GameStop has responded to viral Costco brawls breaking out over the botched early release of Pokemon Blooming Waters and has a plan to stop fights from happening at its stores.
Earlier in January, Costco stores accidentally began selling the Pokemon TCG’s 151 Blooming Waters Premium Collection early, resulting in stores becoming thunder domes.
In viral clips posted to social media, eager collectors and scalpers could be seen putting multiple boxes of the Pokemon TCG Collection in their carts and facing off with anyone who got in their way.
One shopper was even filmed taking an elbow to the face during a confrontation with another fan and still continued to hold onto the box with a grip of steel.
With Blooming Waters officially arriving on February 7, GameStop has responded to the bulk madness at Costco and warned scalpers that they wouldn’t tolerate that behavior.
GameStop tells Costco to “do better” after viral Pokemon TCG melees
Quote-tweeting Twitch streamer DisguisedToast’s video of a Costco Pokemon brouhaha, GameStop explained how it wouldn’t let its stores become battlegrounds.
“We support battling Pokémon, not battling over Pokémon,” the video game shop said. “Blooming Waters arrives at GameStop on February 7th with a 2 per customer limit.”
That’s not all; GameStop also had some strong words for the member-exclusive warehouse, telling Costco to “do better” and tagged them in the message.
Fans were quick to voice their approval of the decision to halt scalpers in their tracks.
“Thank you GameStop,” one said.
“That’s my company,” another chimed in.
The Blooming Waters Premium Collection has been extremely sought after, because it could be the final chance for collectors to acquire booster packs from the popular Scarlet & Violet 151 set and potentially a full-art Charizard EX.
This isn’t the first time Pokemon cards have brought out absurd behavior. Earlier in 2025, a company executive tricked his boss into giving him $500,000 which he then spent on Pokemon cards.