Nintendo addresses Pokémon Trading Card Game scalping through a multi-pronged approach that combines government identification verification, direct-to-consumer sales controls, production expansion, and agreements with online resellers. In Japan, the primary enforcement mechanism rolling out in August 2026 requires verification of My Number Cards—Japan’s government-issued ID—via smartphone scanning for priority lottery purchases and select Pokémon Centre Online sales, ensuring that individual buyers rather than resellers gain access to limited products. This represents one of the most aggressive anti-scalping initiatives the Pokémon Company has implemented, reflecting years of frustration where demand has consistently outpaced supply despite record production levels.
The scalping crisis emerged because Pokémon TCG demand exploded beyond production capacity starting in 2021, with resellers using bots and bulk purchasing strategies to corner limited inventory. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has publicly acknowledged the Pokémon Company’s anti-scalping efforts in shareholder meetings and expressed confidence that continued measures will address the problem. The combination of ID verification in Japan, purchase limits at retail locations worldwide, queue-based website systems, and fundamental supply expansion suggests Nintendo recognizes this issue requires simultaneous action on multiple fronts—legal, technological, and operational.
Table of Contents
- Why Has Production Increased Despite Ongoing Shortages?
- Government ID Verification in Japan—How It Works and Its Limitations
- Multi-Channel Anti-Scalping Agreements and Direct Sales
- The Trade-Off Between Access and Pricing Power
- Enforcement Gaps and Why Secondary Markets Remain Profitable
- Regional Implementation and Global Coverage Gaps
- Production Capacity as the Fundamental Long-Term Solution
- Frequently Asked Questions
Why Has Production Increased Despite Ongoing Shortages?
The pokémon Company printed over 85 billion cards between March 2025 and March 2026, up from approximately 75 billion the previous year, yet demand continues to exceed supply. This 10 billion card increase represents substantial growth, yet the company operates at maximum manufacturing capacity with its existing partners and facilities. The Millennium Print Group, TPCi’s main printing partner, is constructing a new 1.27 million square foot facility expected to be operational by the end of 2028, designed to approximately double production capacity—indicating that Nintendo expects demand to remain elevated for years.
To contextualize the scale: approximately 50 percent of all Pokémon cards ever printed were produced in just the last four years since 2022. This meteoric rise in production reflects both the TCG’s cultural renaissance and the fundamental challenge Nintendo faces—the resale market became so profitable that scalpers were willing to deploy sophisticated infrastructure (bots, bulk account networks, geographic arbitrage) to exploit every new release. Even doubling production capacity by 2028 may not fully eliminate scarcity, suggesting that anti-scalping measures are necessary complements to manufacturing increases.
Government ID Verification in Japan—How It Works and Its Limitations
Starting in August 2026, the Pokémon Company in Japan will implement My Number Card verification for specific purchase channels. Customers will scan their government-issued ID via their smartphone with an external service provider; critically, individual ID numbers will not be acquired or stored by the Pokémon Company or Pokémon Centre, protecting privacy while preventing the same individual from creating multiple accounts or acquiring inventory across different channels. This system applies to priority lottery products, select Pokémon Centre Online sales, and official tournament and event registration in Japan. However, this approach has meaningful limitations.
The system only applies to Japan, leaving North America, Europe, and other regions without equivalent ID-based protections—meaning scalpers can continue bulk purchasing in those markets. Even within Japan, the verification only covers specific sales channels; the open secondary market (Mercari, Yahoo Auctions, private sales) remains unregulated. Additionally, collectors outside Japan or those purchasing through non-lottery channels will still face reseller markups, so the solution addresses access fairness rather than ultimate pricing power. The competitive integrity benefit is substantial for tournament players—the system eliminates illegal tournament stand-ins and age-bracket falsification at official events—but casual collectors pursuing sealed product remain vulnerable outside the protected purchase windows.
Multi-Channel Anti-Scalping Agreements and Direct Sales
The Pokémon Company has concluded formal agreements with major marketplace operators to combat unauthorized reselling, representing an attempt to police the secondary market directly. Simultaneously, the company has implemented made-to-order sales systems and queue-based purchase mechanisms on the Pokémon Center website to prevent bot activity and ensure that individual humans rather than automated systems secure stock. These systems work in tandem: the official channels become harder for bots to exploit, while reseller platforms face contractual pressure to remove bulk listings or de-platform scalpers.
