TCGs have been on fire in 2025, reaching all-time highs in sales numbers. As the year heads into the holiday season, Magic and Pokemon cards are undoubtedly on the top of consumers’ list of game items to buy and give as stocking stuffers, white elephant gifts, and as simply generic gifts for kids and grandkids. This presents a problem on the retail end as hit sets, such as Destined Rivals for Pokemon TCG and Final Fantasy for Magic: The Gathering, aren’t easy to get a hold of right now.
Some retailers have been unable to reorder the last three Magic: The Gathering Standard sets for a little while now despite a promised reprint of sets some time in the near future (see “Hasbro“). Pokemon TCG product tends to leave the store as fast as it shows up. It is becoming clear, even with the in-flow of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Avatar: The Last Airbender product coming for Magic: The Gathering, there is a possibility retailers may still short Magic and Pokemon packs for their gift buyers come the middle of the holiday season due to allocations.
With all this in mind, it’s time to start prepping a “Plan B” in case the gift supplies of Magic and Pokemon get thin in holiday season 2025. Here are some suggestions for strategies and alternatives retailers can use to stave off potential TCG shortages during the holiday season:
Make Use of Older Product to Create Pack Bundles. One of the interesting strategies that mass retailers use is the Mystery Pack strategy. They essentially buy third-party created Mystery Packs that contain older product for popular Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. There is little to no reason that stores couldn’t create their own Holiday Pack Bundles or Draft Bundles using some of the older booster pack product that has been sitting on the shelves for a bit.
To help sell older packs in bundles, set aside some brand-new release packs to specifically mix-and-match into these bundles. For example, if you are selling three-pack bundles, which are good for Chaos Draft in Magic, add a Spider-Man Play Booster into the bundle with two older packs (like Aetherdrift and Duskmourn). This bundling strategy helps extend supplies of new products while liquidating older product to people buying the bundles as gifts.
Sell Less Sealed Displays. This one seems obvious, but for some reason, it needs to be said out loud because several retailers are still bulk selling Magic and Pokemon TCG sealed boxes for lesser profits than they would make opening a display and selling individual packs. While the quick flip for retailers is tempting, especially when their wholesale invoices are significant and need to be paid, there isn’t really a reason that retailers should be selling all of their booster displays sealed to customers because these booster packs command premiums as supply dries up fast. Additionally, during the holiday season, lots of customers buy premium packs individually as stocking stuffers (see “Stocking Stuffer Games“) and white elephant gifts, so it is good crack open more displays for that specific purpose.
Promote Other In-Genre TCGs as Gift Items. Magic and Pokemon TCG are the biggest and most popular fish in the pond, but they aren’t the only fish in the pond. There are definitely other TCG options, in similar genres, to promote as gifts during the holiday season. For the fantasy genre, Flesh and Blood TCG offers Magic players another option with accessible cards. FaB has a great OP system, supports draft tournaments, offers rich constructed formats, and they recently released an entry level box called Smash Palace that could make a great gift. For an alternative to Pokemon TCG, the easiest transition is probably converting them to Disney Lorcana players because these games are pretty close gameplay-wise.
Riftbound TCG to the Rescue. This was the buzzworthy TCG at Gen Con 2025 (see “The Most Buzzworthy Games of Gen Con“), and it is coming out in October 2025. This League of Legends TCG has the potential to be a great gift for TCG players as well as move some of the attention off of Magic and Pokemon. One of the issues that surfaced in 2025 was that Magic and Pokemon were controlling most of the TCG market share simply because they had all of the hot releases of the year, and there really weren’t too many other TCGs that released products with that much of a buzz. Riftbound TCG clearly has buzz, and retailers can expand on this buzz by running in-store demo events and pushing their Origins: Proving Grounds boxed set as gift item.
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Source: ICv2
