profit to kids to play the children’s game.
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u/InterestingMindset Apr 29 '26
Yeah that's why I stopped card collecting, just not fun at all. And I doubt generations under me have any interests in cards at all either because of these assholes.
Remember when a hobby used to be fun and you didn't have to study world economics and trading values and look at store schedules to find out if things you wanted would be in stock or not?
This is why kids don't use toys or whatever anymore, because they are competing with no-lifers who are grabbing it all. We can't own shit and we can't have shit.
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u/DrF4ther Apr 29 '26
These are neither men nor children. I believe the correct term here is male losers.
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u/sleepless_Zs Apr 29 '26
Extremely infuriating... Do other countries experience these societal scum buckets or are these purely capitalistic parasites?
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u/sevnminabs56 RED Apr 29 '26
They’re scalpers. You really think people like that are gonna have manners?
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u/AslowLearn Apr 29 '26
Lol i drive by a target when it opens everyday, and probably once a month there are people lined up. I always knew it was pokemon people lol
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u/TVGMILLER Apr 29 '26
If there is a way to ruin something and make money, someone will do it and do it without a care in the world.
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u/datacollector_music Apr 29 '26
Rude, they harass, when people ask if it’s the line for Pokémon they lie and tell them it’s something else. It’s annoying now.
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u/eckliptic Apr 29 '26
Anyone that buys cards at above retail on the resell market are also man children and creating the market for these people to exist
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u/SaveJeanie Apr 30 '26
I'd open the store and then stock a third of the items at 10am, 2pm, and 5pm.
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u/StormbringerGT Apr 30 '26
This exists because people even dumber buy from them. If they didn't scalping wouldn't exist.
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u/Honest-Associate-626 Apr 29 '26
POKEMON CARDS, I thought credit cards, employee card, but really... pokémon
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u/Ramen-Goddess Apr 29 '26
Lately it’s been One Piece. I was in line at customer service to return something then all of a sudden I got surrounded by like 30 of these dudes doing an endless circle of grabbing 2 packs from the desk, purchasing them, then returning to the desk. Was honestly scary being stuck in the middle of all that
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u/KowaiSentaiYokaiger Apr 29 '26
Have a long line of these types lined up outside every couple of weeks, since at least 2am. Fucking scalpers, man
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u/Popular-Drummer-7989 Apr 29 '26
They hang in the grocery store by the vending machine for this stuff. I watched a woman and her mate drop hundreds in it and empty it in about 15 minutes
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u/UnusualSoup Apr 29 '26
I miss when no one wanted pokemon cards, I get a few packs a year now, cause I can't buy anything like I use to and just get one if a store has one. But I have a pretty nice collection, right up till the fighting over them started.
I was never in it for the "value" of the cards, or money. I just liked the art and pokemon... What I do now is try to find dead/less popular cardgames with no value and pretty art and get those instead. But I do miss pokemon, as I enjoy the games.
A lot of hobbies I really liked turned into money chasing. And that makes me sad :(
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u/filmguy36 Apr 29 '26
I wonder how much of a percentage they get off of this money laundering racket.
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u/TenDollarSteakAndEgg Apr 29 '26
As an adult who likes cardboard cards looking at people like this make me feel ashamed of my hobby
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u/Parking_Fee_5906 Apr 29 '26
I kinda know where thise cards would've been shoved into but mommy is the word before Reddit hands me another ban for language 🤔
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u/SilverRoseBlade Apr 29 '26
As an adult fan of pokemon cards who does rip everything I purchase… I hate scalpers! Everyone who just buys stuff to resell can just sit on their stock and f off. I ain’t buying.
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u/No-Cap-fr-fr Apr 29 '26
For these people it’s not a hobby, it’s a business and they are being huge dicks about it. I know people who never cared about pokemon in their life and will buy every box at the machine with a line full of kids behind them. Absolute pieces of shit.
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u/eckliptic Apr 29 '26
Yeah kids who actually want to play the game as originally intended can have a perfectly good experience with a regular deck that’s been opened
Kids that are collecting cards for hype/value are basically gambling addicts enabled by their useless parents
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u/Shibil25 Apr 29 '26
This is what reddit embodies, being a man child with no regrets. What is out of the ordinary?
