Blog

Why you can't buy Pokémon cards at MSRP in Japan

By CardMochi · 5 October 2026 · 7 min read · prices as of 4 October 2026

The short answer

In Japan, buying Pokémon cards to resell them is legal, and no law bans it. The Pokémon Company (株式会社ポケモン) doesn't fight resellers by name: it rations through lotteries, My Number Card identity checks and one box per person. This year's four regular expansions ask 1.3 to 1.6 times their MSRP (the official retail price, 希望小売価格) for the cheapest sealed box on SNKRDUNK. Four 2025 sets ask more than three times MSRP, and 30th CELEBRATION traded at 3.6 times.

This is for a collector, in Japan or abroad, who keeps missing the release and wonders whether to wait, enter the lotteries or pay what resellers ask.

What the shortage looks like in prices

We compared the cheapest sealed box on SNKRDUNK for every set released since January 2025 with its MSRP from pokemon-card.com. Card Rush's own ask is shown for comparison.

CardMochi data. SNKRDUNK read 4 Oct 2026; Card Rush read 4 Oct, except Munikis Zero, Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia (3 Oct), and White Flare and Battle Partners (30 Sep). Box MSRP = MSRP per pack × packs per box (30 for an expansion, 20 for Black Bolt and White Flare, 10 for the high-class MEGA Dream ex). Asking prices, not sales.

30th CELEBRATION sits above all of these. SNKRDUNK's daily average for a sealed box was ¥26,203 on 2 Oct, 3.6 times its ¥7,200 MSRP, as our 30th CELEBRATION post found. Across all 74 Japanese sets we price, none asks less than MSRP (our box study).

So a shortage at the counter on release day does not mean a shortage of boxes. For an ordinary 2026 set, the person who missed the shelf pays a few thousand yen more on SNKRDUNK. The real squeeze is in sets collectors expect to rise: four of the 13 sets since January 2025 ask more than three times MSRP.

What The Pokémon Company is doing

Its notices on these measures don't use the word 転売 (resale); the ban sits in Pokémon Center Online's terms of use, which forbid buying goods to resell them for profit. They talk about "giving all customers a fair chance" (公平な機会) and ask fans considering flea-market purchases to "act calmly" (冷静な行動). The closest it has come to naming the problem was president Tsunekazu Ishihara (石原恒和) telling the BBC in March 2025 that "the business area that troubles us most has grown up outside us", and that there is "rather less we can do" about it.

What it does instead:

• Identity checks. From 3 Aug 2026, Players Club accounts can be verified with a My Number Card, one card per account, through a Digital Agency app; Pokémon Center Online lotteries use that status when the entry email matches (notice 005557). For 30th CELEBRATION, "most winning places" were reserved for verified entrants (notice 005510).
• Lotteries instead of shelves. Pokémon Center Tokyo DX and the company's Pokémon Card Store pop-ups sold 30th CELEBRATION by LINE lottery only, 10 packs per person, with no general sale planned so far.
• More rounds, not more boxes. In 2025 it announced extra production of Terastal Fest ex, Battle Partners, Black Bolt and White Flare. For 30th CELEBRATION it has announced no restock. It has run lottery rounds instead: the third ships from 18 to 30 Jan 2027, and Inside reports another for around December.

At Nintendo's June 2026 shareholder meeting, president Shuntaro Furukawa (古川俊太郎) listed the same tools: made-to-order sales, an agreement with a marketplace operator and planned My Number checks.

Shops and marketplaces set their own rules

Retailers have tightened limits on their own. Lawson allowed 30 packs per person for Inferno X in September 2025, 10 for Storm Emeralda in July 2026, and 5 per transaction for 30th CELEBRATION, with a notice that it "firmly refuses" purchases for resale. GEO's restock of 30th CELEBRATION packs is lottery-only "as an anti-resale measure": winners show ID with their address and a GEO membership card, and staff cut the shrink wrap at the till and keep the box. Yodobashi's online lottery requires two years of purchase history, and its head office told ENCOUNT it never sells to resellers.

The marketplaces split. Mercari banned listings of unopened 30th CELEBRATION packs from 16 Sep, and of all nine Card Sets opened or not, for as long as it judges safe trading can't be ensured. Yahoo! Auctions and Yahoo! Flea Market said on 15 Sep they would not ban it or cap its price, and Rakuma had no ban as of 23 Sep.

What the government is doing

There is no law to enforce. Japan's 2019 ticket act (チケット不正転売禁止法) covers only event tickets sold with a printed resale ban, a set date and a named seat or entrant. The lawyer Kensaku Fukui (福井健策) writes that "no law generally bans resale without permission". When an Upper House member raised Pokémon card resale in March 2024, the trade minister, Ken Saito (齋藤健), answered that the government shouldn't lightly intervene in prices and would keep watching, and made no commitment to legislate.

The politics moved this summer. On 23 Jul 2026 LDP lawmakers formed a trading-card caucus chaired by Seiji Kihara (木原誠二), to work on rules against hoarding for resale and counterfeits, according to Kyodo and Yomiuri. As of 5 Oct we found no bill or guideline from it.

