This is why we can't have anything nice. Kids across the US are unable to get their hands on any of the 50 Pokémon cards included in McDonald's Happy Meals this month to celebrate Pokémon'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.
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 Pokémon fans are encouraging generosity alongside their card hunt, asking other people to at least donate the meals to the homeless.
For the record, we have nothing against adults buying Pokémon 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 Pokémon, and aren't trying to make a quick buck.
Have you managed to get your mitts on any cards? Did you kick any children out of the way while doing so? Tell us your experience in the comments.
[source polygon.com]
Comments 83
This is why I drive a 4x4, it makes it easier to mow down groups of children on my way to scalp Pokemon cards and ruin their day.
Scalpers gonna scalp.
That's really cruel of the scalpers. Hate them now, even worse was the PS5 stock situation
Bruh! That's so wrong!
This is disgusting
Supposedly grown men scalping Pokémon Happy Meals? Pfff... pathetic.
Should've kept the Hasbro toys.
Scum. Nintendo life wants me to add more, so, these people are scum.
@acNewUpdates Don't forget the Mario pin set.
@infernogott I logged in to like this.
Hi Kate. Did you get your happy meal?
Collectors I get, but scalpers ... hell no!
In Australia, they'll happily sell you the toys for $2 a pop (I think I grabbed a few series of Nintendo-themed toys, including a Pokémon set for my brother back in 2012/2013, which also came with exclusive promo cards).
No need to eat the obscenely processed garbage that they pass off as "food".
It's absolutely disgusting that "adults" are effectively taking toys away from children though.
And I hope to God that that Battleship fool doesn't get a replacement for the toys. Don't you know that you ALWAYS need to check what's in the bag when buying from McDonald's?
Burger King isn't having this problem, are they?
I got a Luigi toy yesterday just fine...
Shame on you scalpers!!! There's a special place in bowsers castle for people like you.
@SquidOnTheRise apparently, the Happy Meal toy in Canada is currently the Rubik's Cube. I do not want or need another Rubik's Cube!
adrive bought 100 of them so disgusting
More like Unhappy meals.
I'll have 2000 happy meals please, hold the meals.
I'm sorry, but I can't take any of this very seriously. These people are scalping fricking HAPPY MEALS?! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
But seriously, the lengths some people go to...
While everyone is making fun of them for scalping happy meals, they are selling the boxes for nearly $1000.
I don’t approve of scalping, but you can’t deny that’s a good return on investment.
NINJA IS CONFLICTED, APPROVAL PENDING
@nessisonett That sounds like such an a-hole thing to admit to, I'm glad you're joking...
I assume the reasoning is because base set cards are being sold at high rates. Due to that, people have been scalping everything pokemon card related, despite the current sets having cards of little to no value..
I'd just buy the cards separately, personally. Definitely not at this scale. This is scalping gone WAY too far.
This is a new low. Like seriously low. I mean... I have had phone calls from people in Nigeria trying to con me out of money, and I have more 'fellow-feeling' for them than I do to the people who are doing this. I'm not against scalpers in general, but what are they going to do next? Buy all the wheelchairs they can and then scalp those to the kids that can't walk? They might as well because this is only one step away from that.
Kudos to the guy who actually goes to give his food to the homeless. It's a shame his account had to be bundled with this article.
@LavaTwilight Yeah he's a veritable Robin Hood stealing from the kids and giving to the poor.
So that explains why my kid didn’t get a Pokémon meal this week. For family reasons we had to travel and that should have been a bright spot in an otherwise hard week for him. Thanks, may the IRS and State tax people find you and tax the pants off the returns on your “investment”.
@LavaTwilight
but what are they going to do next? Buy all the wheelchairs they can and then scalp those to the kids that can't walk?
Feb/9/2021....
The day on NintendoLife that Pokemon trading cards were compared to wheelchairs for disabled children....
These scalpers do it for the money, how easy would it be to make that impossible? For instance limit reselling "new" items by law.
