McDonald’s ‘strongly encourages’ restaurants to prevent scalping of Pokémon Happy Meal cards

McDonald’s has revealed it is ‘working fast’ to restock Pokemon 25th Anniversary Trading Cards following reports that scalpers are taking advantage of limited edition packs – and that it is ‘strongly encouraging’ restaurants to set a limit the number of packs they sell to individual customers. Yesterday it was revealed that commemorative Pokémon cards, which are only supposed to be accessible when customers buy a McDonald’s Happy Meal, are being bought in bulk by scalpers and sold online for ridiculously high sums. In some cases, boxes full of packs were posted on sites, including eBay, for more than $ 1,500.

@McDonalds @ Pokémon Hopefully you will do some form of inventory control for your promotional Pokemon cards, as some of your stock is sold in sealed boxes, which means they don’t even make it to your stores. same thing happened with Tim Hortons Hockey as well. Retail $ 1.99 pic.twitter.com/kX8qZyRX2V

– redphoenix sports cards (@redphoenixcards) February 9, 2021

Have you played Pokemon Trading Card Game?

YESNO

Responding to IGN’s request for comment, a McDonald’s spokesperson said the restaurant franchise was preparing to distribute more packs to its outlets, and said restaurants would be “ strongly encouraged ” limit the number of packs they can sell to individual customers.

McDonald’s statement reads: “We love to see the fans’ passion for our limited-time Happy Meal promotion celebrating 25 years of Pokémon. With so much demand for our Pokemon TCG promo cards, and some fans even going to it. ‘extreme to get them, we’ We are working quickly to address shortages and strongly encourage restaurants to set a reasonable limit of Happy Meals sold per customer. We want to deliver the full Happy Meal experience to as many families as possible and make sure everyone is able to participate in the fun! “

McDonald’s has confirmed that the company is working with its supply chain to help restock at restaurants that have run out of Pokemon card packs, and does not tolerate the resale of Happy Meal bonuses for profit. However, some restaurants will apparently be allowed to offer stand-alone pack purchases in unspecified cases.

Happy Meals with rescue toys will be offered if restaurants run out of Pokemon Trading Cards, and we at McDonald’s have made it clear their policy that boxes full of Happy Meal toys should not be sold to customers and that toys must be distributed to stores by employees. alone.

In light of Pokemon’s 25th anniversary, The Pokemon Company has partnered with McDonald’s to hand out 50 limited-edition collectible cards while supplies last. The packs, which contain four random cards, celebrate the franchise’s legacy with all 24 starter Pokémon and the Pikachu series icon in standard and aluminum versions.

In other Pokemon news, Post Malone will be giving a virtual concert on February 27 as part of the franchise’s anniversary plans.

Tom Power is a UK based freelance writer. Follow him on Twitter.