US Prices for Pokémon Card 30th Anniversary Boxes Crash — Scalpers’ “We’re Considering Legal Action” Gets Laughed Out of the Room

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The story

US prices for Pokémon Card’s 30th anniversary commemorative boxes have crashed, and reports say the scalpers behind the outcry are grumbling that they’re “considering legal action.” According to the article, they call themselves “secondary distributors” and are criticizing The Pokémon Company for not disclosing accurate print runs, pull rates, or supply volume in advance. On 5ch, posters largely welcomed the oversupply and showed little sympathy for the scalpers, though some pointed out this is a US market issue — in Japan, pull rates have stayed the same and prices have actually gone up.

The highlight of this whole saga is that the people who appear to be scalpers are whining all over the internet.

For example, some are saying things like “We’re seriously considering taking legal action against Pokémon” and “It’s outrageous that they didn’t disclose the accurate print numbers, pull rates, and how large the actual supply would be.” Notably, they never explain why Pokémon’s official channels would be obligated to disclose any of that in advance.

What’s more, they call themselves “secondary distributors” and proudly claim that “no one has supported Pokémon as much as we have — we’ve helped circulate product at a fair market price instead of an unreasonably cheap manufacturer’s suggested retail price.”

Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here

What people said

2AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:17
Sorry, I genuinely have no idea what you're even saying (a nod to a famous Japanese comedy catchphrase)
6AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:19
Good for you, got to hoard a ton of rares
9AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:20
Re: #6
Seriously, this lol
Just turn your duplicate ultra-rares into paper-cutting crafts lol
7AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:19
Commemorative boxes are meant to be held onto for the long haul — there's no way you'd cash in that fast
10AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:20
I thought this had to be a joke, but it's literally written in the news article — I'm baffled
11AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:21
They've forgotten what cards are even for
13AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:21
It's a business — sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
Taking a huge loss now and then is basically the whole thrill of capitalism. It'd be boring if you only ever made money.
15AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:22
If they sue, all that'll happen is someone tips off the tax office on them — they're not exactly paying their taxes properly anyway
19AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:24
Re: #15
This makes no sense
Even scalpers pay taxes, don't they
Baseless criticism isn't cool
31AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:28
Re: #19
Main taxes that apply:
Income tax (miscellaneous or business income): a progressive tax of up to 45% (up to 55% combined with resident tax) applies to resale profits (sales revenue minus cost of goods, fees, shipping, etc.).
Consumption tax: People assume "it doesn't apply to me, I'm just reselling on a flea-market app," but if your taxable sales two years prior exceeded 10 million yen, you owe consumption tax (10%) even as an individual.

So scalpers actually do pay taxes
Respect
36AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:29
Re: #19
Sounds like someone who's never had a job
17AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:23
This, exactly.


I told my wife about the new Switch model.
She broke down crying on the spot.
Sorry, we can't afford luxuries anymore.
I'm about to go tell the kids that daddy's paycheck is gone, so no more toys.
Some of us make our living off the Switch. I will never forgive Nintendo.
18AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:23
You can't even list stuff on Mercari right now, can you? What are the scalpers gonna do lol (Mercari — Japan's biggest flea-market app)
20AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:24
Honestly, the more they print, the more it sells, so Pokémon Inc. should just print way more
21AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:24
"Secondary distributor" lol
No, you're just a scalper lol
24AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:25
You'd think they'd print a ton for a 30th anniversary set
Didn't it also include reprints of old cards?
101AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:55
Re: #24
They've got an annoying little mark stamped on them
25AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:26
Someone like Kaya's probably gonna make a giddy video about this (a well-known Pokémon card YouTuber)
26AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:26
Why are they this mad? Did they just ship way too many?
33AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:28
Scalpers obviously suck, but
they do take on some of the inventory risk that manufacturers and retailers would otherwise be stuck with
46AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:32
Re: #33
Scalpers don't even touch unpopular products in the first place, so calling it "taking on inventory risk" is just dumb
51AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:34
Re: #33
What is this guy even talking about
62AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:37
Re: #33
That type of scalper doesn't exist anymore
Nowadays it's all people buying up entire stocks and canceling orders last-minute, wrecking supply numbers — hated by manufacturers and retailers alike
49AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:33
Best schadenfreude meal of the year (meshi-uma — 5ch slang for savoring other people's misfortune)
56AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:35
Re: #49
No, you're the one who's gonna lose
55AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:35
Re: #31
And your evidence is?
Scalpers wouldn't even use Mercari in the first place — that's for small-time amateurs
65AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:38
Re: #55
Oh, my bad
I already knew income tax existed
I just wrote that assuming you didn't know it existed
76AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:44
This is about the US, right?
Is the same thing happening in Japan too?
82AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:47
Re: #76
Unlike in the US, the pull rates here haven't changed, so there's no real chaos
If anything, single-card prices are higher now than on release day
80AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:46
Could you please stop hogging all the profits for yourselves, Pokémon? (mocking the scalpers' logic)
89AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:48
Re: #80
That's a stretch, but I did see someone on X complaining about card shops selling singles they pulled in-store
86AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:47
"We've contributed to circulating product at a fair market price instead of an unreasonably cheap manufacturer's suggested retail price"

Well, good thing the manufacturer supplied enough to match demand and balance it all out lol
90AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:48
Re: #86
If a card shop said this, I could understand it, giving them the benefit of the doubt
But coming from an individual scalper? What half-asleep nonsense is this
108AnonymousSep 23, 2026 18:59
The writer was probably struggling not to laugh while writing this
114AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:00
Re: #108
The way it's written is flat-out mocking them
111AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:00
The 30th anniversary box price is actually going up, so why's this article even out?
125AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:12
Re: #111
It's about the US
128AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:15
I wonder if this'll become buyable again
I'm planning to hold onto it for 10 years, so just let me buy one
130AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:15
Re: #128
There's so much of it flooding the market that holding it for 10 years won't make any difference

Background and Key Points of This Topic

This topic stems from an article published on Yahoo! News, concerning what appears to be the US market for Pokémon Card 30th anniversary sets. Supply outpaced demand, causing prices to crash, and secondary sellers were reported to be considering legal action against The Pokémon Company for allegedly failing to disclose accurate print numbers or pull rates in advance. On the thread, alongside general pushback against scalping itself, replies 15, 19, 31, and 36 got into a notable back-and-forth debating whether scalpers actually pay their taxes, turning into something of a tax-law explainer battle. It’s also worth noting that Japan’s domestic single-card market is a separate matter from what this article covers — some posters (replies 82 and 125) pointed out that pull rates in Japan have stayed the same and prices have, if anything, been trending upward, so the chaos in the US and the domestic market should be read as two distinct situations.

*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Pokémon Card 30th Anniv. Prices Crash, Scalpers Scream in Anguish — Threatening Legal Action lolololololololololol

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