Danica Davidson
May 2, 2023 
Some Pokémon cards are worth a lot of money, and that has led to scalpers. New Pokémon expansion cards typically come out on Fridays in Japan, and there’s an issue of adults buying up all the new cards before kids — the actual main audience — can get out of school and go to the store. Of course there are also sincere adult fans who buy the cards as well, but one store in Tokyo has a novel way of making sure kids can still get their cards.
Hareruya 2, which can be found in Akihabara, sometimes limits certain Pokémon cards to kids only. Mostly recently, they arranged a setup for cards you have to be fifteen or younger to buy.
【商品情報】
1Fにて中学生以下のお客様限定で
パック販売を行っております各パック当日分がなくなり次第販売終了となります
※おひとり様1日合計10パックまで
※スタッフが年齢確認をさせて頂く場合がございます
※保護者様含むご本人以外の代理購入はご遠慮いただいております pic.twitter.com/kGyWCjc8EF— 晴れる屋2 (アキバのポケカ専門店/ハレツー) (@hareruya2pokeca) May 1, 2023
Adults can’t come in and say, “I want to buy those for my under 15-year-old child,” because there’s a possibility this person is a scalper making it up. An actual child has to be there, and they will check IDs to ascertain if they’re in the right age range.
In the past, they’ve also had limitations on certain cards, like “for students only” or “for elementary school-age kids only.” And they always make sure some of the Pokémon cards are available for all ages, so it’s not like it’s an anti-adults store.
Sho Watanabe is the store manager and says that the policy benefits kids and they enjoy it. “It makes the kids happy, and it makes a lot of parents happy too, I think it’s a system by which the limited amount of cards can be enjoyed by a large number of people.”
Things can get pretty intense when people want their Pokémon cards. When scalping for Pokémon cards caused cereals to get ripped open at stores, companies responded by having to tie up the cereal boxes. There was even a case where people got into a violent brawl at Target over Pokémon cards.
Source: SoraNews24
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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