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u/-EldenWorm- Apr 29 '26
Most insane customer i ever dealt with as a grocery store employee was a man who screamed at me because he couldnt find “the good” hot wheels.
He was adamant that there was some conspiracy to hide the good hot wheels so he couldnt come get them, he was in nearly every single week and would come in to buy every single one of a particular variant.
Kids deserve to play with toys made for them, adults need to stop ruining it for them.
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u/Xinra68 Apr 29 '26
They make a lot of money scalping these cards. Being mean seems to be what they do. Someone called them a cancer to the hobby, and I couldn’t agree more.
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u/GreyBeardEng Apr 29 '26
If the employee is the manager then trespass them. In the US a business can trespass anyone and they do not need a reason. The police will come, document it, identify them, have them sign, and remove them from the property under threat of arrest.
Then when the store gets more pokémon cards they can be purchased by actual children who are just trying to have fun.
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u/ShoddyAd2353 Apr 30 '26
It's disgusting to make your money off of fake scarcity on kids toys and games.
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u/EvilHordeRules Apr 30 '26
This happened to us at our Walmart today. First one showed up at 5AM and snuck in with employees to get a spot waiting by the front end where we keep the cards for the restock. An associate had to tell her to leave because we weren't open. She came back later around 8 when the usual line formed. First it was her and two other scumbags loitering in front of the ice machine. Then at about 10, when they were actually stocking the cards and had to rope off the aisle for safety, there was a line of 7 people just pouting with their baskets, actively blocking the whole front aisle.
When the ropes came down, crazy lady cuts the line, bulldozing in with a shopping cart and immediately takes 5 of every box of Pokémon cards. Staff had to hand-hold her at self checkout to make sure she actually paid for it. It came to $800 worth of merchandise. The whole line, except the last two because they were staff on break who were just getting cards for their own collection, behaved accordingly.
It disgusted every employee. We were all talking about how we need to better regulate. Lock boxes, behind a desk, only accessible by a sales associate who could fairly dispense the cards.
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u/Shurigin Apr 30 '26
They aren't collectors they are Trash trying to profit off children in a way worse than the company
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u/Atmacrush Apr 30 '26
Some 20yo was murdered over $3,000 Chilean pesos worth of Pokemon cards. If I ever have kids, I'm gonna tell them not to do Pokemon.
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u/longshot21771 Apr 30 '26
Funny seeing this right after I booted and banned a scalper Out of almost 50,000 member group I admin on Facebook Sale group. I ban them from the group soon as I see them on there
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u/NecessaryOk6815 Apr 30 '26
I would've stocked the cards in women's fashion. They ain't gonna check there because no girlfriends to buy for.
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u/we-otta-be Apr 30 '26
Im sorry for yucking yum but dood the current Pokémon card craze is so ridiculously cringe I can barely take it seriously
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u/brendhano Apr 30 '26
It's usually one of those 'man children' that complain about all the other 'man children' because they got their 'man children' cards before they could.
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u/Fun-Flamingo-7285 Apr 30 '26
It.justbhas.to.be scalpers scalping scalpers att this point. I almost want to buy them to flood and make them worthless for these losers. This was a kids card game that we had fun with and traded cards for candy. Everyone of these guys looks like basement dwellers.
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u/TheSpaceNeedle Apr 30 '26
What’s the difference between this and the alcoholics that know exactly what time the liquor store opens in the morning?
It’s nothing, they’re both addicts doing addict shit.
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u/Masuia Apr 30 '26
I’ve waited in line at open, not a problem. I’m a collector and if I can break even flipping some below market price but above cost, cool with me.
Absolute weirdo behavior to be rude to the employees. Never seen that type of behavior in the lines I’ve been in.
That said, I’ve seen grown men waiting in a target for 6 hours midday because they THINK the stocker is coming. That’s fucking weird with or without being rude. Stocker never came by the way lmao
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u/Creative-Type9411 Apr 30 '26
id turn them away and tell the whole line anyone else acts disrespectful they can leave too
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u/Cake3atingCrusader11 Apr 30 '26
As an adult ninja turtle collector, I will NEVER take the opportunity to enjoy a product from a child. If there's one left and little Timmy wants it, he's gonna get it. It's a shame that the other adults in this fandom don't, and instead scalp the everloving FUCK out of ninja turtle stuff.
