Me give up? No way!
My quest to pre-order a 2025 Scarlet & Violet White Flare and/or Black Bolt Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box failed miserably. Here's what I looked at for hours:"
"Hi, Trainer! Thank you for visiting the Pokémon Center!"
Upon gaining access to The Pokémon Center, I could only purchase a 2024 Holiday Calendar (Glaceon, Alolan Vulpix) for $49.99. This product isn't popular because it only contains five regular packs.
It could have been worse. At least I wasn't booted from the queue with an "Access denied error 17" message. Some users who successfully added these products to their cart were booted off the queue with this message!
The English versions of these sets are releasing on July 18, 2025. It's highly possible the Pokémon Center will offer a second chance to pre-order these products.
Fans are going nuts over Black Bolt and White Flare because they're the first English dual-set. It's going to be so convenient to weed out the hits; for example, Zekrom can only be found in Black Bolt, while Reshiram can only be found in White Flare.
On the bright side, I finally found sleeved booster packs at my local store. The last time that I saw this type of product in general was Surging Sparks in November 2024 - nearly six months ago! I'll post a break later this weekend. Spoiler: I pulled a hit in every pack!