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Here's What Players Think Is The 'Biggest Scam' On The Pokemon GO Shop

The issue or the alleged scam was brought up by a Reddit user on the Pokemon GO subreddit.
UPDATED FEB 14, 2024
Pokemon Go displayed on a screen at the Pokemon stand | Getty Images | Photo by John Keeble
Pokemon Go displayed on a screen at the Pokemon stand | Getty Images | Photo by John Keeble

The Pokemon Go shop has been a hot topic in the community of the mobile pocket monster game ever since its release. Being a free-to-play game, the game involves several microtransactions, and the players are limited to earn a maximum of 50 PokeCoins (the game’s currency) per day. Thus, hardcore players spend their hard-earned cash to buy items and get a boost. However, over the years, fans have come across some of the biggest scams in the shop.

One such scam was shared on Reddit by a player concerning the Poke Balls in the shop. Players have also called for Niantic (the maker of the game) to fix it as soon as possible.

A visitor plays the Pokemon Go augmented-reality game on a smartphone | Getty Images | Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi
A visitor plays the Pokemon Go augmented-reality game on a smartphone | Getty Images | Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi

The issue or the alleged scam was brought up by a Reddit user named Neat-Restaurant-8218 on the Pokemon GO subreddit. The player shared a deal they found at the in-app store for a bundle of Poke Balls.

The user shared screenshots of the deal where 100 Poke Balls were up for sale for 460 coins while 20 Poke Balls were up for sale for 100 coins. While it may seem to be a good deal to a beginner, it is not.

Experienced players have called this deal out for being terrible. This is because players can find Poke Balls while playing the game, fairly easily. Players can quickly accumulate well over 20 Poke Balls with minimal effort, thus, it doesn’t seem a wise purchase at all.

One of the players commented that 100 balls should be available for 100 coins as 20 of them can be found by opening gifts. To this, another player shared their experience with the game saying that five years ago players were starved of Poke Balls and now there’s an abundance of them.

Image Source: Reddit | @r/PokemonGO
Image Source: Reddit | @r/PokemonGO

Meanwhile, another player called the entire shop of the game a scam. Expressing their frustration, the player said that the price of every item changes on a whim with no justification at all. This made the player not buy stuff unless they were upgrades.

Image Source: Reddit | r/PokemonGO
Image Source: Reddit | @r/PokemonGO

Another player echoed the user’s opinion and called every item in the shop worthless. The player said that they like to spend money on fun games but the shop in the Pokemon Go game is just not appealing. The user added that every item feels like it was designed for a new player.

Image Source: Reddit | @r/PokemonGO
Image Source: Reddit | @r/PokemonGO

Last year in November, Niantic came under fire for another issue with alleged false discounts on the shop. The game rolled out a range of large item bundles, which were deemed too “expensive” but Niantic placed discounts on some items which led to even more confusion.

A player named Theoneandonlybryce on Reddit blasted Niantic for putting up two Remote Raid Boxes with the same contents at different prices. In their post, the player shared screenshots that were later removed.

As per a Dexerto report, the screenshots showed that the box which was given on 15% discount was more expensive than the one with no discount.

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