Free Worlds Pikachu card at GameStop, Best Buy and Hot Topic to August 30
PokeBeach reports that select stores are handing out a Worlds Pikachu promo card with any Pokemon Trading Card Game purchase, from August 22 through August 30. It is in stores only, not online.
A Pikachu card tied to the World Championships is being given away in shops right now, and it is free with a purchase. PokeBeach reports that select GameStop, Best Buy and Hot Topic stores are handing one out to anyone who buys something from the Pokemon Trading Card Game range, from today through August 30.
The deal in plain numbers
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What you get | The Worlds Pikachu promo card |
| What you have to do | Buy a Pokemon Trading Card Game product |
| Where | Select GameStop, Best Buy and Hot Topic stores |
| When | August 22 to August 30 |
| Online orders | No. In stores only |
| Extra cost | None |
One word in there is doing a lot of work: select. It means some branches are in the promotion and some are not. The report does not say which ones, and it does not say how many cards each store received. Call your shop before you drive to it.
Why the shop and not the website
Giveaways like this are almost never about the card. They are about getting a person through a door during the one week of the year when Pokemon is on television.
The World Championships run August 28 to 30 in San Francisco, and the giveaway stops the day the finals are played. A shop that has you standing in the card aisle sells you more than a website does. That is the whole trade: a free card for you, a visit for them.
It also blocks the easiest form of resale. Nobody can click a button and order forty of these to flip, because there is no button.
The other way to get one
PokeBeach also says the card will be handed out as a participation prize at Pokemon League. League is the free weekly card game meet-up that many local game shops run. You turn up, you play some matches, and you take home whatever promo item the shop is giving out that season.
The version of the report we have does not say which League weeks the Pikachu card covers. Treat that as a thing to ask your local shop about rather than a plan you can lock in.
What a promo card is, if you are new
Promo cards are printed outside the normal sets. You do not pull them from booster packs. They arrive with special products, at events, or through giveaways exactly like this one, and they carry their own numbering rather than a slot in a set list.
That makes them uneven in value. Some promos stay cheap forever because millions were printed. A few become hard to find because the only way to get one was to be in a particular place in a particular week. Nobody can tell you which kind this is yet, and anyone who says they can is guessing.
Before you go
- Phone ahead. "Select stores" is doing real work in that sentence.
- Buy something you actually wanted. A promo card is not a reason to spend $30 on packs you did not plan to open.
- One per customer is the usual rule. The report does not state a limit, so ask at the till rather than arriving with a plan.
- Expect resale listings within days. Paying real money for a card that a shop nearby is giving away is a bad trade.
- Sleeve it on the way out if you care about the condition. A free card in a back pocket is a bent card.