The world of Pokémon YouTube and Instagram is in a tizzy after prominent creator and member of the “Goat Crew” Natalie Roush opened what have been alleged to be stolen Pokémon TCG cards from the 30th Celebration set, over a week before the set went on sale, and months before the specific boxes should have been available.
Roush is a well-established content creator, with a hefty 1.4 million followers on her Instagram, and 100,000 subscribers to her Pokémon-specific YouTube channel, as well as a popular OnlyFans and various other outlets. She covers a range of subjects, including cars, but Pokémon is primary, and as such, she regularly uploads videos of herself ripping packs from the card game. But in a now-deleted video from early September, Roush made an extremely odd choice: She decided to upload a video of herself opening what is possibly the most anticipated Pokémon TCG collection of all time, the 30th Anniversary Ultimate Premium Collection.
Pokémon TCG UPCs are infamous for their massive prices and wild collectability. For instance, 2022’s Charizard Ultimate Premium Collection, which is $120 new, now changes hands for a minimum of $500, while the two upcoming boxes for the 30th anniversary set—not due until November 6— are already being re-sold as pre-orders by scalpers for well over $600. Each of the two variants of the upcoming UPC contains a whopping 29 packs from the 30th Celebration, one 30th Celebration Classic Collection booster pack, and some specific cards that’ll immediately be worth a fortune each, and that’s on top of the usual fancy inclusions like a playmat, sleeves, deckbox and so on. They’re beautifully presented premium products. Also, they’re something no one should have yet, given they aren’t due for release for almost two months.
This made Roush’s decision to admit to having one of each box, and furthermore to open them on video, an extraordinary choice. “I know some of you guys are going to try to come for me in the comments,” says Roush in the video, as she opens the packs long ahead of today’s official release, “but please, please be nice to me! I chose to spend my own money on this. And not only that, as a content creator, this is just kind of part of the process.”
This plea of innocence that she personally paid for the box rather backfired. It’s possible for content creators, especially those with the reach of Natalie Roush, to get sent Pokémon TCG product ahead of release, and sometimes even months ahead. I receive packages from The Pokémon Company for most sets (although it should be noted not for 30th Celebration), and with special sets these can sometimes include a box type that isn’t due for release for a month or two. We agree to an embargo date ahead of being shipped the product, and acknowledge the source in the articles we write. The same is true for most creators on YouTube and elsewhere, who will include a “thank you” to TPCi. That’s the legitimate method. In announcing she paid for boxes that absolutely shouldn’t be on sale for the next two months, Roush implicates herself in a crime.
Stolen property?
Roush isn’t the first person to open a 30th UPC on the internet, but she was certainly the most high-profile to do so, and in doing so caused a lot of people to ponder where she could have sourced the product from. A lot of people have ended up pointing to eBay where, in late August, a number of listings were eventually taken down by eBay itself, which issued a notification reading,
The sale of stolen property is not allowed on eBay. eBay has received communication from The Pokemon Company International indicating that 30th Anniversary Pokemon trading cards are not distributed or made available for public sale through authorized channels as of today…To help ensure compliance with eBay policies and intellectual property rights, we recommend that this item not be relisted unless documentation can be provided demonstrating that it was obtained through an authorized and legitimate source.
Japanese online marketplace Mercari issued a similar statement, and is also collaborating with TPCi in taking down any listings for the set. This all led toward the accusation that Roush had “bought stolen goods.” Now, that might be a slightly hyperbolic way of phrasing the situation, implying some sort of illicit trade in a dimly lit parking lot, but it certainly remains the case that Roush would have, at the very least, known the boxes should not have been available. Hence the plea to her audience for kindness.
As you might expect, a number of creators have stepped in with their own responses. In my favorite video, Pokémon YouTuber Kyra lampooned Roush’s ludicrous justifications for buying the sets, before getting into the details of exactly why this was all so problematic and led to such an intense backlash.
Regular shit-stirrer Opossum Bud also got in on the response, including a lot of footage from the now-deleted video of Roush opening the boxes, with many spoilers for cards that had yet to be revealed. (That’s all over as of today, as the cards are now technically available to buy.) And as the clips go on, Roush just keeps making the situation worse.
“I am extremely appreciative to even have my hands on this,” Roush says to the camera as she pulls a cutie Pikachu, after suggesting some viewers might be “salty” about the video. “At the end of the day, I am a content creator and this is quite literally my job to be able to bring these cards here for you. So you can also get a sneak peek at these!”
This barrage of self-owns ensured the rest of the community could immediately lay in to Roush, made even worse by her putting up the recent eBay sale prices for the cards something legitimate resale sites won’t even offer ahead of street date. She then added in the comments, in response to someone expressing disappointment, “It would maybe be different if I was trying to resell the product, scalp etc. but I decided to spend my money on something that makes me happy.” Nailed it.
As Kyra observes, The Pokémon Company has come down on people hard for far less. This is the same company that sued two people in 2019 for posting photographs of a strategy guide for the unreleased Pokémon Sword and Shield, eventually settled in 2021 with the leakers forced to pay an incredible $150,000 each.
It’s not wholly unusual for Pokémon creators to rip unreleased sets, but it’s often with the blessing of TPCi, or because—as in the case of those like PokeRev and Cool Trainer Ryan—they have online stores with access to wholesale stock, and rarely open sets much more than a week before release. Two months ahead, on what’s likely to be the most sought-after set of all time…that’s a whole other matter.
We’ve reached out to Roush to ask if she has an official response to the situation, as so far she seems to be just posting through it. Recent Instagram uploads have featured standard pack rips, but are inundated with sarcastic comments referencing the UPC situation, so clearly people aren’t willing to let it go just yet.
