The Pokémon Center drops second wave of 30th anniversary TCG pre-orders
Published Jul 20, 2026, 1:27 PM EDT
The wider slate of TCG products coming on Sept. 16 are now up for pre-order
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Buckle up, Pokémon trainers, a queue is afoot. After a chaotic drop last Wednesday, The Pokémon Center is back with another 30th anniversary pre-order slate. This influx of Pokémon Trading Card Game products covers some, but not all, of the items going on sale starting on Oct. 2. Here's what you need to know.
What's available to pre-order?
The list includes:
- Pokémon TCG: 30th Celebration Booster Bundle: six booster packs; price expected to be $26.94
- Pokémon TCG: 30th Celebration Mini Tin Display: four different collectible tins, each containing two booster packs, a sticker sheet, and an art card — but this is being sold in a 10-pack. The price is expected to be $99.99.
The wave does not include the highly sought-after Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Boxes (ETBs). However, based on information shared by botting Discords, it is expected that The Pokémon Company will continue releasing more products in waves.
How much can I buy?
The bundle has a limit of three per customer, while the tin has a limit of one. To contextualize this, during the last drop, ETBs — which had a limit of two per customer — sold out after five hours. The rest of the products, which had stricter limits, took nearly seven hours to sell out. That level of availability is unheard of in recent years for Pokémon TCG sets, so it's clear that The Pokémon Company is heavily printing it.
How to prepare for TPC's 30th anniversary drop
The usual advice applies. You should try to connect via PC, on a wired internet connection if possible. Mobile phones tend to refresh webpages when you don't have the tab open and go to sleep quickly. Some phones allow you to turn off auto refresh or tinker with the sleep settings, but generally, people on mobile report way more issues than people on PC.
Whatever you choose, don't connect multiple devices from the same IP address to the site — you could be flagged. You could, however, connect a phone on LTE and a PC on a wired connection at the same time to double your chances of connecting.
Fans also report that trying to purchase multiple orders at the same address sometimes caused those orders to be canceled. Checkouts were plagued with issues, and it sometimes took multiple tries for The Pokémon Center to accept a credit card.
Image: The Pokémon CompanyWhat is Error 17?
Whatever you do, avoid reloading the website as much as possible. If you're actively in a queue with a timer, the screen can sometimes go completely blank. Let the website do its thing: it will eventually reload at a new time. Reloading can put you at the back of the line and may also get you an error 17. Error 17 appears when The Pokémon Center deems you to be a bot, and you'll be unable to load the website at all.
What is error 43?
It's another connection error, basically. This is the one time you should reload — the site should take you back into the queue. Otherwise, if the tab on your screen shows that your page is loading something, do not refresh even if the screen is blank. TPC will refresh on its own, though it may take a few minutes.
Should I be worried about my timer?
Expect the first hour or so to be particularly rife with issues, including ones where The Pokémon Center's website won't load at all. Once things settle, whatever your timer says won't be exact. It might display seven remaining hours, then fall down to two hours, and then suddenly go back up to three hours. More than once during the first wave, I got under an hour only to be kicked back to a three-hour wait. I did manage to get everything though — except the ETB. If you want to succeed, you have to be ready to spend a lot of time at your computer.
Sometimes, the website will crash randomly, and you'll be sent to the back of the line anyway. While frustrating, get back in the queue. Many people had to restart their wait times on Wednesday and were still able to purchase stock. All of which to say, even if you get into the queue late, don't despair. Chances are very high you'll score something, eventually.
What should I do if I was banned?
You might not be able to do anything, unfortunately — at least on the same connection. If you get banned on your wired PC, you can always try LTE on your phone. Some users report that they were able to fix it by unplugging and resetting their router. Bans can last anywhere between a few hours to multiple months, which is why it's important to refresh the page as little as possible.
Image: The Pokémon CompanyWhere is my email confirmation?
Once a purchase is made, do not be alarmed if you don't immediately receive an email confirmation. Receipts could take an hour or longer to arrive, so it's a good idea to screenshot your confirmation screen.
Why do people want this set?
This might be the best TCG collection TPC has ever made. The set includes 30 different Pikachu, each drawn by a different artist. It also reprints a variety of beloved old-school cards, like the original Charizard holofoil. The set introduces a new rarity, Future Rare, which gives cards a chromatic look. While the new rarity has proven controversial, the art for the rest of the cards is killer.
The set is themed after day and night cycles, and the art and holofoil decorations reflect that. At least one card is split into two. Beloved artists like Okubo, 0313, Yuu Nishida, Ameliacart, Okachee, and Shinji Kanda all make an appearance. Some of the most iconic monsters are included in the set, like Gengar, Meowth, and Jigglypuff.
The consensus around the set is that it will be more popular — and perhaps scarcer — than Ascended Heroes. Already, pre-orders outside TPC are going for hundreds of times over MSRP.
Godspeed, trainers. While it appears that scalpers with bots ate well last Wednesday, normal people were also more successful than usual. Already, this second drop seems more stable. There are still reports of random crashes, but it didn't take over an hour for the website to actually let anyone in.
If all else fails, hey: the new Pitch Black set came out last Friday. Most retailers are flush with single packs of Pitch Black as of this writing.
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