Also @nintendolife don't give these people a podium. That only gives them the attention they want and more people will start doing this scummy stuff.
Can you only get these Pokemon-happy meals in the US?
You can also eat the 10 happy meals you know
@ThanosReXXX Pls snap them out of existence. I beg you lol.
F U scalpers I mean ps5 is one thing but kids meals REALLY?
@KillerBOB It's context asking how far they will go, the scalpers.
Right now it's just entertainment products: Next-gen consoles, graphics cards, Happy Meal toys, etc. But it raises the question if somebody would be willing to scalp up necessary or essential products for profit. And the fact that people will go out of their way to go to a McDonalds and mass buy Happy Meals shows that they will go farther than previously thought.
So one should ask themselves. WOULD these scalpers buy up something necessary for the sake of profit? I think some would.
Bad Karma will bite them.
Their effort to scalp all Happy Meal toys will be as curse for them.
I put a condemn on them, just wait and see they will suffer.
More than anything, this shows how poorly we pay those workers. That stealing boxes of Pokemon happy meal boxes is ***** worth the risk. I don't blame them.
@YunaMars Well, you asked...
Man's search for meaning and purpose ... pokemon cards?
Some people just never seize to surprise me. What a waste of time and energy lol.
@ThanosReXXX Take my like
@YunaMars Thank you, fellow NLife member...
kudos for that guy for giving away the food (or at least that's what he says) but c'mon bruh just print the card haha
Who cares about a happy meal box?
This is just disturbing at this point.
@JustMe and women just as much.
I remember the quality of McDonald's when I was a lid, it was crap back then and still is.
It's amusing to see people get full crazy about some crap quality toys...
This is disgusting. I'm a die hard Pokemon fan, have been since the day it came out in the US over 2 decades ago. But this kind of behavior, that denies kids and fellow fans a chance to have fun is just sad.
Fans don't do this. These are people just looking to take advantage of fans. Greedy, selfish behavior.
Remember years ago, when we got happy meals based on the first movie and there wasn't a scalper in sight? Good times.
The last tweet doesn't exist anymore :/
@sanderev How do you enforce a law like that? American police already harass and attack people enough as it is. They don't need another excuse to control everyone's lives. And there's a difference between an honest resale and people buying in such bulk that no one else can get them for the sole purpose of reselling them at a higher price.
McDonald's and Pokemon (and other companies experiencing scalping issues) should limit sales per customer. Limit 2 per customer. That way people can still possibly make a couple bucks but it shouldn't prevent most people from a fair shot at buying themselves. This is where the law should be, regulate companies, not people.
@tkdboy1889
Some already done that in the U.S. during a national lockdown lastv year and scalpers got into legal trouble with the FBI.
Adult does not equal scalper nor does collector. I bought a LEGO AT-AT and the sales assistant inferred I was taking away a child’s Christmas present. 🤦🏻♂️
Gotta scalp em all
Hamburglar finally reached a new low lol 😂
@KillerBOB yeah ok that escalated quickly... but the point was, how much further would they go? What sort of people will scalp hundreds of pokemon cards for profit and leave other kids disappointed?
@Fandabidozi Wow! You should complain to the manager.
@Dr_Lugae I don't understand how he stole? He purchased them for himself, he paid money for it through legitimate means only what he needed. He's not reselling them. If an adult buys a happy meal at any time, he's not stealing from kids is he? Unless I've missed something I don't see what that guy did wrong?
@LinktotheFuture @Fandabidozi me too. Lego really is targeted to 2 types of people, kids and AFOLs... otherwise why would they release the Expert sets, limited editions and actually keep one box of each and every set ever released in their HQ in the Netherlands? If the store assistant knew a family were coming back to buy their last Lego At-At, they had no right to say that.
@tkdboy1889 don't forget at the start of the pandemic last year in many countries scalpers were buying both hand sanitiser and toilet paper in huge quantities and trying to sell them for huge profits. Scalping has become far too easy. What is equally as bad here is that McDonald's employees are taking advantage of this and stealing the unopened boxes to either some dodgy person who offered them money quickly or to sell online themselves.
