If you're hoping to buy Disney Lorcana: Rise of the Floodborn cards from Best Buy, you're going to have to do so in person. Ahead of the upcoming set's release next month, the retailer announced its plans for the launch, confirming that all sales will be done in-store only.
According to Best Buy's announcement page, Disney Lorcana: Rise of the Floodborn is expected to arrive in stores on December 1, 2023, although the retailer notes that arrival dates will vary by store. Furthermore, purchases must be made in-store with no curbside or pickup available.
Best Buy will have both Rise of the Floodborn items and The First Chapter booster packs available, starting December 1st. But again, arrival and availability will vary by store. There is a store locator on the website that will help you find which retail location near you will be carrying cards.
In addition to booster packs, Best Buy will be selling the Rise of the Floodborn Starter Decks — Amethyst/Steel and Amber/Sapphire — as well as deck boxes, card sleeves the playmats and the D100 Special Gift set. All of these will be available at MSRP, but again, you must be in-store to buy them.
The announcement comes after Ravensburger, the maker of Disney Lorcana, attempted an online pre-sale event for Rise of the Floodborn through its own website. A DDoS attack, likely as a result of bots, overwhelmed the site, causing it to crash. As a result, Ravensburger ceased all sales of Disney Lorcana on its website.
Best Buy's decision to limit all Disney Lorcana purchases to in-store locations does remove a level of convenience that online shopping allows for. As someone who works full time and has two kids, it's hard for me to find the time to go to a store in person in hopes that there will be cards in stock.
While online storefronts aren't perfect — as evidenced by Ravensburger's recent online pre-sale event fiasco — they do create someone of a level playing field if you can limit the bots.
Thankfully, Best Buy isn't the only option when it comes to buying Disney Lorcana. Amazon, Walmart and shopDisney will all have Rise of the Floodborn cards available on their websites starting December 1st. In fact, you can even pre-order the starter decks from The First Chapter on Amazon right now.