Current Events > Scalpers are depriving children of their McDonald's Happy Meal Pokemon cards.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/02/scalpers_and_collectors_buy_up_mcdonalds_pokemon_happy_meals

This is why we can't have anything nice. Kids across the US are unable to get their hands on any of the 50 Pokmon cards included in McDonald's Happy Meals this month to celebrate Pokmon's 25th anniversary, since eBay scalpers have been buying up the packs in bulk. Since some of the cards are rare holographic versions, it's no surprise - but it is disappointing.

It seems like many adults are heading to McDonald's to purchase the cards en masse without the Happy Meals themselves - something that is relatively common when certain Happy Meal toys are in high demand - and some are intercepting entire boxes of the things before they even make it to restaurants.

https://twitter.com/jimmybond613/status/1359191686870667264

Over on eBay, full boxes are selling for upwards of $800 (~580) and individual sealed packs are selling for around $5 to $20 (~4 to 15) each. The only way that these boxes could be in the hands of sellers is either a back-alley deal with an employee, or the employee is the seller. Either way, not a great look for McDonald's.

Some Pokmon fans are encouraging generosity alongside their card hunt, asking other people to at least donate the meals to the homeless.

https://twitter.com/JT_Valor/status/1359210864717541378

For the record, we have nothing against adults buying Pokmon cards. We are, in fact, adults, and we have to cut all our sandwiches into Pikachu shapes or we won't eat them. Still, it seems like it's going to be a disappointing month for kids who love Pokmon, and aren't trying to make a quick buck.

It's especially scummy how some are outright swiping the entire box of the cards to sell on eBay.

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Some quick math suggests that dude bought 100 kids meals in that picture.

At a certain point, the employees working at that McDonalds needed to just tell that guy to fuck off.

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buddhamonster posted...

Some quick math suggests that dude bought 100 kids meals in that picture.

At a certain point, the employees working at that McDonalds needed to just tell that guy to fuck off.

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Scalping with everything is only going to get worse. Anything that makes a quick buck quickly gets flooded.

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demand has been outpacing supply in many card markets for years, now. there are some basketball products that resell for 20x the retail cost.

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@SquirtleSkwad is this related?

There used to be a used comic book shop in my neighborhood. The guy who owned it was always happy when my mom brought my older brothers in (it was before my time) to buy comics because he was so disheartened by how many customers were just people looking to make a buck by flipping the books.

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Shablagoo posted...

There used to be a used comic book shop in my neighborhood. The guy who owned it was always happy when my mom brought my older brothers in (it was before my time) to buy comics because he was so disheartened by how many customers were just people looking to make a buck by flipping the books.

McDonald's knows exactly what they're doing, because this exact thing has been happening for over 30 years that I'm aware of. Anyone remember when Beanie Babies were part of the happy meals?

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Limit the number of happy meals per person. You should not be able to buy as many as the guy in that picture.

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Shablagoo posted...

There used to be a used comic book shop in my neighborhood. The guy who owned it was always happy when my mom brought my older brothers in (it was before my time) to buy comics because he was so disheartened by how many customers were just people looking to make a buck by flipping the books.

lol, yeah. the store i worked at was still listed as a comics store, but the regulars knew we dropped new issues years ago. but it was obvious anytime a "special" issue would be coming out, because we'd get dozens of extra calls from randoms asking if we had any in stock. and they always tried to play it off as any other issue, so that they could make the difference between retail price and market price.

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smoke_break posted...

Limit the number of happy meals per person. You should not be able to buy as many as the guy in that picture.

Why not?

They're a business, if you're a paying customer then they're going to give it to you.

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The efficiency of capitalism on full display.

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smoke_break posted...

Limit the number of happy meals per person. You should not be able to buy as many as the guy in that picture.

Mcdonald's doesn't give a shit that kids aren't going to be able to get their pokemon cards, they only want money.

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Vicious_Dios posted...

Why not?

They're a business, if you're a paying customer then they're going to give it to you.

Pretty much
The only reason they do this is to sell more happy meals

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How do they buy the cards without the happy meals?

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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

How do they buy the cards without the happy meals?

You can just outright but the toys from them.

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DB_Insider posted...

@SquirtleSkwad is this related?

Yessir.

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