If You’re Quick, You Can Buy The Pokémon Van Gogh Merch Again
Remember last year when Pokémon collaborated with the Van Gogh Museum for an incredible line of products and an exhibit in the Amsterdam facility? Then you may also recall how resellers, in desperate need to throw the plushies, art, and figures onto eBay at inflated prices, embarrassed themselves by ruining the exhibit for everyone else in a Black Friday-esque frenzy. This extended to the online sale for those who couldn’t make the trip out to the museum, as the merchandise was paired with a rare Pikachu card and was snatched up within minutes. Now, seven months later, the merch is available again. It’s not selling out at the rate it did before, but it is still going pretty quickly.
The Pokémon Center website has re-upped the store page dedicated to the collaboration, and in it you’ll find listings for merch like the Pikachu plush donning a Van Gogh-inspired outfit, prints of the Pokémon renditions of the artist’s works, and figures of Pikachu and Eevee meant to looks like Van Gogh’s self-portraits.
Crucially, none of these include the Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat card that put scalpers in a frenzy. This is probably why they’re not selling out within minutes, but a few items have already gone out of stock since the listings were bumped. The UK store has also been restocked, though item availability varies by region.
While some lovely merchandise and art came from the Van Gogh Museum collaboration, it is largely considered an embarrassment for Pokémon, given that it embodied so many issues ingrained in the community with scalpers, merchandise scarcity, and a lack of action on The Pokémon Company’s part to intervene. The collaboration merchandise being made available now is somewhat of a make-good, but you can’t erase the Black Friday-like videos from the internet, or the Van Gogh Museum having to put out a statement rolling back parts of the exhibit for the safety of its workers and patrons.
