McDonald’s Japan has apologized to Nintendo fans after their Pokémon card Happy Meal collaboration ended in complete disaster. The fast-food chain also revealed how it plans to prevent Pokémon TCG scalpers from ruining the promotion in the future.
The idea is just crazy enough to actually work.
McDonald’s Pokémon Card Happy Meal Ruined By Scalpers
In Japan, the McDonald’s Pokémon card Happy Meals were supposed to make their return from August 9 through 11. However, the promotion was quickly ended within hours of its launch after scalpers flooded locations to hoard the Pokémon TCG collectibles.
The situation became so dire that Japan faced an issue with thousands of pounds of uneaten food being discarded. McDonald’s broke their silence on August 11 and apologized to Pokémon fans.
“We have confirmed that the Happy Meal Pokémon card campaign has resulted in some customers purchasing large quantities of Pokémon for the purpose of reselling. This has led to congestion and confusion in and around our stores. It also led to abandonment and disposal of ordered food. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. McDonald’s does not tolerate the purchase of Happy Meals for the purpose of resale, or the abandonment or disposal of food.”
According to McDonald’s, the company plans to implement stricter purchase limits in the future. However, the restaurant chain also revealed that they are working with third-party sites to stop scalpers.
“We will request that all flea market app operators take more effective measures to curb malicious hoarding and resale activities by some users.”
Although it’s hard to say how much power they have in this situation. Regardless, it appears McDonald’s plans to put pressure on sites to stop accounts from scalping the Pokémon card Happy Meals.
Pokémon happy Meals Flood eBay Already
With all the drama, you might be wondering how much these cards are worth. Currently, McDonald’s Pokémon cards are being sold on eBay for $28. Although this doesn’t seem like much on the surface, it’s a lot of money. Specifically, due to the overwhelming volume, accounts are being processed on the site.
Over the last day or two, users have been selling thousands of these Pokémon Cards. So, if you do the quick math, some accounts are easily making over $82,000 in profits. Considering a Happy Meal costs around $3.60 in Japan, that’s a ridiculous amount of money being made. It now makes sense why scalpers rushed across the country to buy up as many Happy Meals as they could get their hands on.
The McDonald’s Pokémon cards might not sell for a lot on their own, but they can bring in a lot of profit when sold in large quantities. Given that international Pokémon TCG collectors also want the Japanese cards, the demand is there.
I can only imagine how bad this will get if they bring those McDonald’s Pokémon cards to the US.
The post McDonald’s Has a Plan to Stop Those Nasty Pokémon Card Scalpers appeared first on VICE.
