Build guide

Build a Pokemon restock bot for X
restocks, pre-orders, price drops

Your watcher spots the restock. One POST to OpenTweet tweets it with the product photo and your link, in seconds. No X developer account, no $0.20 fee on every link post.

Card required, cancel any time.

The short answer

To run a Pokemon restock alert account on X: check the products you track every one to five minutes, store the last stock status, and when a product flips to in stock send the name, price, link and photo to POST https://opentweet.io/api/v1/posts with publish_now: true. OpenTweet attaches the photo and posts it to your X account. Restock accounts link nearly every post, so pick a plan by link posts a day: Advanced includes 10, Agency 20.

Why restock accounts are busy in 2026

2026 is the Pokemon 30th anniversary year, and the special products sold out fast. One collector guide reported that the 30th Celebration ex Box stayed in stock for about four minutes at launch, with restock waves following through the autumn. New sets, holiday gift boxes and Black Friday land on top of that. Collectors follow the accounts that tell them first.

Several OpenTweet customers run exactly this: one US account posting Walmart and Pokemon Center restocks, one French account covering Cdiscount and Amazon.fr, and one posting US and UK drops. Each sends its alerts through the API, with the product photo and an affiliate link.

Six post types for a restock account

Restocks bring the followers. The scheduled posts keep them reading on days with no drops.

Restocks

Event-driven

A sold-out product flips back to in stock. The post followers turn notifications on for. Speed is everything.

Pre-order windows

Both

A retailer opens pre-orders for a new set or a special collection. Post the moment it opens, and a reminder before known windows.

Price drops

Event-driven

A box falls back to MSRP, or below. Tell followers the old price and the new one, so the deal is obvious.

Release calendar

Scheduled

Set launches, prerelease weekends and Japanese releases. Write them once and schedule them for the right morning.

In-store reports

Manual

Store drops that never show online. Post them from your phone through the Telegram bot or the app.

Daily recap

Scheduled

What restocked today and what is still live. One thread in the evening for followers who missed the alerts.

Tweet the restock in one call

Posting is the easy part. What you watch and how often lives in your script.

The curl call

# The watcher saw a restock. Tweet it now, with the photo.
curl -X POST https://opentweet.io/api/v1/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ot_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "text": "🚨 RESTOCK: Elite Trainer Box is back at Pokemon Center, $59.99\n➡️ https://your.link/etb",
    "media_urls": ["https://your-cdn.example.com/products/etb.jpg"],
    "publish_now": true
  }'

A restock watcher in Python

Run it every one to five minutes with cron. It remembers the last status per product, so an alert fires once per restock, not on every check.

import json, pathlib, requests

KEY = "ot_your_key"
STATE = pathlib.Path("stock.json")  # last known status per product
seen = json.loads(STATE.read_text()) if STATE.exists() else {}

def check_stock():
    # Your source: a retailer API, an affiliate product feed,
    # or a page whose terms let you poll it. Return a list of
    # {"id", "name", "store", "price", "url", "image", "in_stock"}.
    ...

for p in check_stock():
    was = seen.get(p["id"], False)
    if p["in_stock"] and not was:  # flipped to in stock
        requests.post(
            "https://opentweet.io/api/v1/posts",
            headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {KEY}"},
            json={
                "text": f"🚨 RESTOCK at {p['store']}: {p['name']}, ${p['price']}\n➡️ {p['url']}",
                "media_urls": [p["image"]],
                "publish_now": True,
            },
        )
    seen[p["id"]] = p["in_stock"]

STATE.write_text(json.dumps(seen))

The photo sells it

Pass the product image in media_urls. OpenTweet uploads it to X. Images are not link posts.

One account per country

Add x_account_id to send US, UK or French drops to the right account from one watcher.

Known dates, scheduled

Pre-order windows and release days go in ahead of time with scheduled_date.

A pre-order reminder

{
  "text": "Pre-orders for the new set open at Pokemon Center in 1 hour. Set an alarm ⏰",
  "scheduled_date": "2026-11-05T16:00:00Z",
  "x_account_id": "acct_us"
}

Every field is in the API reference. Prefer no code for the alerts? Point Make, Zapier or n8n at the same endpoint.

Which plan fits your restock account

Flat monthly price. The number that decides it is link posts a day, because almost every alert carries a link.

Account type	Typical volume	Plan
Release calendar and news, store named, no links	5-15 posts a day	Pro, $19.99/mo, 20 posts a day
Restock alerts with a link, one country	Up to 10 link posts a day	Advanced, $29/mo, 3 X accounts
Several countries or a busy US account	Up to 20 link posts a day	Agency, $49/mo, 300 posts a day
Release day spikes	Above your daily link allowance	Any plan plus link credits

The same 20 link posts a day on the X API would bill $0.20 each, about $120 a month. See pricing and the X API cost calculator.

Watch only what you are allowed to watch. Prefer retailer and affiliate product APIs. If you check pages, follow the site's terms and keep the rate gentle. Getting your watcher blocked on release day is the worst outcome.

Post each restock once. Keep state, so a product that flickers in and out of stock does not fire ten alerts. Duplicate posts are what X limits.

Label it and disclose links. Turn on the Automated label in your X settings and mark affiliate links (#ad or "affiliate link"). No auto-replies under big accounts. More in X automation rules.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make a Pokemon restock bot for X?

Split it in two. A watcher checks the products you track (a retailer API, an affiliate product feed, or a page you are allowed to poll) and remembers the last stock status. When a product flips from out of stock to in stock, it sends one POST to https://opentweet.io/api/v1/posts with the product name, price, link and photo, and publish_now set to true. OpenTweet posts it to your X account. You never create an X developer app.

How fast does a restock tweet go out?

With publish_now the post is sent to X straight away, usually within a few seconds of your call. In practice the speed of a restock account is decided by how often your watcher checks, not by the posting step. Popular Pokemon TCG products can sell out in minutes, so most accounts check their hottest products every one to five minutes.

Can the alert include the product photo?

Yes. Put the image URL in media_urls. OpenTweet downloads it and attaches it to the post, the same way you would upload it by hand. A photo does not count as a link post. Only a URL in the text does.

Do restock tweets with affiliate links cost more?

On the X API, every post that contains a URL bills at $0.20, against $0.015 for a plain post. On OpenTweet, link posts are part of the flat plan: 1 a day on Pro, 10 a day on Advanced ($29/month) and 20 a day on Agency ($49/month), with link credits for busy drop days. Restock accounts link almost every post, so Advanced is the usual starting plan.

Can I run separate restock accounts for the US, UK and France?

Yes. Connect each X account once and pass x_account_id on every call to pick where the alert goes. Advanced includes 3 X accounts and Agency 10. Several OpenTweet customers run one account per country, because stock, prices and retailers differ by region.

Can I schedule pre-order and release reminders?

Yes. Known dates, such as a set release, a Pokemon Center pre-order window or a prerelease weekend, go in with scheduled_date in UTC. Event-driven restocks use publish_now. The same account can mix both.

Will X suspend a restock bot?

Restock alerts on your own timeline are a normal use of automation. What gets accounts limited is the behaviour around them: auto-replying under big accounts, mass mentions, posting the same alert many times, and links to sellers who do not deliver. Turn on the Automated label in your X account settings, post each restock once, and disclose affiliate links.

Tracking something other than cards? The alert bot guide covers any restock or price watcher, and the affiliate deals bot covers deal accounts. Posting from a release feed instead? See the GitHub trending bot.

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Be the account that tweets the restock first

Connect X, create a key, and your watcher's next restock goes out with the photo and your link.

Build a Pokemon restock bot for Xrestocks, pre-orders, price drops