The Pokémon Company will restrict sales of several premium Pokémon Trading Card Game items to Japanese citizens only, requiring official government ID to combat rampant scalping. Buyers will need to verify their identity using Japan's Digital Identification App alongside their My Number Card, marking the company's first-ever ID-guarded purchase restrictions on its online store. The move follows growing frustration across the collectables industry, where high-demand card products and merchandise are routinely bought up by resellers and flipped for inflated prices.

The restricted items include the Mega Expansion Pack 30th Celebration Box (7,200 yen, roughly $46), the Mega 30th Celebration Futuristic Box (27,500 yen, about $174), the Espeon and Umbreon Premium Deck Set (6,200 yen, around $39), and the Mega 30th Celebration Card Set (10,800 yen, roughly $68). The policy follows earlier anti-scalping measures such as facial recognition checks at Japanese card shops, and was foreshadowed in July by Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa. Scalping remains a wider problem in collectables, with recent examples including Disney Lorcana card chaos in the US and Europe, and inflated resale prices for One Piece bento boxes and Pokémon Pop-Tarts.