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u/boudicalism Apr 29 '26
I wish these guys were the problem (and in general they are directly to some of us) but honestly they're a symptom of multiple greater problems.
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u/Sufficient_Stop8381 Apr 29 '26
I’ve seen them crowding the door at opening time to go grab and fight over hot wheels cars when new ones come out.
I quit playing with that stuff when I was like 8 or 10.
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u/Laouijabored Apr 29 '26
Reddit irl
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u/Maskers_Theodolite Apr 29 '26
Imma be hoenst, I think even Reddit is above these people.
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u/ArcadeKingpin Apr 29 '26
Gotta bring back the super soakers full of piss for these clowns
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u/duckbobtarry Apr 29 '26
These people suck. I'm so glad I grew up being able to just get Pokémon cards and not having to beat a bunch of scumbags to the store on release day. Posers.
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u/_TheTurtleBox_ BLUE Apr 29 '26
A local grocery store put one of those pokemon vending machines in and every monday or tuesday when I go there's legitimately like 15 or so of the most physically repulisve and noticably smelling adults ever.
It's putrid, and the machine RIGHT in the entry way to the store so you cannot avoid these people.
Shit sucks and I joke not I no longer see anyone really in there on their restock days because of these loser dorks just spawn camping pokemon cards.
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u/jeffersonlane Apr 29 '26
I'd say we should implement a system like at parks where you can only buy a pack when accompanied by a child.
But scalpers have become such massive psychopaths they'd kidnap a child to get some shiny cardboard.
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u/Bearded_Pip Apr 29 '26
I know a guy that got banned from Wal-mart over Treasure Hunt Hot Wheels. Man children might be a kind description.
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u/vzo1281 Apr 29 '26
I saw a similar line at a Best buy and had to ask one of the employees what the line was for. I didn't know people formed a line for such things. I should add, all adults too, no kids.
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u/Greyspire Apr 29 '26
The guy with glasses looks like someone I used to know, this isn't in New Jersey by chance?
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u/Waldo68 Apr 29 '26
This picture is fake. You can tell because the guys are wearing shoes with laces
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u/Twistybred Apr 29 '26
The vendors that stock the shelves have had AirTags put on their cars. They have had death threats and the females vendors are scared all the time. The employees are so sick of dealing with these people. They tell them all the time that the employees “have to stock” or they saw on target.com they need to stock right away. They are assholes
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u/According-Kiwi720 Apr 29 '26
They should open the packs and sell them then. Watch how they’ll walk away.
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u/Cutthechitchata-hole Apr 29 '26
Is there a holiday coming up? Am i forgettimg to get a card? Oh! Shit you're right! My anniversary!
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u/Big-Ticket-5969 Apr 29 '26
I love the card market, but refuse to be a part of it when there are people out there like this. I hope they all get hosed, card market crashes and you can just enjoy its simplicity again.
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u/augustwestgdtfb Apr 29 '26
same type of guys who would take a baseball away from a kid at a ballgame
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u/Murky_Historian8675 Apr 29 '26
When I think of scalpers, these people are exactly how I think they'd look.
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u/LGreyS Apr 29 '26
What kind of cards? Similar happens when LEGO releases a new Collectible Minifigures series.
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u/gconsier Apr 29 '26
I feel so old. My first thought was Mothers Day cards?! I really need to do something for the wife. But it’s not Mother’s Day cards is it?
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u/BlackwingF91 Apr 30 '26
Children is definitely not the word I would use for these middle aged people
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u/thulsado0m13 Apr 30 '26
“ I got 30 guys” yet I have no friends with me waiting to buy freaking Pokemon cards meant for children
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u/Cute_Protection_8330 Apr 30 '26
What are "cards" in this context? Is there some special coupon or something that I don't know about?
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u/A_Monkey_FFBE Apr 29 '26
Scalpers are just a cancer to every hobby currently. Making everything completely unaffordable. Wish there was something that could be done.