Target orders stores to stop cutting open Pokemon cards over legal risk

Target has reportedly instructed its stores not to break seals, open packages, or remove wrapping from trading card products “under any circumstances,” seemingly ending a controversial anti-scalper tactic seen at some locations.

A photo of an internal “Trading Cards Update” was shared on August 12 by Chris WSB. The notice is labeled as being published from August 7 to August 23 and tells store teams to follow Target’s enterprise process for trading cards to protect vendor-owned inventory and “reduce legal risk.”

The directive states that trading card inventory is owned by the vendor rather than Target. It also tells store directors to immediately share the instruction with every employee who merchandises, sells, or otherwise supports trading cards.

The reported company-wide instruction arrives after employees at multiple Target locations were filmed intentionally altering sealed Pokemon TCG products in an effort to deter resellers.

Target keeps card limits but ends seal cutting

In June, a Target employee was filmed slicing the shrink wrap on Prismatic Evolutions Elite Trainer Boxes before they were sold. The worker told customers that the store had been dealing with scalpers and claimed the measure had come from corporate.

Breaking the factory seal makes a box less appealing to resellers because sealed products typically command more money on the secondary market. However, it also affects collectors who legitimately keep unopened products and can make an item appear to have been tampered with.

The practice appeared to escalate in August when staff at another Target location removed the plastic wrapping from Elite Trainer Boxes entirely before placing them on sale. At the time, it remained unclear whether cutting or removing seals was an official nationwide policy.

The wording leaves no room for individual stores to continue the tactic. It applies to all trading card merchandise, not only Pokemon products, and says purchase limits are established at the enterprise level and apply to every store.

That means Target is not abandoning its limits on high-demand cards. Instead, employees are being told to enforce the company-wide restrictions without physically altering vendor-owned products.

Other retailers have experimented with similar anti-scalper measures. A Pokemon card shop in Japan recently began cutting the tops of booster packs at checkout to destroy their sealed resale value. Target’s directive, however, now expressly prohibits its own employees from doing the same.