TL;DR
- 🎯 Pokémon Center: best shot at MSRP, but you need to join the queue ASAP
- 🌙 Walmart: big volume, late nights, lots of refreshing
- 🎮 EB Games: pre-orders are the easy win
- 📦 Amazon: constant, heavily botted, first-party only. Dynamic pricing sometimes leads to market pricing
- 🏪 Local shops: 150+ channels, far less competition
- 📅 New releases land Fridays
In order
Roughly in order of how likely you are to actually get something at retail.
- Pokémon Center. Best shot at true MSRP. Every drop is a virtual queue, so get in early and do not touch the tab. Pre-orders are the calm way in. See Pokémon Center CA, getting through the queue
- Walmart. Huge volume. Loads online late, often past 11pm ET, which makes for a frustrating experience for newcomers. In-store restocks are frequent enough to check shelves separately. See Walmart CA
- EB Games. Competitive, and pre-orders on new sets are the easiest launch-day win going. In-store is a lottery by postal code. Call during the week (be polite, and don't mention Discord), or pass by 30 minutes after open. See EB Games
- Amazon. Constant restocks, most botted surface in the country. We only ping first-party results, and even then Amazon sometimes sells at market price thanks to dynamic pricing. See Amazon CA
Everyone else is on Where to buy, everywhere else.