Thwarting resellers isn’t always a snap, but maybe it could be a snip.
Much like a slice of sweet cake attracting flies, scalpers continue to swarm around Pokémon cards. At its core, the problem is that scalpers and legitimate fans both want the same thing, but it’s nearly impossible for fans to beat scalpers to the punch. Unlike scalpers who are looking to benefit economically from scooping up cards to flip at inflated prices, actual fans can’t just ignore their other life responsibilities and loiter in/around retailers until the day’s shipment comes in.
Except, are fans and scalpers really after the same thing? When you really look at the psychology behind their purchases, there’s a pretty dig difference between what the two demographics want when they go shopping for Pokémon cards, and one shop in Japan has come up with an idea to leverage that difference to make their cards just as satisfying for fans, while simultaneously severely damaging their appeal to scalpers.
Hareruya 2 is a Pokémon card specialty shop, and this week its branch in Saitama City’s Omiya Ward sent out a tweet showing Pokémon Mega Dream EX expansion packs it has for sale. You might have noticed that the packaging looks a little strange in the above photos, with the top left corners of the wrappers not visible. The corners aren’t folded over, either, but are completely missing. This isn’t the result of a production error, though, because the Hareruya 2 staff themselves cut the corners off.
The logic goes like this: When fans buy a pack of Pokémon cards, it’s because they want to use the cards to play the game. In order to do that, they’re eventually going to have to remove the packaging, so having a corner of the wrapper snipped off by the store is really just giving fans a head start towards their actual goal anyway. Scalpers, on the other hand, don’t actually have any interest in using the cards themselves. They have no intention of opening the pack up, because for them, keeping the packaging in as close to perfect condition as possible makes it easier for them to offer it for resale at high prices as a “new” item, since buyers on the secondary market aren’t going to pay as much for a snipped-corner pack.
This isn’t Omiya Haruruya 2’s only scalper countermeasure, either. The store also designates a portion of its stock as being for sale only to customers 15 years old or younger, and yes, they will ask for some form of identification (likely a school ID card) for those who look like they might be older than the cutoff. Purchasers of these kids-only packs are also limited to buying two packs in one day for the Mega Dream EX cards and five packs in one day for the Mega series. Aside from the age restriction, the store also designates some cards as being for purchase only by customers who register as friends of the store’s official Line messaging app account, presumably as a way to flag bulk buying, and has a limit of two Mega Series pack purchases per day.
Hareruya 2 also has a branch in Tokyo’s Akihabara otaku quarter, which instituted kids-only sales policies of its own a while back, but without the corner-snipping, at least initially.
With the Mega Dream EX expansion having launched last November, interest from resellers probably isn’t as intense as it was six months ago. Still, with scalpers becoming a problem for the long-term health of the hobby, it’s good to see Hareruya 2 taking steps to make sure cards can end up in the hands of fans who’re going to use them for their intended game-playing purpose.
Shop information
Hareruya 2 (Omiya branch) / 晴れる屋2（大宮店）
Address: Saitama-shi, Omiya-ku, Miyacho 2-23
さいたま市大宮区宮町２丁目２３
Open 1 p.m.-10 p.m. (weekdays), 10 a.m.-9 p.m. (weekends, holidays)
Website
Source: Twitter/@hareruya2omiy via Otakomu
Top image: Pokémon Card Game official website
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