Kura Sushi’s not-for-sale promotional merchandise, given away based on how much a customer spends, was found listed on the flea-market app Mercari before distribution had even begun — sparking a stir on a 5channel livestream-commentary board. Opinion in the thread split: some suspected store staff of pocketing the freebies and reselling them on the side, while others figured customers or resellers who’d already secured the items were simply listing them early using the “no-stock listing” trick. While some flagged the Mercari terms-of-service violation itself as the real issue, others pointed out that pinning all the blame on Kura Sushi’s management would be unfair.
So why's it already up on Mercari?
That's probably how this ends.
This kind of thing happens all the time with popular items.
Re: #17
Wait, what do you mean? Like tomorrow they're gonna pig out, spam the "Bikkura-Pon" prize draws (Kura Sushi's plate-triggered capsule-toy game), complete the set, and then ship it out?
Yep, they list it before they've even got it, planning to secure it later.
Shady resellers pull this all the time.
This one's not a gacha draw — spend a set amount and you're guaranteed to get it.
They're bound to get caught at this rate.
With bad luck you could spend forever and never pull the figure.
Though I'm sure Kura Sushi's definitely mixed up in this.
Not setting foot in there again.
Not that I was going there for the freebies in the first place.
Because the goal is dragging Japan's food culture back to prewar times.
It's a Mercari terms-of-service violation, so that part is the problem.
Blaming Kura Sushi for it doesn't add up.
Guess that explains why you can drop ¥10,000 and still not get a figure.
Oh really? How much do you have to spend to complete the set?
¥3,000 gets you one.
Lol, that's insane.
So that's ¥12,000 for all four types.
So the idea is: stuff yourself with ¥12,000 worth of sushi, then sell the figures for a few thousand yen and come out ahead?
Even without turning a profit, a few college students going together and stuffing themselves cheap would be plenty satisfying.
Though that's apparently not what happened here.
Can't trust Sushiro or Kura Sushi at this point.
You got summoned in another thread!
Honestly, we live in an age where playing it straight just makes you the sucker.
Cheating or not, whoever moves first comes out ahead.
Though I doubt Mercari will actually do anything about it.
Honestly, they'd probably just freeze the account that reported it and call it "trolling."
Background and points of discussion
On Mercari, listing an item before actually having it in stock — then securing and shipping it only after a sale goes through — is called “no-stock listing” and violates the platform’s terms of service. Since this particular promotion guarantees the item once a customer spends a set amount, the culprit could just as easily be a customer or reseller who moved first, not necessarily a staff member skimming stock — and the thread itself never reached a consensus on “who’s actually responsible.” The thread also included replies mocking an image posted by someone claiming to be a “store manager,” but since that risked identifying a private individual, it has been left out of this article. This isn’t unique to Kura Sushi — pre-release or pre-distribution listings of limited-edition merchandise are a recurring problem, and it’s worth being careful not to conflate a company’s lax oversight with an individual’s violation of platform rules.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Sad News] Kura Sushi Is Done For.”
