How We Handle Trading Card Releases (No Pre-Orders)

🚫 No Pre-Orders — Here’s Why

At Rocket City Toys, we do not offer pre-orders for trading card products, including Pokémon, One Piece, Magic: The Gathering, Lorcana, and others.

Distributor allocations are unpredictable and often fall short of what we request. Rather than take pre-orders we might not be able to fulfill, we’ve chosen a different approach that ensures fairness and rewards our loyal customers.

🛠️ Our Allocation-Based Access System

We release new trading card products based on customer purchase history, not pre-orders. Here’s how it works:

  • We track total sales from each customer over time — including purchases of cards, toys, and other products.
  • When allocations are limited, priority access goes to customers who consistently support our store.
  • This helps real collectors and families access products at fair prices, and avoids canceled orders.

💵 We Sell at MSRP — Here’s Why

Our goal is to price sealed trading card products at or near MSRP whenever possible.

In most cases, we receive true wholesale pricing from our authorized distributors, which allows us to offer fair prices to our customers without inflated markups.

However, when certain products are in extremely short supply — and distributors themselves raise prices above MSRP — we may need to adjust pricing to reflect that cost. Even then, we strive to remain as close to MSRP as possible, especially compared to the secondary market.

Bottom line: when we get wholesale pricing, we price fairly. When distributors raise prices, we stay transparent and do our best to offer products at the lowest reasonable margin.

🧾 Why We Made This Change

  • Distributor unpredictability: Allocations change often, even after a release date is announced.
  • No broken promises: We avoid refunding or disappointing customers who pre-pay.
  • Fair access: Regular customers get first access instead of bots or scalpers.

🛍️ Want Early Access?

There’s no sign-up or subscription — just shop with us regularly!
We keep track of your order history and offer early access or limited stock to top supporters.

This system applies to high-demand items, including:

  • Pokémon
  • One Piece
  • Magic: The Gathering
  • Disney Lorcana
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!
  • And other sealed TCG products

✅ Keep Shopping, Stay Eligible

Whether you buy online or in-store, your purchases count.
This is our way of saying thank you for supporting a local, collector-first toy store that puts the community first.