A reported fight broke out on January 16, 2025, at Costco’s Atwater Village warehouse in Los Angeles after shoppers sought the Pokémon 151 Blooming Waters Premium Collection. The Los Angeles Times described social-media video showing two men fighting over a box set, including one man elbowing the other in the face. A Costco representative separately told TMZ that employees broke up the argument, nobody was seriously injured, and police were not called.
LAPD officials told the Los Angeles Times that officers were not called and were not investigating. The episode was a brief, reported retail scuffle—not evidence of a mass incident or an ongoing threat at Costco stores. Its intensity was amplified by the collection’s unusually high demand and the gap between its $59.99 retail price and contemporaneous secondary-market listings.
What happened at the Atwater Village Costco?
The incident took place at Costco’s Atwater Village location in Los Angeles on January 16, 2025. The Los Angeles Times published its account on January 23, saying that video circulating on social media showed two men fighting over a Pokémon box set. In the video description, one man elbows the other in the face. The report does not describe a crowd-wide riot, weapons, or a prolonged confrontation; it describes a fight between two shoppers competing for the same merchandise.
The newspaper’s account is based on the circulating video and information attributed to law-enforcement officials, rather than a publicly released police report. That distinction matters: the footage supports what viewers can see, while details such as the police response come from statements attributed to LAPD officials.
TMZ published a separate report on January 17, attributing its account to a Costco representative at the Atwater Village store. According to that representative, employees responded to an argument, broke up the fight, and determined that nobody was seriously injured. The representative also said police were not called and Costco was handling the matter internally. Read alongside the Los Angeles Times report, the accounts describe the same basic outcome: a physical altercation that store staff stopped without a reported serious injury or police case.
What were the shoppers trying to buy?
The item at the center of the dispute was the Pokémon 151 Blooming Waters Premium Collection, a sealed Pokémon Trading Card Game product rather than a single loose card. Costco later identified it on its customer-service page as item #1916742. That product name and item number are confirmed by Costco’s Costco.com Self Service Return Exclusions page, published March 7, 2025.
PokéBeach reported on January 16, 2025, that the collection was scheduled for a February 7 release but had started appearing at Costco warehouses roughly two weeks earlier. Early warehouse sightings meant shoppers could encounter the product before the advertised release date. That combination—limited early supply and a known release date—helped make individual restocks unusually visible to collectors.
The product should not be confused with a confirmed shipment of individual high-value cards. The reports concern a complete, boxed collection. Neither the Los Angeles Times nor TMZ reported that the men were fighting over a particular card inside the box.
What is actually confirmed by the reporting?
The strongest way to read the story is to separate what the video-based report shows from what people told the news outlets. The available evidence supports the following distinctions:
| Point | What the source reports | Limit of the evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Location and date | The Los Angeles Times places the fight at the Atwater Village Costco on January 16, 2025. | The article is not a publicly posted incident report from the store or police. |
| Physical confrontation | Video circulating on social media shows two men fighting over a box set; one elbows the other in the face, according to the Los Angeles Times. | The report does not establish every action before or after the filmed portion. |
| Store response | A Costco representative told TMZ that employees broke up the argument and that no one was seriously injured. | This is an attributed statement, not an independently published medical or security record. |
| Police status | LAPD officials told the Los Angeles Times that police were not called and were not investigating. | No arrest, citation, or police case is reported. |
| Market context | PokéBeach listed a $59.99 retail price and $120–$150 secondary-market listings on January 16, 2025. | Those are dated observations of listings, not a current price or proof of completed sales. |
Costco representatives did not immediately return the Los Angeles Times’ request for comment, according to that newspaper. That non-response should not be turned into a formal Costco policy statement. The separate TMZ account is useful precisely because it is identified as coming from a store representative, but it remains an attributed account rather than a full public investigation.
Were anyone seriously injured, arrested, or investigated?
The reports do not identify a serious injury. TMZ’s Costco source said nobody was seriously injured, and the Los Angeles Times reported that LAPD officials said police were not called. Because officers were not called, the Los Angeles Times said LAPD was not investigating the fight.
There is therefore no reported arrest or police investigation to describe. Calling the episode an arrest case, a criminal prosecution, or an active LAPD investigation would go beyond the available evidence. The most supportable description is a physical scuffle that employees stopped and Costco handled internally, with no serious injury publicly reported.
That does not make the conduct harmless. An elbow to the face is physical violence and could have caused injury, but the documented outcome is narrower than descriptions suggesting a store-wide brawl or continuing danger. The reports concern one altercation at one Los Angeles warehouse.
Why did the Blooming Waters collection attract so much attention?
The immediate incentive was the difference between the product’s warehouse price and what sellers were asking on the secondary market at the time. PokéBeach’s January 16 report put the retail price at $59.99 and said listings on the secondary market were running from $120 to $150. A shopper who found a box at retail could see a theoretical spread of roughly $60 to $90 before fees, shipping, taxes, or the risk that a listing would not sell.
That spread is a snapshot from the incident period, not a guaranteed profit calculation. A listing is an asking price, not proof that a buyer paid that amount. The report does not provide completed-sale data, net proceeds, or a market-wide average. Prices for collectible products can move quickly when more units reach stores or when interest fades.
Timing also mattered. The collection was scheduled for February 7 but had appeared at Costco about two weeks early, according to PokéBeach. Early sightings can create a rush because shoppers do not know how many boxes a warehouse has or when another shipment will arrive. None of the cited reports establishes a Costco-wide purchasing limit, a formal release-day queue, or a policy that caused the fight.
