Pokemon has reached its thirtieth anniversary, yet this supposedly grand celebration has unexpectedly gone awry.

Recently, Pokemon's "390 Yuan Collection Display Gift Box" went on sale, but an absurd situation emerged across multiple offline card gyms nationwide where customers who won the purchase lottery found no products available.

On social media platforms, players from Beijing, Harbin, Shenzhen, and many other cities reported that the official lottery system had an "over-issued quota" problem.

Many consumers posted questions challenging why Pokemon officials, knowing the number of lottery winners, failed to stock products accordingly, leaving consumers unable to redeem their eligibility upon arriving at stores.

One player stated bluntly, "For a two-day event, products were gone by the first afternoon. What's the point of the lottery then?"

What angered them even more was that the gift boxes they couldn't buy despite winning the lottery appeared in large quantities in scalper livestreams and on secondhand platforms at the same time, being publicly sold at premium prices—the original 390 Yuan Pokemon commemorative gift box has now been hyped to nearly double its price.

Regarding the above situation, our team called a Pokemon official card gym in Beijing as a consumer to inquire about the "over-issued quota" situation. The response from staff differed significantly from the understanding of many fans regarding "winning the lottery." The staff member pointed out, "What you win through the lottery is the purchase eligibility for limited-purchase products, not a guarantee that all products are in stock. It just means you have the qualification to purchase our 30th anniversary related products, which can be understood as first-come, first-served."

As for whether related products will be sold again later, they stated they "have not received specific notice yet."

On September 25, Pokemon's offline channel "Pokemon 30th Anniversary Celebration" products went on sale again. Notably, the aforementioned "390 Yuan commemorative gift box" was not included in this sale. Pokemon officials only stated that "this product will be sold again at a later date."

Some players told our team, "The lottery system was supposed to suppress scalpers, but over-issued quotas combined with limited stocking has instead created more room for gray market transactions. This is extremely unfair to regular players, and the experience is very poor."

Other players revealed that some local stores experienced uncontrolled on-site order due to the above issues, with some even choosing to call the police.

Lottery Winners Find No Products, Players Make Futile Trips

In mid-September, when Allen (pseudonym) learned he had won the purchase eligibility for Pokemon 30th Anniversary Celebration limited-purchase products, he recalled "shouting out with joy."

He said, "Because the quota is very precious and the popularity is huge, not winning is usually the norm."

This year, Pokemon celebrates its thirtieth anniversary and has launched a series of 30th anniversary limited products. Among them, the "Pokemon 30th Anniversary Collection Display Gift Box" became a star product in many players' minds. "This gift box has a chance to pull out very expensive cards, and also many good-looking cards worth collecting. Plus the first batch quantity wasn't large, so everyone was rushing to pre-order," Allen said.

It is understood that the gift box's official suggested retail price is 390 Yuan, containing two limited holographic cards, 15 packs of "30th Anniversary Celebration" booster packs, and refrigerator magnets and other products, with high collectible value.

According to design logic, the lottery system should be a technical means to curb scalpers: by limiting purchase eligibility, combined with strict identity verification, and limiting popular products to one box per person, genuine players can get purchase opportunities.

However, reality moved in the opposite direction. After work that day, Allen rushed to the local Pokemon gym at the officially designated time, only to be told "the 390 gift box is already out of stock."

He told our team, "It's very hard to accept this result. For a two-day event, products were gone by the first afternoon. This is like a joke. What's the point of us winning the lottery then?"

He recalled that many lottery winners queuing alongside him were reporting the "over-selling" problem, with no small number expressing dissatisfaction. On-site staff explained that "this product's stock quantity was insufficient" and stated "there probably won't be restocking."

Allen's experience was not an isolated case. On social media platforms, a large number of players from across the country posted feedback that for Pokemon's 30th anniversary event, the official lottery system released significantly more winning quotas than actual stock quantities.

Winners who arrived at stores at agreed times were told that popular items were "already sold out." Some netizens revealed that gyms in Beijing, Fuzhou, Harbin, Hefei, Shenzhen, and other cities declared no stock within half a day of the event starting, with lottery winners making futile trips.

Some local stores also experienced uncontrolled on-site order due to the above issues, with some consumers choosing to call the police.

Scalpers Rampant, Popular Products Hyped to Double Price

The aforementioned Pokemon players told our team that the core problem is not "supply falling short of demand" or "first-come, first-served," because the popularity of 30th anniversary products was predictable. The problem is that Pokemon officials, knowing the number of lottery winners, failed to stock products accordingly, leaving consumers unable to redeem their eligibility upon arriving at stores.

Industry analyst Zhang Shule told our team that the reason for "winning the lottery but finding no products" may be a misalignment between rule-making and actual sales execution. "As the global brand with the deepest operations in the ACG merchandise field, Pokemon's problem may indicate some management loopholes in its China operations team, which caused the over-issued quota problem that should have been unlikely to occur. But this is not hunger marketing or traffic strategy, just operational flaws."

Many players also questioned Pokemon China's operational capabilities. Pokemon player Xiaomeng said, "Pokemon events are terrifyingly chaotic overall."

She revealed that recently, Pokemon's official online store also launched a 30th anniversary celebration "payment lottery" activity, with three lottery products: the Collector Figure Gift Box Charizard Set, the Collection Display Gift Box Espeon ex & Umbreon ex, and the Phantom Future Commemorative Gift Box. The official description stated that lottery results would be announced at 10:00 on September 20, and products would only be shipped to winners.

"But the results that should have been announced at 10 AM on September 20 showed no news when the time came. Customer service said the number of participants far exceeded expectations and the system data volume was too large, requiring time. But why couldn't they notify us in advance instead of consuming players' time and expectations like this?"

