Shiny Pokémon Black Market Is Making Sellers Big Money On eBay

eBay is one of the internet’s oldest digital marketplaces, and it is also home to the Shiny Pokémon black market where exotic animal hunters are making big money selling color variants of virtual monsters. Much like the rest of eBay, some Shiny Pokémon sellers are offering knockoff products for lower prices while others sell legitimate Pokémon for high prices.

For those who don’t know, Shinies are extremely rare color variants of Pokémon that are obtained by encountering the same Pokémon over and over again. The base odds of finding a Shiny in Pokémon: Sword & Shield are 1 in 4096. These odds can be raised by hunting for Shiny Pokémon in specific ways including Masuda hunting, Dynamax Adventuring, and battling 500 or more of a specific species. Due to RNG and low odds, finding a Shiny Pokémon can take days, weeks, or even months. The sheer rarity of these creatures makes them highly sought after even though they do not possess any special moves, increased stats, or unique abilities.

Some players would rather skip the hours of monotonous hunting in exchange for a few bucks on the internet. In addition to secondhand gaming equipment, trainers can purchase Shiny Pokémon via eBay. There are tens of thousands of Shiny listings for various games including Pokémon: Sword & Shield, Pokémon GO, and Pokémon HOME. A quick check of the Sold Listings for Shinies will net the searchers with hundreds of Shiny Pokémon that are sold on a daily basis with prices ranging from a couple of dollars to hundreds of dollars. However, not every Pokémon that is for sale is completely legit.

Numerous Shiny Pokémon that are for sale were not legitimately obtained, but are actually hacked into the game with perfect stats and hidden abilities. These listings are pretty easy to spot as they are usually for Pokémon: Sword & Shield and are selling perfect IV Shinies for less than $2. For those who don’t care about the authenticity of a Shiny, there aren’t many repercussions for buying one other than feeling guilty for faking an achievement. Players can almost always trust the listings for Shiny Pokémon in Pokémon GO as it’s currently not possible to falsely obtain Pokémon in GO. Shoppers will notice that Pokémon GO Shiny listings are higher in price compared to SW/SH and HOME Shinies due to this fact.

The Shiny Pokémonmarket is grossing a sizeable amount daily on eBay based on current listings by simply supplying virtual monsters to desperate gamers. Buying a Shiny online is equivalent to a hunter mounting a deer head on their wall that they didn’t kill themselves, and buying a hacked Shiny is as if the deer head was a complete fake. Regardless, legitimate and fake Shinies are worth big money online and are making eBay sellers a sizeable income.

Source: eBay

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