How should the $59.99 retail price be compared with the $120–$150 listings?
| Figure | Date and source | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| $59.99 | PokéBeach, January 16, 2025 | The reported retail price for the collection during the incident period. |
| $120–$150 | PokéBeach, January 16, 2025 | A contemporaneous range of secondary-market listings, not a verified current value or completed-sale range. |
| February 7 release date | PokéBeach report, January 16, 2025 | The scheduled release date cited when Costco warehouses were already showing early units. |
These figures explain why a restock could attract intense interest, but they do not establish what the collection is worth now. They also do not show that either shopper intended to resell the box. The reports identify the product and the price environment; they do not reveal the men’s motives beyond the fight being over the box set.
Is Pokémon 151 Blooming Waters currently in stock?
No current inventory conclusion can be drawn from the incident reports or Costco’s item number. Pokémon Support’s May 26, 2026 notice said fans were having difficulty buying certain Pokémon TCG products because of very high demand. The company said it was working to print impacted products quickly, expected reprinted products to reach participating retailers as soon as possible, and was increasing production for future expansions.
That notice discusses Pokémon TCG availability generally. It does not confirm a Blooming Waters reprint, a Costco shipment, or stock at any particular warehouse. A Costco item number identifies the product in the company’s customer-service system; it is not a live inventory indicator. Anyone checking for the collection should verify a current warehouse or retailer listing rather than relying on the 2025 price report or the 2026 general availability notice.
What does Costco’s return page establish?
Costco’s customer-service page, published March 7, 2025, lists Pokémon 151 Blooming Waters Premium Collection (item #1916742) among products excluded from Costco.com self-service returns. This is useful confirmation of the official product name and catalog number.
The page does not establish the collection’s current stock, the quantity a warehouse may sell to one customer, or every possible in-store return procedure. It specifically addresses Costco.com self-service return exclusions. Applying it as proof of a broader warehouse policy would read more into the page than it says.
How reliable are the different accounts of the fight?
The Los Angeles Times account is the clearest source for the location, date, and visual description because it identifies the social-media video and attributes the police information to LAPD officials. TMZ adds the store-level response through an attributed Costco representative. Neither source presents a complete security-camera file, medical record, or police incident report.
That means a careful summary should use phrases such as “the Los Angeles Times reported,” “video circulating on social media showed,” and “a Costco representative told TMZ.” It should not invent a quotation from an unnamed employee, claim that a police report was filed, or imply that the footage proves events outside the visible portion. No role-identified verbatim quote from a named speaker is provided in the source accounts.
The absence of a police investigation also limits what can responsibly be inferred. There is no cited official finding about who started the fight, whether either man was banned, or whether any civil or criminal action followed. Those details remain unestablished.
Does the incident show a broader Costco or Pokémon safety problem?
It shows that a high-demand collectible can produce a heated confrontation in a retail setting. It does not, by itself, demonstrate a continuing threat, a nationwide pattern, or a problem at every Costco. The cited reports provide no named statistic about how often retail fights occur, how many Pokémon shoppers were involved, or how widespread resale demand is.
For collectors visiting a restock, ordinary safety judgment matters more than the possibility of a bargain. Keep space around other shoppers, avoid grabbing or blocking someone, notify employees if an argument escalates, and leave the area if a dispute becomes physical. A box of cards is not worth risking an injury or turning a disagreement into a criminal matter.
Retailers can change availability, release timing, and purchase procedures without those changes appearing in this incident’s reporting. Checking the current store’s posted instructions and accepting that a product may sell out is more reliable than treating a viral video as a guide to what will happen at another warehouse.
Why is “violence” a fair but limited description?
The word is justified in the narrow sense that the report describes a physical fight and an elbow to the face. It becomes misleading if it suggests multiple simultaneous fights, serious injuries, arrests, or an ongoing emergency. The documented facts support “a reported scuffle over a Pokémon collection at one Los Angeles Costco,” with store employees intervening and no police investigation reported.
That framing keeps the headline’s urgency tied to what is known. The product’s price gap explains the commercial pressure around the incident, but it does not excuse the conduct or prove that resale profit caused it. The reports establish a fight and its immediate handling, not the private intentions of the people involved.
What is the clearest takeaway?
On January 16, 2025, two shoppers reportedly fought at Costco’s Atwater Village warehouse over a Pokémon 151 Blooming Waters Premium Collection box. Video described by the Los Angeles Times showed an elbow to the face; a Costco representative told TMZ that employees broke up the argument and that nobody was seriously injured. LAPD was not called and was not investigating, according to officials cited by the Los Angeles Times.
The collection’s $59.99 retail price and $120–$150 secondary-market listings help explain the rush, but those numbers belong to January 2025 and should not be treated as a current valuation. Costco’s item number confirms the product’s identity, while Pokémon’s 2026 availability notice offers no specific confirmation that Blooming Waters is in stock or has been reprinted.
Frequently Asked Questions
Were the $120–$150 figures based on completed sales?
No. The January 16, 2025 report described secondary-market listings, which are asking prices. The cited coverage does not provide completed-sale records, buyer-paid prices, fees, or net profits.
Did Costco announce a purchase limit for this collection?
The reports about the Atwater Village fight do not document a purchase limit. Costco’s return-exclusion page identifies the product but does not state how many units a customer could buy.
Were there arrests after the Costco fight?
No arrest is reported in the cited coverage. LAPD officials told the Los Angeles Times that police were not called and were not investigating, while TMZ reported that Costco handled the matter internally.
Does Pokémon’s 2026 availability notice confirm a Blooming Waters reprint?
No. The May 26, 2026 notice discusses high demand for certain Pokémon TCG products and broader efforts to print more. It does not name Blooming Waters or confirm stock at Costco or any particular retailer.