Queuing for Pokémon Cards: Waste of Time or Part of the Hobby?

A queue forms outside a shop for a Pokémon release, and the opinions arrive almost as quickly as the people.

“What a waste of time.” “That’s pathetic.” “They’re all scalpers.”

But is standing in line really any stranger than spending hours on another hobby? And can we honestly tell why someone is there just by looking at them?

There are fair questions to ask about queuing, access and resale. Dismissing everyone in the queue doesn’t answer any of them.

Is queuing a waste of time?

It depends on what you get out of it.

If you spend hours waiting, miss out on the product and dislike every minute, it may feel like a wasted morning. If you leave with something you wanted, meet fellow collectors and enjoy the anticipation, you might see it very differently.

People spend time travelling to football matches, waiting for concert tickets or hunting for records. Enjoyment doesn’t have to produce an hourly wage to be worthwhile.

That doesn’t make queuing practical for everyone. Work, caring responsibilities, health, accessibility and transport can make a long wait difficult or impossible. Being able to queue is not a measure of how much someone deserves to enjoy Pokémon.

“Pathetic” is a judgement, not an argument

You don’t have to understand someone’s enthusiasm to respect it. Waiting for cards may not be how you would spend your day, but that alone doesn’t make the person doing it foolish.

There is still room to question the pressure around a release. Are you there because you genuinely want the product, or because you’re afraid of being left behind? Would you still want it if social media stopped talking about it tomorrow?

Those are useful questions for any collector. Insulting strangers is less useful.

A queue can be a community, not just a crowd

For some people, the wait is part of the experience: talking about favourite sets, comparing collections, sharing stories and meeting people who understand the hobby.

That social interaction has value, particularly if you don’t often get to talk about Pokémon with the people around you.

But we shouldn’t romanticise every queue either. A long, uncomfortable wait or an anxious scramble for limited stock isn’t automatically a community event. A friendly atmosphere and clear communication can make a difference. So can knowing the rules before committing hours of your day.

Is everyone in line a scalper?

No fair conclusion about an individual’s intentions can come from their place in a queue alone.

A person might be buying to open, collecting a sealed product, picking up a gift or hoping to resell. Some may have mixed intentions. Keeping one item and selling another doesn’t tell us the whole story either.

A genuine collector isn’t defined by whether they open everything, and an early arrival isn’t proof of scalping. Equally, loving Pokémon doesn’t automatically excuse behaviour that makes access worse for other people.

The useful distinction is behaviour: respecting purchase limits and other customers versus trying to bypass rules or monopolise scarce stock. Discuss what people actually do, rather than assigning motives to an entire line.

If you’re queuing to resell, count the hours

For a collector enjoying a day out, time spent queuing can be leisure. For someone queuing mainly to make money, that time belongs in the calculation.

Here’s a hypothetical example, not a claim about any particular release or its resale value.

You buy an item for £100 and eventually sell it for £160. The £60 difference looks attractive. But suppose selling and payment fees cost £16, postage and packaging cost £7, and travel costs £12. That leaves £25 before tax and any other costs.

If queuing, travelling, listing, packing and dealing with the buyer take five hours altogether, that works out at £5 per hour before tax. You also had £100 tied up in stock, with no guarantee of a buyer at the price you wanted.

The calculation is simple: actual sale proceeds minus the purchase price and selling costs, divided by the total time spent. An ambitious listing price is not money earned.

Some resale trips may produce a worthwhile return. Others may not. Prices can change, items can remain unsold and problems with an order can consume more time. A big-looking markup isn’t necessarily a big profit.

Even a profitable trip doesn’t settle the fairness question. Making money and contributing positively to the hobby are different considerations.

Where we stand at Burn & Collect

We’ve missed out on 30th Celebration stock ourselves. We don’t have the time or willingness to queue for it, and queuing for releases is not something we intend to do.

That is our choice, not a judgement on collectors who enjoy it. We can be disappointed about missing out without calling the people who waited pathetic or assuming they are all scalpers.

We also understand why it feels frustrating when access appears to depend on having hours to spare. Running an online shop doesn’t remove that frustration or mean we can always obtain the products we want.

For us, queuing isn’t the right use of our time. For someone else, it might be a memorable day with fellow collectors. For a reseller, it should at least be a decision based on real costs and realistic returns, rather than a headline sale price.

Perhaps the better question isn’t “Why would anyone queue for Pokémon cards?” It’s “What are you getting out of the wait, and is it worth what you’re giving up?”

Would you queue for a release: for the cards, the community or the chance to sell? Or would you rather miss out than spend your day in line?