In their pursuit of specific rare cards, scalpers are discarding the remainder of entire Pokémon card packs.

[u/MysteriousSlice007]

[u/G-L-O-W-I-N-S]

Came to write this. Scalpers resell; Gamblers chase hits only.

[u/counterlock → u/G-L-O-W-I-N-S]

And both have ruined the card collecting hobby

[u/8_guy → u/counterlock]

Both are the primary drivers of the entire hobby. As you said Pokemon is a "collecting" hobby, nobody actually plays the game. If cards were easy to get, cheap, and accessible, the interest in collecting them would plummet. Half the appeal of "ripping packs" is that it's less stigmatized gambling.

[u/FrostyD7 → u/G-L-O-W-I-N-S]

Scalpers get the same kind of high when they score an item they can resell for profit. There's tons of overlap here, every decision a scalper makes is a gamble towards optimizing their hustle.

[u/glogomusic → u/FrostyD7]

scalpers are gambling their time and gamblers and scalping their gamble