On August 8th, a new Happy Meal campaign will begin at McDonald’s Japan, featuring the Pokémon universe. Most importantly, it will be a collaboration with the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the physical collectible card game that everybody loves. This has led to Japanese retailers and retailers, who are certainly not few, already preparing for the event weeks before its release.
It’s worth noting that, while the campaign will begin on the 8th, the Pokémon trading cards won’t be given away until the 9th and will only be distributed over three days: August 9th, 10th, and 11th. The toys, two different figures, one of Pikachu and one of Charmander, will be available for a longer period of time or, as has happened in other cases, until supplies run out.
One of the problems McDonald’s Japan faces is resellers. For some time now, there has been an unusual market for reselling Happy Meal toys, which has led to many children going without toys. Recently, with the Minecraft and Chiikawa toy collections, the toys sold out rapidly due to being resold on sites like Mercari and Yahoo Auctions. According to urban legend, some people even left food untouched on McDonald’s tables simply because they were interested only in the toys. In Japan, of course, that means that food goes straight to the trash, which didn’t go down well with either the public or McDonald’s.
In an effort to avoid this problem with the Pokémon campaign, which is going to be especially challenging due to the large resale market for Pokémon trading cards, McDonald’s has decided to find a solution. First of all, there will only be two toys, increasing the chances of children getting the complete collection. Second, although there will be six different collectible cards, only one of them will have an exclusive design: the Pikachu card waiting for its burger.
The other five cards will have standard designs, although they will include the McDonald’s logo to add value and make them promotional cards. Furthermore, and this is the most important point, McDonald’s has decided to give away two cards with every Happy Meal. And of those two cards, one will always be Pikachu. This will simplify the work of resellers, who will always get Pikachu, the coveted card, and won’t have to buy dozens of Happy Meals to ensure a good supply of the card.
However, this doesn’t mean that McDonald’s Japan won’t encounter a bottleneck in its restaurants during the three days of the promotion. While other exclusive cards have been given away in the past, from Pokémon to Dragon Ball, Aikatsu, and Dragon Quest, today the resale of the Pokémon Trading Card Game has reached an absolutely insane level. Therefore, scalpers are expected to be lining up early in the morning or even ordering online from the mobile app.
What you need to know is that McDonald’s Japan, knowing what will happen, will likely print a massive print run of the special Pikachu card. This will mean that the market value of the Pikachu card will be low and, ultimately, practically negligible. This hasn’t stopped some scalpers, trying to take advantage of panic buying, from starting to offer the card for pre-order at exorbitant prices in eBay and other websites. From there, it will be up to collectors and gamers to decide whether to jump through the hoops of resale or, more intelligently, wait for the market to assimilate the widespread availability of this friendly Pikachu waiting to eat a burger.
