The Pokemon Company responded to Van Gogh collaboration scalpers
The Pokemon Company has issued a response to fans who were eagerly awaiting a chance to buy their own products from the Van Gogh X Pokemon collection after scalpers descended on the limited edition merchandise when it launched earlier this week.
The Van Gogh x Pokemon collaboration is part of an ongoing museum exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and the associated merchandise features plushes, notebooks, art prints, and a limited edition Pokemon card.
The Pokemon Company has issued a statement on Twitter
After many fans were left disappointed due to not being able to purchase the products they wanted from the collaboration, The Pokemon Company took to Twitter to acknowledge fans' disappointment.
In the statement, The Pokemon Company said: “We apologise to all the fans eagerly awaiting our Pokémon Center x Van Gogh Museum release today.
“Due to overwhelming demand, all our products from this collection have sold out. We understand this is disappointing to many who were looking to our official email and social media channels for guidance on how and when to purchase. We are actively working on ways to provide more “Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat” promo cards for fans shopping at Pokémon Center in the future. Details will be released at a later date.
“Thank you for your understanding and continued support.”
Their statement suggests that fans may have more chances in the future to get their hands on the special edition Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat Pokemon card, which is being shipped out for free alongside purchases from the collection.
Despite this, Pokemon fans do not seem to be as willing to forgive the disastrous launch as the company probably hoped they would be.
Fans are not happy about how the collaboration release went
In response to the statement, several Pokemon fans have taken the opportunity to express how disappointed they were in the launch.
Twitter user @StreamLifeGamer said: "What a horrible experience! I literally had items in my cart just to keep receiving errors and not being able to check out to purchase what I was allowed to have in my cart. One of the worst releases."
They are not alone in this sentiment. Many fans suggested ways in which the release could have gone smoother, including sending out invites, limiting purchases to one per person, or increasing stock.
Some sales of the products seem to have taken place before the collection was even live due to leaked links to the collection being posted online, resulting in more stock issues for those who waited until access was officially granted to the products.
JGCollectables on Twitter said: "What’s even worse is that people got [products] before they were even live……Should definitely have their orders cancelled as they can see the purchases happened prior."
For many fans, not being able to get the products they wanted is disappointing, and is only made worse by scalpers listing the items on Ebay for several hundred pounds each. We can only hope that the limited edition items make a return before the collaboration ends in January 2024.
