Disney Lorcana is a Scalpers Paradise, If They Can Get It!

Disney Lorcana is set to launch at GenCon 2023, with the first purchases of the game being made at this event. This will be followed up by a local game store release on August 18th, and a full retail release (Walmart, GameStop, Target, etc.) happening on September 1st.

The game is wildly popular with some stores selling out of all their pre order stock in literal seconds. But this is bringing about a big problem as well – people selling well above MSRP, and sadly it’s not just individuals, but stores as well.

In Canada, a booster pack for Disney Lorcana at a giant retailer (GameStop, Walmart) is going to cost 7.99 plus applicable tax. That’s not actually all that much considering you are getting 12 cards, which provides 6 common cards, 3 uncommon cards, 2 rare or legendary cards, and one additional foil card (random rareness).

I was fortunate to be online the second GameStop pre orders began, and picked up a wide variety of products including booster packs, starter decks, mats, Illumineers Trove, Gift Set and more. Everything was going for the suggest MSRP available on the official Disney Lorcana webpage.

Then local, “smaller” game stores began launching their own preorders. My local store where I live is always a bit more expensive than everyone else, so when it came to Disney Lorcana, I wasn’t going to be shocked if pack prices were maybe .50 to a 1.00 more than what GameStop and Walmart were going to charge.

Again, fortune was on my side again when I was able to preorder from a local game store one town over, paying a slight premium when I purchased a booster box of 24 packs of cards for 204.99. If you bought individual packs from GameStop, 24 would cost you around 190.00. A 15 dollar premium to get the card August 18th and support a local store? Sounds good to me.

Then I saw pricing on 401 Games, which would be considered a local game store as opposed to a major retailer, but is still one of the biggest (if not the biggest) board game stores in Canada. I was shocked to see a price of 249.99 before taxes pop-up on my screen. That is a 60.00 premium to get the game on August 18th, and still 45.00 more than I paid at a legitimate small retailer near my house. This is insane, and I wonder who controls these prices.

Ebay has also become flooded with preorders for Disney Lorcana, with booster boxes going for as much as 500.00. People are definitely going to buy them, and this makes me really sad for the industry. I wish the product was going to be readily available at decent prices for little Johnny or Suzie to buy, but that doesn’t seem likely. We will have to wait and see how much product is released, but Ravensburger and Disney have said they will print for demand, so here is hoping we will have lots of options!