This CT scanning company is sowing chaos for Pokémon card collectors by selling X-ray scans of booster packs: 'We firmly believe we stand in the zone of chaotic good'

Collectible card games are fueled by speculation and chance: Unopened booster packs can have shockingly high values simply because we don't know what's in them. A single sealed Pokémon 1st edition booster pack is worth upwards of $2,000 because until it's opened, we can't be certain it doesn't hold a Charizard that could buy you a new house. This month, however, has brought upheaval for investors who've built portfolios on the Black Lotus potential of their sealed Magic: The Gathering slates, because a CT scanning company is now selling a chance to peek inside booster packs before they're opened.

Two weeks ago, Pokémon TCG YouTuber okJLUV published a video about recent efforts to examine booster packs with X-ray scanning, including a case study from Industrial Inspection & Consulting, a company that offers industrial CT scanning services to test and analyze products, machine components, and more recently, sealed Pokémon boosters.

CT scanning compiles a 3D model from 2D X-ray «slices,» which can be sifted through to examine an object's interior. In its CCG scanning case study, II&C explored whether CT scanning could be used to look inside sealed CCG products, managing to successfully identify a first edition Hypno from the Pokémon TCG Fossil set after placing it between other cards to simulate a booster pack.

From there, II&C moved on to scanning actual sealed booster packs and booster kits, where it was also «able to extract the shape of the Pokémon due to slight density differences in the cards and foils.» According to II&C, okJLUV's video brought an immediate explosion of attention, with the company's web traffic spiking over 17,000% as it received «endless requests to scan packs and kits from collectors, investors, and card stores.»

On Pokémon card investing subreddits, collectors reassured themselves that there'd be minimal ramifications, noting that CT scanning is so expensive that it'd prevent widespread access. Days later, II&C announced that, in response to