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17 April 2026, 09:00
2026-04-17
Shortage, resale for 2000 UAH and hype. How the hunt for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 almanac is going on and where to look for cards if they are all sold out
Even before the start of the collaboration between the ATB supermarket chain and the game development studio GSC Game World, there was a lot of interest in the event. Jokes about having to queue in the morning to get the desired almanac turned out to be not an exaggeration, but a harsh reality. Literally in half a day it became almost impossible to get the almanac, collectors rushed to ATB like stalkers to the Zone Center to the Wish Fulfiller.
A dev.ua journalist joined this hunt and tells how he managed to get the almanac almost in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and also shares life hacks on how to get more diverse collectible cards.
Even before the start of the collaboration between the ATB supermarket chain and the game development studio GSC Game World, there was a lot of interest in the event. Jokes about having to queue in the morning to get the desired almanac turned out to be not an exaggeration, but a harsh reality. Literally in half a day it became almost impossible to get the almanac, collectors rushed to ATB like stalkers to the Zone Center to the Wish Fulfiller.
A dev.ua journalist joined this hunt and tells how he managed to get the almanac almost in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and also shares life hacks on how to get more diverse collectible cards.
Where does the hype come from?
The STALKER series of games is the pinnacle of Ukrainian game development with a huge fan base. At one time, after the success of the original STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, GSC Game World organized fests for fans of the STALKER series, which gathered tens of thousands of people. Here is a look at the fest that took place on Maidan Nezalezhnosti to appreciate the scale. Unfortunately, due to military operations in Ukraine, organizing something like this became difficult, if not impossible due to security measures, and since then the fan base has only grown.
According to VG Insights, a platform for market research and analysis of the gaming industry, in the first week of release, Ukrainian players purchased 16% of the approximately 1.4 million copies of STALKER 2 sold, and in this indicator they are second only to gamers from the United States. That is, at least 224,000 Ukrainians purchased the game. As of March last year, the number of players had crossed the 6 million mark, and this was before the release of the game on the PS5 console.
Devoted gamers do not limit themselves to buying various kinds of merchandise and collectibles, and the thirst for large events based on their favorite universe and the presence of a large fanbase fueled considerable interest in collaborating with ATB.
How dev.ua hunted for the almanac
On the day of the promo launch on April 15, journalists and dev.ua agents went to the nearest ATB markets. Interactive almanacs and collectible cards are sold at a separate stand in the store, but the shelves with the album were already empty as of 10:00. A similar situation occurred not only in the capital, but also in the regions: Poltava, Ternopil, Irpin - everything was crushed. ATB network employees did not even have time to work out the new sales instructions, the almanacs disappeared from the shelves so quickly and not everyone even understood what they wanted from them when they asked if they would still be in stock.
In a conversation with the cashier at ATB, the journalist found out valuable information that the manager had given him — come the next day before lunch, but not in the morning, when there will be a new delivery of goods, and there may be additional almanacs there. It is clear that this option did not suit us, so we got in the car and started driving around the nearest ATBs. Meanwhile, the countdown for the sale of almanacs online began on the ATB website. A couple of times the time was changed forward by an hour, and as soon as online sales opened, the almanacs were sold out within the first 10 minutes, so we didn't have time here either.
Hours of searching yielded no results, and the editorial office was already starting to think that we would have no luck today. Then suddenly in the evening we received a call from one of our agents who had managed to buy the last almanac in a village near Kyiv, which a few years ago was part of the affected zone as a result of the Chernobyl accident (ironically). 30 minutes by car and the treasure that the whole of Ukraine is chasing is in the hands of a dev.ua journalist. In total, 5 people were involved in this search, who visited a total of 15 ATB stores.
It's clear with almanacs, but what about collectible cards? The situation here is also difficult, but controlled; in the first hours of the event, videos began to spread online where people were buying up packs of cards for some incredible amounts. Our editorial office received correspondence from an internal chat of one of the ATB markets, in which employees reported that one of the buyers had purchased cards for 11,000 hryvnias.
On the evening of April 14, rumors began to spread that the Kyiv branches of ATB had already run out of cards, but this is partly true. Yes, some supermarkets have completely removed the empty stands, but the cashiers themselves still have collector cards in stock (for now).
The problem with overbidding
With such demand, it is quite expected that people will want to take advantage of the situation. Most of the almanacs were not collected for themselves or friends, but to sell them at a premium. According to our observations, five almanacs were delivered to each ATB, but there is no limit on the number of sales in one hand, which is a significant drawback and helped create a shortage.
Within a few hours of the start of the promotion, the OLX trading platform was full of offers from 600 to 2,000 hryvnias per unit. Let us recall that the retail price is 399 hryvnias. On average, the offer on OLX fluctuates around 1,000 hryvnias. Moreover, the speculators themselves are gloating over their cunning.
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"10/10 sold, +8000 net inflow per day. But people keep writing, so I'll take EVERYTHING from the new shipment! PS It's good to have familiar employees at ATB," wrote the buyer from Kharkiv and added that he would make a discount for the military and sell for 1000 UAH.
Of course, the situation is outrageous, but it is entirely predictable, considering that the total circulation was 21,000 almanacs, and in Ukraine alone there are over 200,000 owners of the game STALKER 2.
Collector's tips on how to snag the rarest cards
We wrote in detail about the terms of the promotion here , but let us remind you that the cards can be purchased separately for 20 UAH per piece or for 5 UAH if one of three conditions is met: the total value of the check must be 150 UAH or more, purchase of partner goods, payment with an ATB card from partner banks. Therefore…
Tip #1 : These three basic conditions should be remembered like the Lord's Prayer, since not all ATB employees understand the process of issuing cards at a promotional price. In some cases, the journalist had to explain the rules himself, in some cases, the store administrator came to help.
Tip #2 : Don't buy cards at a self-service checkout. Everything is pretty prosaic here, you won't be able to get cards at a promotional price yourself, you just have to go to the cashier.
Tip #3 — choose cards from different shelves in a mix. While unpacking the cards, we noticed that the repeats came from the cards that we were given as promotional cashiers. There is a theory that the cards are sorted by type, and the cashiers take them from the boxes one by one. The best option is to take 1-2 cards from each box, beginning-center-top. Out of 58 purchased cards, about 15 turned out to be repeats, most of which were those that were purchased from the cashiers' boxes, and not from the stand boxes.
Tip #4 — exchange duplicates. You can collect all 48 cards yourself, but why overpay when there are many stalkers who have exactly the card you need. Moreover, there are many platforms for exchange, from Discord servers to sites from Ukrainian vibecoders . Even dev.ua even has a separate editorial board for exchange between colleagues.
Tip #5 — buy oatmeal. And this is no joke, one of the cheapest products that gives you a collector's card at a promotional price of 5 UAH is now oatmeal "Svoya Liniya" at a price of 9 UAH and 20 kopecks. If you buy 50 bags of porridge, you will receive 53 collector's cards.
As a result, in less than two days since the launch, it is almost impossible to get promo almanacs at ATB, there is also a shortage of collectible cards in some places, but STALKER 2 is definitely on the radar again, even from people who knew nothing about the game.
It is not known for certain whether the product will be reprinted by the time the campaign ends on June 9, but the partnership with ATB has fulfilled its PR function - interest in the new plot supplement "The Price of Hope" will only grow.