Enforcement so far goes through other laws:

• Tax. Flipping profit is taxable, usually as miscellaneous income, per the National Tax Agency. In June 2025 the agency reported a criminal complaint against a seller who left trading-card sales on auction and flea-market sites off a consumption-tax return.
• Crime. Tokyo police re-arrested a man in October 2025 on suspicion of buying Pokémon cards with stolen credit-card details, and in February 2026 arrested two men on suspicion of theft and falsifying electronic records over improper Pokémon card purchases. Aomori police made the prefecture's first trademark arrest over fake cards in June 2026.
• Money laundering. The National Police Agency's November 2025 risk assessment lists trading cards among goods that scam proceeds are turned into and exported.

None of these cases is about reselling itself; they show where card money meets other crimes.

What this means for you

Chasing 30th CELEBRATION at MSRP: the lottery is the only route, and in practice it is for Japan residents. Pokémon Center Online ships to Japanese addresses only, and most winning places go to My Number-verified entrants. If you pay what resellers ask, chase prices can fall after release: Card Rush asked ¥1,280,000 for the red Mew on 16 Sep, per Gamepedia, and ¥648,000 (sold out) when we checked on 2 Oct, as our 30th CELEBRATION post found.

Missed a 2026 expansion: the cheapest SNKRDUNK box in our table asks 28% to 59% over MSRP, weeks or months after release, not double. Our data can't tell you whether waiting a week helps.

Waiting for the next lottery round: Inside reports a Pokémon Center Online lottery for around December (the January shipments are for a round that closed 16 Sep). No extra production has been announced. Our lottery calendar and lotteries guide track the dates and rules.

Listing sealed 30th CELEBRATION: Mercari won't take it; Yahoo! Auctions will. If you live in Japan, card profits are taxable income.

Method and limits

• Box prices are asking prices read by CardMochi on 4 Oct 2026: SNKRDUNK's lowest listing and Card Rush's in-stock ask. Neither is a sale. The 30th CELEBRATION figure is SNKRDUNK's own daily average for 2 Oct, from our earlier post.
• MSRPs are pokemon-card.com's suggested retail prices, tax included. Packs per box come from our box-size file, checked against shop and official listings.
• Company and shop measures are from their own notices; arrests and the caucus are from Japanese news reports. Reddit and X posts were read as signals, not used as facts.
• We found no official purchase limits for Seven-Eleven, FamilyMart, Aeon, Ito-Yokado, Bic Camera or Amazon.co.jp, so they are left out.

Sources

1. CardMochi data file pokemon-sealed-2026-10-05: box asks at Card Rush and SNKRDUNK for 74 Japanese sets, with MSRPs and packs per box, read 4 Oct 2026.
2. Pokémon Center Online terms of use (resale ban): pokemoncenter-online.com; The Pokémon Company, My Number verification on Players Club, notice 005557: pokemon-card.com; fair-chance notice 005450: pokemon-card.com; 30th CELEBRATION lottery, notice 005510: pokemon-card.com.
3. The Pokémon Company, extra production notices: Terastal Fest ex and Battle Partners 004833; Black Bolt and White Flare 005044.
4. Pokémon Center Online, third 30th CELEBRATION box lottery, shipping 18 to 30 Jan 2027: support.pokemoncenter-online.com; December round, Inside via Yahoo! News, 29 Sep 2026: news.yahoo.co.jp.
5. Pokémon Center Tokyo DX, 30th CELEBRATION lottery: shop.pokemon.co.jp; Pokémon Card Store lottery: shop.pokemon.co.jp.
6. Tsunekazu Ishihara interview, BBC News Japan, 5 Mar 2025: bbc.com/japanese.
7. Nintendo, 86th annual general meeting Q&A, June 2026: nintendo.co.jp.
8. Lawson, 30th CELEBRATION sale rules, 8 Sep 2026: lawson.co.jp; Storm Emeralda, 21 Jul 2026: lawson.co.jp; Inferno X, 16 Sep 2025: lawson.co.jp.
9. GEO, 30th CELEBRATION restock lottery, notice 785: geo-online.co.jp.
10. Yodobashi head office, quoted by ENCOUNT, 1 Oct 2026: encount.press.
11. Mercari, listing ban on 30th CELEBRATION products: about.mercari.com; help-centre notice: jp-news.mercari.com.
12. Yahoo! Auctions, no ban or price cap, 15 Sep 2026: auctions.yahoo.co.jp; Rakuma, quoted by Shūkan Josei PRIME, 23 Sep 2026: news.yahoo.co.jp.
13. Government PR Online, the ticket resale act: gov-online.go.jp; Kensaku Fukui, Kotto-dori Law Office: kottolaw.com; Upper House committee minutes, 22 Mar 2024: kokkai.ndl.go.jp.
14. Trading-card caucus, Kyodo via Okinawa Times, 23 Jul 2026: okinawatimes.co.jp; Yomiuri, 23 Jul 2026: yomiuri.co.jp.
15. National Tax Agency, flea-market and auction income FAQ: keisan.nta.go.jp; FY2024 criminal tax investigation summary, 18 Jun 2025: nta.go.jp.
16. Arrests: stolen credit cards, Jiji, 16 Oct 2025: jiji.com; fake Pokémon Center Online accounts, Kyodo via NNA, 6 Feb 2026: nna.jp; fake cards in Aomori, ABA, June 2026: aba-net.com.
17. National Police Agency, money-laundering risk assessment, 27 Nov 2025: npa.go.jp.
18. Gamepedia (攻略大百科), 30th CELEBRATION price history: premium.gamepedia.jp.

Researched with AI tools, checked and edited by the CardMochi team. Prices are Japanese shop asking prices on the date shown. About CardMochi · How we price