Pokémon TCG Resale Banned on Yahoo! Flea Market in Japan

LINE Yahoo! and the Pokémon Trading Card Game have announced a ban on reselling certain Pokémon TCG products through Yahoo! Flea Market and Yahoo! Auctions, according to screenrant.com. The restriction applies in Japan and covers the two Yahoo! marketplaces only.

Under the ban, prohibited listings include Pokémon cards sold in carton quantities, empty Pokémon card boxes and packs, and mass listings of the same card during a set period after its release. The measures target listings tied to newly released products rather than single-card trading in general.

The Pokémon Company will share information with Yahoo! about products and distribution that could lead to trouble or inappropriate transactions in the secondary market, giving the marketplace operator advance detail on releases likely to attract bulk buying.

No equivalent resale ban has been announced for US sites such as eBay or TCGPlayer, so the restrictions currently stop at the Japanese market.

Pressure on retailers

As of last month, the Pokémon TCG 30th Celebration set was being scalped and resold, straining retailers. The set also saw many scalpers lose money or barely break even because of the large amount of product made. The official Pokémon Center and many other online retailers have started using a lottery system to fight scalping.