Xiaomeng also said, "If you insist on holding lottery activities, the most important thing is that the entire process is open and transparent, but now we can only feel chaos."

What angered players even more was that large quantities of products did not flow to lottery winners, but appeared on secondhand trading platforms at prices far exceeding retail prices. Our team's search found that Pokemon's "390 Yuan Collection Display Gift Box" has been hyped to double its price on secondhand trading platforms.

"The reason this product is so popular is also because the premium is quite high. Currently, the secondary market can sell for about 650-700 Yuan, and some have opened cards worth tens of thousands of Yuan," Allen introduced.

Regarding this 30th anniversary celebration event, a large number of players raised the same question on social media platforms: Since only lottery winners can purchase, each time slot is limited to 20 to 40 people entering, and each person is limited to one box, how exactly did the products sell out?

In the comments section, many pointed fingers at the rampant scalper problem. Some players posted that they spotted many professional scalpers while queuing to enter, and questioned whether large quantities of products flowed directly from gym warehouses to the secondary market, but this claim has not been confirmed by officials.

In Allen's view, this skepticism is not entirely unfounded. When lottery quotas are over-issued and actual stock is insufficient, the system itself creates operational space for gray market transactions: who gets products first and where products flow lack transparent mechanisms.

"Actually, account registration has no restrictions, only requiring real-name verification. On-site, you could see many elderly people queuing, which should be scalpers' 'human wave tactics.' Out of 1000 accounts, some will always win. This is also exploiting loopholes."

The Pokemon Company is not unaware of the severity of the scalper problem. In the Japanese market, its card specialty stores have implemented mandatory identity verification, facial recognition entry, and one entry per person per day and other anti-scalper measures; meanwhile, Pokemon and secondhand trading platform Mercari have established cooperation since 2023. Mercari recently issued temporary rules prohibiting the listing of unopened booster packs and card deck gift boxes from the Pokemon 30th anniversary series on the platform, with violating products being removed and serious cases potentially resulting in account bans.

However, most of the above anti-scalper measures are implemented in Japan. By comparison, the enforcement and public transparency of related controls in the Chinese market show a certain gap.

Zhang Shule told our team that Pokemon IP's premium capability has always been outstanding among ACG merchandise. The emergence of extremely high premiums in the secondary market is not surprising. However, this premium itself does not carry true value—it is just fans' love-powered support for the IP and manufacturers' "artificially created" scarcity that triggers secondary market speculation.

"In the Chinese market, Pokemon indeed has tremendous influence, but in the domestic trendy toy market, especially with various Chinese card companies rising, excessively eye-popping premiums may dampen fans' enthusiasm. If Pokemon wants to incubate the Chinese market, it should use less hunger marketing and more creative cards to entice, which would be more effective."

Rapid Expansion, Offline Stores Surged in the Past Year

A Pokemon card craze is sweeping the globe. An index compiled by Collectors, the parent company of card rating agency Professional Sports Authenticator, shows that Pokemon card prices have surged 1350% cumulatively since 2020. In 2025, Pokemon card sales on eBay alone reached 2.62 billion USD.

On social media, scenes of people rushing to buy card packs can be seen everywhere, and there have even been cases of violent robbery of store cards. In January this year, a Pokemon card store in Manhattan, New York was stormed by three armed robbers, with cards worth over 110,000 USD stolen.

Rare card resale prices also far exceed original prices, with top rare cards fetching millions of USD. Influencer Logan Paul purchased a rare Pikachu illustrator card for slightly over 5 million USD in 2021 and sold it for over 16 million USD in February this year. This month, a post on X platform also claimed that a Pokemon card sold for 2.7 million USD at auction.

In the Chinese market, this is no longer a niche hobby, and Pokemon China's business territory is growing larger. Public information shows that Pokemon (Shanghai) Toys Co., Ltd. was established in July 2020 and is a subsidiary of The Pokemon Company. It is responsible for brand management, IP licensing, market promotion, TV animation broadcasting, film releases, and related work.

Pokemon is an IP based on a game released in 1996 and is now one of the world's most popular entertainment IPs. Pokemon China's offline layout is rapidly expanding. On September 12 alone, four Pokemon official card gyms opened simultaneously in Beijing Chaoyang (Nosepass), Hangzhou Gongshu (Ledyba), Shanghai Nanxiang (Poliwhirl), and Tianjin, with four cities connected in one day.

Statistics show that in fall 2026 alone, 8 new gyms will open successively in Hefei, Nanjing, Qingdao, Wenzhou, Dalian, Dongguan, and other cities. As of now, Pokemon has 30 offline gyms in China. Over the past year, the country has seen a net increase of 26 offline gyms, basically covering the core commercial districts of first-tier and new first-tier cities.

As of now, 18 cities nationwide have Pokemon official card gyms, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Changsha, Fuzhou, Wenzhou, Shenyang, Dalian, Qingdao, Harbin, and Nanjing.

Zhang Shule said that as the world's strongest money-making ACG super IP (bar none), Pokemon spans games, animation, trendy toys, and almost infinite scenarios and unlimited consumer categories in its derivative chain (including collaborations), and has always been a role model for global ACG IPs to learn from.

He stated, "Offline gyms, as its physical stores, carry multiple functions including sales and fan socializing. Under Pokemon's super popularity, rapid expansion in the Chinese market is not surprising. In fact, Pop Mart in trendy toys, Kayou in cards, and miHoYo in ACG games cannot directly compete with Pokemon in terms of scale, energy, and global heat. Moreover, in derivative types, domestic ACG companies mostly specialize in single fields and should learn more from Pokemon's already-achieved 'infinite derivatives.'"