Ross selling Pokémon at heavy discounts

Ross shoppers are finding Pokémon cards in the same aisles that usually hold marked-down sneakers and kitchen towels, including Scarlet & Violet—Prismatic Evolutions products that have been sold out on Pokémon Center for months. One post showed a Prismatic Evolutions Booster Bundle at about $25 and a larger box at about $40, turning a scavenger hunt store into a card shop by accident. (x.com) That is strange because Prismatic Evolutions was one of the hottest Pokémon Trading Card Game releases of 2025, with the first wave launching on January 17, 2025 and the Booster Bundle arriving later on March 7, 2025. The set is built around Eevee and its eight Evolutions, which is the kind of character lineup that pulls in both players and collectors. (pokemon.com) Pokémon itself acknowledged the squeeze on March 27, 2025, saying fans were having trouble buying certain Trading Card Game products because demand was so high. When the publisher has to post a product-availability update, you are not dealing with a normal toy aisle item anymore. (pokemon.com) The official Pokémon Center listing still shows the Prismatic Evolutions Booster Bundle at $26.94 and marked sold out. The Prismatic Evolutions category page also shows nearly every product in the line as sold out, which helps explain why people get excited when sealed stock appears anywhere else. (pokemoncenter.com 1) (pokemoncenter.com 2) Ross is built for exactly this kind of surprise appearance, even if the item is unusual. In its 2025 annual report, Ross said its off-price buying strategy lets merchants buy goods at net prices below what department and specialty stores typically pay, which is corporate language for “we buy leftovers, overruns, and opportunistic deals cheap.” (stocklight.com) Ross also said it had 1,831 Ross Dress for Less locations as of February 1, 2025, which means even a modest closeout lot can get scattered across a huge national footprint. That is why one shopper in one city can post a hit while ten other shoppers find nothing the same day. (fintel.io) The other reason these finds travel so fast is that sealed Prismatic Evolutions product still commands real money on the secondary market. TCGplayer listings for the Booster Bundle were still active this week, and other Prismatic Evolutions sealed items, like the Super-Premium Collection, were listed far above original retail, showing that unopened stock has stayed a tradeable asset, not just a toy. (tcgplayer.com 1) (tcgplayer.com 2) So the Ross story is not really about one discount chain suddenly becoming a hobby retailer. It is about a high-demand product line from early 2025 aging just enough to fall into the closeout pipeline, while demand stays hot enough in 2026 that a $25 box behind a Ross price sticker still feels like found money. (pokemon.com) (stocklight.com)