If you’ve been paying attention to levels of PS5 stock, you’ll know that scalpers are making a bad situation worse by buying up stock to sell at an outrageous markup. But now there appears to be a new and unlikely target: Pokémon cards.
But not just any Pokémon cards, limited edition Pokémon card packs that are only available in the U.S. with McDonalds Happy Meals. Some eBay listings are even asking for over $2,000.
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Those listings aren’t that common, and those particular sellers are offering whole boxes containing 150 packs of the cards. Each pack has four cards inside, including one McDonalds exclusive holographic/holo card, meaning you’re getting 600 cards for your money. That’s $3.34 per card.
That said, considering a customer can't walk into McDonald's and pick up an entire box of cards, it suggests there are some shenanigans going on behind the counter.
@McDonalds @Pokemon I sure hope you do some form of inventory control for your promo Pokémon cards as some of your stock is being sold in sealed boxes which means they’re not even making it to your stores 😳 Though same thing happened with Tim Hortons Hockey too. Retail $1.99 😳 pic.twitter.com/kX8qZyRX2VFebruary 9, 2021
If you don’t want to buy so many packs (and why would you?) individual unopened packs are selling for up to $10 each. I can also see listings for individual cards, typically holos, going for the same sort of price.
I’ve been to (and friends) about a dozen @McDonalds trying to just get ONE Pokémon card pack and every single place has said that someone has already showed up and bought their whole lot. Looking on eBay, people are literally selling for profits. Can we not allow this?February 9, 2021
The limited nature of these cards means there’s already heavy demand online, especially since there are 50 different cards to collect. People, being the way they are, have since started arriving at McDonalds locations early to buy as many Happy Meals as they can with the intention of selling cards online.
Some restaurants have had to start limiting the number of Happy Meals people can buy as a result.
Mcdonalds wont allow you to buy the pokemon packs separately from the kids meals anymore and there is a limit of 5. Guess my 6th kid can just starve!!February 9, 2021
It’s the same sort of tactics big box retailers have had to employ to stop scalpers buying up all the PS5 and Xbox Series X stock. I’m still surprised that scalpers aren’t using bots to try and mass-buy Happy Meals through Uber Eats.
The Pokémon Trading Card Game is still incredibly popular, and it’s easy to see why people want these cards so badly. The question is whether it’s worth spending so much money right now, and if the price is going to tank after people start losing interest.
It just depends how much you care about catching 'em all.
