‘World’s biggest’ Pokémon TCG shop bans adults from buying latest cards in order to combat resellers
Japanese store Hareruya 2 says it will allocate new releases for younger fans and check ID to stop older collectors in search of a profit.
A Japanese Pokémon card seller, self-proclaimed as the biggest dedicated Pokémon TCG store in the world, has banned adults from buying the latest releases for the trading card game.
Hareruya 2 announced on April 30th that booster packs for the latest Pokémon Trading Card Game sets, Clay Burst and Snow Hazard, would only be sold to children attending junior high school or younger. (Thanks, Kotaku.)
In a reversal of usual age checks, the shop in Tokyo’s popular Akihabara neighbourhood said it would check ID to confirm that customers were young enough to buy the packs displayed in a dedicated section. Parents and guardians will similarly be barred from buying them on behalf of kids. The boosters in the section will also be limited to 10 packs per person per day; once they sell out for the day, the remaining packs will be offered to general customers.
Hareruya 2’s decision to restrict sales of Clay Burst and Snow Hazard follows incredible demand for the sets around their April 14th release, which saw hundreds of people queue outside retailers in order to grab the new cards. Booster boxes quickly surfaced online for thousands of dollars, with the Pokémon Company in Japan announcing within days of the launch that it had sold out of “all Pokemon Card Game products” due to the demand.
It’s the latest event in the Pokémon TCG’s ongoing battle with resellers looking to turn a profit on the back of the game’s booming popularity, which has seen the most expensive Pokémon cards sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction.