Total Cards sells its scarcest Pokemon products by lottery: you sign up with your email, it draws winners at random and sends them a secret link. Here's how the draw, the tags and the limits work, from the shop's own pages.
The Total Cards lottery is how the shop sells a Pokemon product when it gets far fewer than people want. Instead of an Add to Cart button, the product page only lets you sign up with your email. When Total Cards decides to draw, it picks as many emails at random as it has stock, and sends each winner a secret link to buy with. That's all from the shop's Lottery Terms and Conditions, last updated on 23 March 2024 and read on 28 September 2026. Most of its Pokemon doesn't go through a draw, though. It sells as pre-orders and normal stock, and that's where a restock alert helps.
Total Cards describes it as a way to handle products "in extremely high demand" when allocations come in short. Its terms go through it in order:
The product goes up as a lottery
Total Cards adds it to the website marked as a lottery product. The only option is to sign up with your email.
You enter with your email
Signing up means you intend to buy if you're drawn. Total Cards can refuse any entry without giving a reason.
Total Cards draws
It draws at random as many emails as it has units. The terms don't give a fixed draw date, and the shop can withdraw a lottery before or during it.
Winners get a secret link
The email says how long you have to buy. If you don't buy in time, you lose the place and the unit is given to someone else.
Leftovers
Any stock left over "may be raffled/sold or offered in future giveaways".
The terms don't say anything about odds, how many units there are, or whether one person can win twice. So there's no point guessing at your chances. What you can control is seeing the lottery go up in time to enter it.
Yes, though its own pages don't publish a number. Its bulk orders FAQ, updated 1 July 2025, says there "may be limits" on large quantities, "for example, Pokemon TCG, this is due to the low amount of stock". Which? was more specific in its June 2026 guide to buying Pokemon cards in the UK: you can pre-order new expansions from Total Cards, "although each customer is limited to 36 packs." That's Which?'s figure, not one on the shop's own pages, so check the product page for the limit on what you're buying.
Each product carries one tag. Here's what they mean, from its tags FAQ, updated 12 February 2025.
| Tag | What Total Cards says it means | Can it come back? |
|---|---|---|
| In Stock | Available and ready to ship immediately | It's here now |
| Available for Order | On backorder: Total Cards orders from its supplier after you buy, aiming to ship within a week | It's buyable now |
| Pre-Order | Not arrived yet, sold against the shop's expected allocation | Buyable until the allocation runs out |
| Shipping Soon | Should be with Total Cards soon, but hasn't arrived | Depends on the product |
| Sold Out | Out of stock. "We do our best to restock regularly" | Yes, if the shop gets more |
The Pre-Order tag is the one to act on. Total Cards' pre-order FAQ says "most releases sell out during the pre-order stage", so the shop often never gets to list them as normal stock at all. For a big set, the pre-order window is often the only chance at shop price. Our guide to Pokemon pre-orders in the UK covers when payment is taken and how orders are held.
Total Cards Elite is a paid membership. The Elite page lists more than 20 perks, and three touch Pokemon stock directly: "Exclusive Pre-Order Allocations" ("Secure high-demand items like Pokémon TCG sets before anyone else"), "Member-Only Early Access" to new releases and product drops, and "Raffle Entry for Rare Products", which it says enters members into raffles automatically. The page didn't show a membership price when we read it on 28 September 2026, and it doesn't say how big the Elite allocations are, so check both before you pay.
Total Cards has its own restock emails: sign up on a Sold Out product, and you can manage them from its restock notifications page, which caps you at 128. Those tell you about products you've already found. To hear about something new, such as a pre-order or a lottery going up, you need to watch the listing. Total Cards runs on Shopify, so a Shopify monitor on one of its Pokemon collections sees each product and whether it can be bought.
Pick the collection
On totalcards.net, open the Pokemon collection you care about, for example Elite Trainer Boxes, and copy the address from your browser.
Add it as a Shopify monitor
Paste the collection link. The monitor reads the collection's products, their prices and whether each is in stock.
Choose where alerts go
Discord, email or Telegram.
Let the first check finish
The first check just records what's there. After that you get a new product alert when something is added, and a restock alert when a Sold Out product can be bought again.
We checked this on 28 September 2026: a Shopify monitor read Total Cards' Elite Trainer Box collection and its main Pokemon collection, with prices and stock for each product. The lottery terms say a lottery product is added to the website like any other, so it should show up as a new product in the same way, but there wasn't one live when we checked, so we haven't seen it happen. Shopify monitors work on the Free plan, and the Shopify help page covers the settings.
Other UK Pokemon shops ration stock in their own ways. Chaos Cards runs product drops and Magic Madhouse sells by invitation, and both work quite differently from a draw by email.
Sign up with your email on the lottery product's page. Total Cards draws winners at random, one for each unit it has, and emails them a secret link to buy with.
The winning email says. Total Cards' terms say that if you don't buy within that time, you're removed and the unit goes to someone else.
No. Total Cards says it is unlike gambling lotteries. You don't pay to enter, and winning only gives you the chance to buy the product at the shop's price.
Total Cards' own FAQ says Pokemon TCG may be limited because stock is low, without a number. Which? reported in June 2026 that pre-orders of new expansions were limited to 36 packs per customer.
Sometimes. Its tags FAQ says it does its best to restock regularly, but its pre-order FAQ says most releases sell out at the pre-order stage. A monitor on the collection tells you if a Sold Out product becomes buyable again.
The Elite page lists "Raffle Entry for Rare Products" and says members are entered into raffles automatically. It doesn't say whether that covers every lottery or how the odds compare.
Set up a free Pokemon restock alert Paste a Total Cards collection link and hear when something new goes up.