Should've set an age limit, and up to two per kid. It disgusts me to see adults (who clearly never grew up) take away every last unit, leaving none for the kids.
@HyruleanKnight an age limit? How would that work if a childs parent is picking up the happy meal and their child isn't with them at the time? Would they refuse service?
@ThanosReXXX Can you snap kids some happy meals?
Scalpers aren't people.
@Zenszulu I didn't consider the times we're living in right now. Fair enough. There should still be a limit of two per person.
@HyruleanKnight it's not even the times we live in parents also often pick up food on their way from work or other places so it would be impractical even if there wasn't a global pandemic.
@Silly_G There are many people in the world who survive by eating the kind of food you refer to as garbage. Hopefully you'll never find yourself in a situation in which you'd do anything for a fast food burger. People who talk that way about food genuinely disgust me.
@Kevember : I could say the same of people who defend corporate greed.
I do not need to disclose the deeds that I choose to be discreet about, but hey, make sweeping assumptions about people you don't know a damn thing about by characterising me as if I am somehow pro-famine because poor little McDonald's should dare be criticised for their misdeeds.
And you're the one trivalising poverty and famine by conflating these issues with my opposition to multibillion dollar corporations who use the worst of ingredients (when they can damn well afford to use the best) to the detriment of the health of the very patrons who put bread on THEIR tables. Or does that not disgust you?
I suppose not. You're lovin' it.™
@KayFiOS I went thru this entire comment section just hoping for a good Hamburglar Joke. Well Done my friend 💯
...I also would've accepted Team Rocket
@Silly_G You totally missed the point, dude. I'm talking about people who insult food. Most people are closer to homelessness/poverty that they would like to believe. I hope it never happens to you, but if it does, I assure you you'll never refer to any kind of food as garbage again.
It's like the scam artist selling a Magikarp, because they're quite rare. What a joke. I hope the Sonic fan base never have to go through this when they get the LEGO Sonic Mania Green Hill Zone set, or the Sonic Encyclo-Speed-ia., or even the eventual Sonic Collection hitting the Switch.
Giving McDonald's to the homeless?'
That's just adding insult to injury.
Big congrats to JTValor with his generous charity work, I hope he was able to gain lots of likes and followers from these actions!
It is not the scalpers we should be shaming. It is the people who are buying from the scalpers who keep them in business.
@Snatcher I can only remove 50% of the population, NOT un-snap their meaningless trinkets...
im not interested in these at all but dang
screw scalpers, man
@LavaTwilight agreed. a scalper i would respect is if they buy up all of one thing (consoles, games, etc.) and sell them at the normal price just so people can get them. like robin hood scalpers idk. this is just disgusting tho
I like the boxes. But why? Why would you try to gamestop stock happy meals?
Cheapskate... Could've at least got the homeless cheeseburgers instead of hamburgers. Boring!
All of you whiney beeshes complaining about scalpers are missing the obvious villain here: McDonalds.
You mean to tell me this multibillion dollar corporation who spends millions researching trends and revenue increase strategies couldn’t have anticipated scalpers?
McDonalds was purposely lazy on security and didn’t enforce purchasing limits because they KNEW this was going to happen. They allowed the controversy to happen so that it will generate the buzz and publicity, which result in more sale$$$.
Now that all of the snowflake parents are up in arms fighting for their rights to feed their kids highly processed junk food, McD will now clamp down on the scalping by limiting number of happy meals per customer and keep a closer eye on their employees (maybe).
But seriously folks, feed your children healthier foods and buy a pack of pokemon cards separately for Christ’s sake.
@nessisonett Don't lie. You know most of those people you hit were middle-aged men. I mean, we are talking about Pokemon here.
Laise a faire capitalism at its finest.
Late to this but as a collector and healthy eater this disgusts me even more than the food itself. This is collecting at it's worst..
https://chng.it/QbrNHxQCY7
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