Preorder sales for the paired upcoming Pokémon TCG releases Black Bolt and White Flare are starting up at Walmart, but right now the only products on sale are going for a frankly outrageous price.
While most Black/White items haven’t gone up for purchase just yet, Elite Trainer Boxes for the newest Pokémon set coming up are now available. However, as I say, the price tags leave a lot to be desired.
The MSRP for an Elite Trainer Box, which contains nine booster packs, a promo card, and useful accessories like sleeves and energy cards is $50, or $60 for the special edition ETBs from the Pokémon Center, which have a couple of extra packs. As you might expect, in the modern age of Pokémon collecting, it’s usually not so easy to find one at that price.
However, my eyes still bulged when I saw what these boxes were going for. The White Flare ETB is currently selling at a preorder price of $130, while Black Bolt is even worse: $155 for the box. Notably, these pages don’t have the ‘sold and shipped by Walmart’ tag, indicating that the items are coming from third-party sellers, which goes a long way to explaining the inflated rates.
You can find links to the product pages above, we’re not about to tell you how to spend your money, and we’re as hyped for the Gen 5 set as anyone else. However, you and I both know that $130+ is a lot of mullah to spend on an ETB – it comes out to more than $14 per pack. Even Destined Rivals has dropped down to $89.99 on the online storefront.
On the other hand, Walmart does have a good ‘preorder price guarantee’ which means that if the asking price comes down at all between now and when the items ship in July, you’ll be charged the lowest price they were on sale for.
Other Black and White Pokémon products, the Walmart preorders for which unlock tomorrow, on June 18, 2025, are less outrageous. You can pick up six packs in the Black Bolt Booster Bundle for $31.87, for instance. However, the rest of the products are still going to cost you, as ‘early access’ is restricted to those with a premium Walmart+ membership.
Let us know if you spot these items on sale anywhere else for cheaper – you can usually find us lurking like bridge trolls in the Wargamer Discord. And if you like pricey cardboard, you might enjoy reading about the most expensive, rarest Pokémon cards ever sold.
Source: Wargamer
