A Collector Put a GPS Tracker on a Pokemon Delivery Driver's Car. The Same Day, Resellers Complained the 30th Set Is Overprinted.

A Collector Tracked the Delivery Driver. He Just Pleaded No Contest.

Kent Kubasta, 72, of Medina, Ohio, entered a no-contest plea on Friday in Wayne County Municipal Court to a charge of illegal use of a tracking device. According to Fox 8 News, as reported by Dexerto on September 22, Kubasta placed a GPS tracker on the car of a woman whose job was delivering and stocking Pokemon cards at retail stores. The driver found the device on her vehicle in June. Police records reportedly show Kubasta admitted placing it so he could follow her route and know where and when new product was landing.

He declined to explain himself to reporters. The charge and the plea speak for themselves.

This Is Not an Isolated Story

Dexerto noted a February 2025 case in which a scalper physically followed a vending machine employee from store to store, livestreaming the pursuit, and then bought more than $800 of cards from the freshly stocked machines. Earlier this year a man was caught hiding overnight in a Best Buy to be first in line for a release. In the last month alone we have written about a drywall break-in, a chainsaw-wielding store burglar and a postal worker charged with stealing shipments. The common thread is that Pokemon product at retail price has become worth enough to some people that they will commit crimes for access to it.

Randy Kendall, a manager at Operation Fandom in Ohio, told Fox 8 that Pokemon "is absolutely the hottest thing going." He described lines of 30 to 40 people at his store for drops, bigger crowds at large retailers, and shoppers bringing family members, including young children, to get around per-customer purchase limits. Collectors already trade restock intel on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Kubasta went one step past that line.

Meanwhile, Resellers Are Complaining the 30th Set Is Overprinted

The same day, Dexerto reported a very different mood on the reseller side. On the PokeInvesting subreddit, and in a piece IGN picked up, flippers have been complaining that Pokemon 30th Celebration, which launched worldwide September 16, has "generous" pull rates and is "overprinted," which is keeping sealed prices near retail and making it hard to profit. One user called it a set that will make you money in five to ten years but not now. Another summed up the other side of the room: "I am just happy scalpers are suffering."

The singles market backs them up on the print run. Per PriceCharting figures cited by Dexerto, the RGB secret rares top out around $4,000, only about 11 cards in the set have crossed $110 raw, and Lugia and Charizard have cleared $1,000 as PSA 10s. Those are real numbers for the chase cards, but the floor under everything else is low because there is plenty of product. Some resellers are now telling each other to dump their RGB cards at whatever price they can get and move on to other sets.

What Both Stories Say About Where the Hobby Is

Read together, the two stories describe the same market from opposite ends. Demand at the register is high enough that a 72-year-old put a tracker on a stranger's car to beat the crowd to a restock. Supply for the biggest set of the year is high enough that the people who buy to flip cannot make it work. That is exactly what Pokemon said it wanted when it announced the 30th Celebration would launch everywhere at once with no booster boxes: product in the hands of players and collectors, not in a reseller's closet.

For regular collectors, that is good news with one caveat. Retail drops for the older Mega Evolution sets and the smaller 30th anniversary products will still draw lines, because those are where the scarcity lives now. The restock-chasing behavior is not going away. It is moving.

How to Chase Restocks Without Becoming a Story

• Ask the store. Most shops and many big-box employees will tell you their delivery day if you ask politely and buy something occasionally. That is the legal version of what Kubasta did.
• Use official notifications. Retailer apps and the Pokemon Center email list will tell you about drops for free. As one viral post on the case put it, he "could have just turned notifications on."
• Respect the limits. Per-customer caps exist so the line behind you gets a box too. Bringing your kids to double your allotment is technically allowed and socially corrosive.
• Buy the set that is actually available. If 30th Celebration is on the shelf at MSRP, which it is in many places right now, that is the deal. Chasing the scarce set at a markup is how resellers make their money back.

The easiest way to know when product lands is to be a regular at a shop that tells you. Use The Card Shop Finder to find a local card shop that posts its restock schedule and holds product for its customers.