Costco members came to blows over Pokémon cards.
A video taken at an Atwater Village location in Los Angeles and circulated online earlier this week shows adults fighting over the 151 Blooming Waters Premium Collection. The viral clip shows one man holding two boxes of collectible trading cards and a second man wrestling him to grab one. The second man isn’t deterred when he gets elbowed in the face, and still won’t let go of the box.
According to TMZ, Costco employees attempted to act as mediators. A rep later told the outlet, “Store personnel responded to an argument between a bunch of customers and broke up the fight Thursday—no one was seriously injured.” The store didn’t telephone the police, so no one was arrested. Costco is dealing with the incident internally.
A second video shows customers running to grab the collection and fighting, and another clip shows people scooping up multiple boxes at once, with the item selling out in minutes.
Typically, this particular set of Pokémon cards retails for $120 to $150 online, but Costco is selling them for less than $60, hence the mayhem, with buyers looking to resell the collectible sets online themselves.