St. Johns Cancels One Piece Promo, Illinois and Houston Still On

St. John’s sent an email to ticket holders today confirming the cancellation, with no public explanation attached. While this is a gutpunch for ticketed fans looking forward to the promo, it’s not exactly a shock.

The One Piece College Basketball promotion has been a logistical headache for schools since it launched. Jersey Mike’s Arena was burglarized after a Rutgers game in January, with One Piece cards stolen from the premises.

St. John’s games were already being played at Madison Square Garden, which seats up to 20,000 fans. That’s a lot of cards, a lot of non-fans, and apparently a lot of headaches for stadium security. The calculus clearly didn’t work out in the promo’s favor.

It’s worth noting that St. John’s appears to have made this call independently. There’s been no indication that Illinois or Houston plan to follow suit, and those schools have three remaining games between them.

The cancellation quietly tightens supply. Around 20,000 cards that were headed for the secondary market are now staying off it entirely. That’s not a dramatic shift given the tens of thousands already in circulation, but it removes a meaningful chunk of expected new supply. If Illinois and Houston stay the course, the remaining games will still produce cards, but the total print run will now come in lower than anyone projected at the start of the tour.

Right now, the Luffy college basketball card is still trading around $200 on eBay, roughly in line with the cost of a ticket to one of these games after the promo-driven price surge. That number has held steadier than a lot of people predicted.

If the other schools follow St. John’s lead and cancel their remaining promos, things get more interesting fast. Fewer cards means a harder cap on supply at a moment when collector demand is already proven. We’d expect to see prices climb quickly in that scenario, particularly for cards that haven’t been graded yet.

The Dodgers comparison we’ve made before still holds. That one-game One Piece promo produced an estimated 30,000 cards, and raw examples are now trading near $1,500 with graded 10s going for five figures. The college basketball run is on a much larger scale, but the underlying demand from One Piece TCG collectors with real money is the same.

The remaining One Piece college basketball schedule looks like this:

• Feb 27, 7 PM CT – Illinois vs Michigan (halftime show)
• Feb 28, 8 PM CT – Houston vs Baylor (original St. John’s date, now canceled at MSG)
• Mar 3, 8 PM CT – Illinois vs Oregon
• Mar 4, 8 PM CT – Houston vs Baylor

If you’re near Champaign or Houston, these games are still worth attending. Cards are still moving at $200 a unit, and with supply coming in lower than expected, there’s a reasonable case for holding rather than flipping immediately. As always, this is a no-refund situation once you’ve bought a ticket, so factor that into your math before you commit.