Last time it was chiikawa, not only a couple weeks ago.
We literally all knew this was going to happen. They did it on purpose or they suck at management. Either way they’re morons.
No one could have seen this coming right? ……
There are a million ways they could have stopped this: only distributed them after finishing the meal, only sold them to kids under 12, only one per person, the list goes on.
This was entirely expected.
Imagine that
Some form of Japanese Residence ID should be presented before purchase.
Edit: Chinese downvoting me, sad.
Considering what happened with the Chiikawa stuff, I’m surprised (but also not) that they still did basically nothing to prevent it.
Instead of making it a 3 day limited event, they could’ve made it a 2 week event with plenty of cards to go around which would make them less rare and less worthwhile for resellers. Ultimately though, the resellers suck. It’s extra rude that they’re just dumping the food on the side of the street.
McDonalds should consider apologising by releasing another hundred million or so of these card packs and devalue the lot so that resellers think twice in the future.
So now the ones that did manage to get there can sell it for even more of a profit? Lmao nice job guys.
I knew this would happen, so we had McDonald’s for breakfast on Saturday. Managed to get my kids their cards and they were super happy.
We passed by a different McDonald’s while going about our day around noon and that place was sold out already.
I’d be like “golly gee hope they’ll work that one out,” but they clearly didn’t figure it out for the last two rushes that ended up in the news here (Chiikawa and Kirby).
Pokémon in a nutshell these days.
I’m not sure why they didn’t just make these purchasable via the app only. Our daughter got one yesterday but almost all her friends weren’t able to and are disappointed. This is supposed to be for kids and a bunch of greedy adults ruined it for them.
I went to McDonald’s on Saturday, and while I didn’t realize it at the time, a food runner came back to the counter with a full tray of small fries and juice boxes telling the manager that the customer had said they didn’t want them.
I guess they got the cards and F the food. What a waste.
why are people scalping fucking mcdonald’s pokemon cards? So you can try and sell a card that every other mcdonald’s also offered? It’s not rare at all
No one could have anticipated that Pokémon would be so popular.
The implied amount of food waste this created low key made me mad. I hope at least the scalpers gave the food away to others at least.
On mercari looks like some people are selling 100 packs which means they ordered 100 happy meals. Kinda crazy how that is possible. Either insider trading or very experienced scalper. I mean, these are being bought for 25man or so.
They knew what they were doing with this
Well thats the most ‘non-apology fuck you we got paid’ announcement I’ve ever heard lol.
20 comments
The promotion for the cards [was meant](https://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/company/news/2025/0804a/) to run from Saturday, August 9th to Monday, August 11th. You get [2 cards](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv0XYZJW0AARmu0?format=jpg&name=orig) with the purchase of a Pokémon happy meal. A few days ago [they announced sales were limited to 5 per person](https://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/company/info/2025/0804a/), and yesterday they announced [it had ended the same day it was set to start](https://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/company/info/2025/0809b/).
I don’t know to what extent it happened, but on social media there are many images circulating of [long lines](https://x.com/yodoyakeiko/status/1954024062893920377) and [piles of un-eaten food](https://x.com/Daiyamato69/status/1954102074129658324).
—
Here are some other sources:
– [Bloomberg Japan](https://www.bloomberg.co.jp/news/articles/2025-08-10/T0R3YYGP493400)
– [Oricon](https://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2400420/full/)
– [Gamerant](https://gamerant.com/mcdonalds-pokemon-cards-toys-sold-out/)
– [The Gamer](https://www.thegamer.com/mcdonalds-pokemon-cards-japan-happy-meals-food-waste/)
Last time it was chiikawa, not only a couple weeks ago.
We literally all knew this was going to happen. They did it on purpose or they suck at management. Either way they’re morons.
No one could have seen this coming right? ……
There are a million ways they could have stopped this: only distributed them after finishing the meal, only sold them to kids under 12, only one per person, the list goes on.
This was entirely expected.
Imagine that
Some form of Japanese Residence ID should be presented before purchase.
Edit: Chinese downvoting me, sad.
Considering what happened with the Chiikawa stuff, I’m surprised (but also not) that they still did basically nothing to prevent it.
Instead of making it a 3 day limited event, they could’ve made it a 2 week event with plenty of cards to go around which would make them less rare and less worthwhile for resellers. Ultimately though, the resellers suck. It’s extra rude that they’re just dumping the food on the side of the street.
McDonalds should consider apologising by releasing another hundred million or so of these card packs and devalue the lot so that resellers think twice in the future.
So now the ones that did manage to get there can sell it for even more of a profit? Lmao nice job guys.
I knew this would happen, so we had McDonald’s for breakfast on Saturday. Managed to get my kids their cards and they were super happy.
We passed by a different McDonald’s while going about our day around noon and that place was sold out already.
I’d be like “golly gee hope they’ll work that one out,” but they clearly didn’t figure it out for the last two rushes that ended up in the news here (Chiikawa and Kirby).
Pokémon in a nutshell these days.
I’m not sure why they didn’t just make these purchasable via the app only. Our daughter got one yesterday but almost all her friends weren’t able to and are disappointed. This is supposed to be for kids and a bunch of greedy adults ruined it for them.
I went to McDonald’s on Saturday, and while I didn’t realize it at the time, a food runner came back to the counter with a full tray of small fries and juice boxes telling the manager that the customer had said they didn’t want them.
I guess they got the cards and F the food. What a waste.
why are people scalping fucking mcdonald’s pokemon cards? So you can try and sell a card that every other mcdonald’s also offered? It’s not rare at all
No one could have anticipated that Pokémon would be so popular.
The implied amount of food waste this created low key made me mad. I hope at least the scalpers gave the food away to others at least.
On mercari looks like some people are selling 100 packs which means they ordered 100 happy meals. Kinda crazy how that is possible. Either insider trading or very experienced scalper. I mean, these are being bought for 25man or so.
They knew what they were doing with this
Well thats the most ‘non-apology fuck you we got paid’ announcement I’ve ever heard lol.