Pokemon Card Packs In Japan Are Being Damaged To Spite Scalpers

Published May 15, 2026, 10:13 AM EDT Joshua Robertson is an editor for TheGamer, having working in news, guides, features, and reviews since 2022. They have written thousands of news stories, ranging from industry-breaking events, to smaller, more personal community pieces, and have covered several high-profile showcases such as The Game Awards and Nintendo Directs. Joshua is considered an expert in soulslikes, horror, JRPGs and everything Final Fantasy, having written extensive coverage for massively popular online titles like Final Fantasy 14. It's an issue in pretty much every industry, but scalping is causing a real problem in the Pokemon scene. If you're about to release a new set of Pokemon cards, or have a promotion that includes a special Pokemon card, you will undoubtedly have a gang of scalpers clamoring at your doors attempting to nab as many as they can to flog them on for a quick buck. For those that enjoy Pokemon cards as a hobby, it's becoming increasingly difficult to actually get hold of new sets and booster packs. We've seen a number of measures put in place by official sources, such as the Pokemon Center's recently implemented early access list, and one Japanese store's Pokemon quiz, but deliberately damaging booster packs to wreck their resale value is a new one. Japanese Stores Are Wrecking Packs To Stick It To The Scalpers In a post on Twitter by a user called ItasMeCooper, they reveal that stores in Japan are deliberately cutting off the corners of Pokemon booster packs to try and stop scalpers from buying them. Any resale value that a pack might have would be reduced significantly if a pack is damaged, and while it's not ideal, it's actually quite a clever way to ensure fans are actually buying the packs rather than scalpers. Related It also stops scalpers reselling packs at a premium price because they're sealed, and the cards inside will still retain their value, if they're worth anything at all. According to the comments, this isn't just something exclusive to Japan either, and there have been instances of stores also cutting the seals on Elite Trainer Boxes. Will this stop scalpers? Absolutely not. We know at this point that scalpers are a determined lot, and if a certain set of booster packs is sold out everywhere, there will still be people willing to pay a premium for resold packs, regardless of whether there's damage to the packaging or not. Still, it will put off a lot of them, and that's something that I'm sure most of us can get behind. Release Date 1997 - 2023 Network TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, TVh, TVQ, TSC Directors Shigeru Omachi, Koji Ogawa, Fumihiro Ueno, Hideki Hiroshima, Maki Kodaira, Makoto Ooga, Ayumi Moriyama, Keitaro Motonaga, Shigeru Ueda, Fumihiro Yoshimura, Minoru Ohara, Yoshitaka Makino, Kiyoshi Egami, Makoto Sokuza, Bjarne Heuser, Naoki Murata, Kenichi Nishida, Tomoe Makino, Masahiko Watanabe, Hiroaki Takagi, Tazumi Mukaiyama, Ryohei Horiuchi, Yoshihiro Oda, Hiromichi Matano Cast Rica Matsumoto Satoshi (voice) Ikue Otani Pikachu (voice)