The Pokémon Center website queue system functions similarly to high-demand concert or gaming console launches—customers queue digitally and receive inventory allocations on a first-come-first-served basis, but without the typical bot exploits (creating thousands of simultaneous requests to bypass the queue). A practical example: when a premium set releases, the queue system issues entry slots throughout the day, preventing the scenario where bots purchased entire allocations within seconds. Retailer-level limits have also become standard—local game stores, Pokémon League venues, and big-box retailers implementing per-person purchase limits (commonly one or two boxes per customer per day) to ensure that dedicated players and collectors can access product rather than losing all inventory to resellers on day one.
The Trade-Off Between Access and Pricing Power
Anti-scalping measures improve fair access to new releases but do not guarantee lower prices. Purchase limits and ID verification systems prevent a single buyer from acquiring excessive inventory at MSRP and immediately reselling it at 300 percent markup. However, these systems do not eliminate price premiums for older, out-of-print sets or competitive staple cards that remain scarce due to limited initial print runs. The distinction matters: newer releases are increasingly available at or near MSRP due to production increases and purchase controls, while the secondary market for vintage or competitive singles still commands premium pricing.
The made-to-order model represents a strategic trade-off as well. When the Pokémon Company offers direct ordering for specific sets, customers must commit to purchase in advance without knowing the final print run size, which can feel like a guessing game. However, this model prevents day-one sellouts and allows the company to gauge actual demand rather than relying on retailer estimates, which were routinely exploited by resellers in previous years. The queue system similarly trades immediate gratification for fairness—customers may wait hours or even days to secure an allocation rather than refreshing a store website obsessively, but everyone in the queue has a reasonable chance of obtaining product rather than losing to bot networks.
Enforcement Gaps and Why Secondary Markets Remain Profitable
Despite aggressive anti-scalping measures, enforcement remains imperfect, and the resale market continues thriving because the Pokémon Company’s primary leverage exists at the point of purchase, not on the secondary market. Once a consumer legally purchases cards from an official channel, reselling that product privately is not illegal—a friend selling their duplicate Charizard card to another friend, or a collector liquidating part of their collection, represents legitimate activity that Nintendo cannot and should not restrict. This means that even as official channels become harder to exploit, the secondary market continues to exist and remains attractive to professional resellers who purchase through retail or online channels legitimately and then flip inventory at premiums. A significant limitation: casual resellers who purchase five to ten boxes at MSRP and sell them on eBay represent a gray zone.
They are not “bots” or “scalpers” in the technical sense (they purchase through legitimate channels with legitimate accounts), yet they contribute to inflated secondary market pricing. The Pokémon Company’s marketplace agreements address large-scale reseller operations (sellers listing hundreds of products), but individual sellers moving modest volumes remain active. Additionally, international arbitrage continues—resellers purchasing cards at lower MSRP in Japan or other regions and shipping them to higher-priced markets exploit regional pricing differences that Nintendo permits but has difficulty policing. This loophole means that even with robust anti-scalping measures in place, price discrepancies and reseller activity will persist.
Regional Implementation and Global Coverage Gaps
The government ID verification system represents Japan-specific enforcement, reflecting both the Pokémon Company’s operational priorities (Japan is the home market with the highest cultural significance for TCG) and regulatory differences. Japan’s My Number Card is a government ID system that residents are accustomed to using for financial and administrative purposes, making integration feasible and culturally acceptable. In contrast, implementing equivalent identity verification in North America, Europe, or other markets would face regulatory scrutiny, privacy concerns, and legal complexity around data storage and cross-border transfer of personal information.
Consequently, North American and European consumers will not experience the same purchase protections as Japanese customers in 2026. This creates an incentive structure where resellers may focus on those less-restricted markets, and collectors in those regions will continue to rely on purchase limits at retailers and queue systems at official retailers rather than identity-based restrictions. The implication is that Nintendo has prioritized a high-friction anti-scalping solution in its home market while employing lighter-touch measures elsewhere, reflecting both legal constraints and business priorities.
Production Capacity as the Fundamental Long-Term Solution
The construction of the new Millennium Print Group facility—1.27 million square feet, designed to approximately double production capacity, expected operational by end of 2028—represents Nintendo’s recognition that access controls alone cannot solve the scalping problem permanently. As long as Pokémon TCG demand exceeds supply, scalping remains economically rational for resellers regardless of anti-scalping measures. The 85 billion cards printed in the 2025-2026 fiscal year generated unprecedented volume, yet production still fell short of demand, confirming that incremental increases are insufficient.
The new facility’s expected completion by 2028 positions the Pokémon Company to match or exceed demand several years from now, which is when scalping pressure may finally abate due to economics—if supply equals or exceeds demand, resellers cannot maintain price premiums and bulk purchasing becomes unprofitable. This timeline also aligns with the August 2026 rollout of ID verification in Japan, suggesting a comprehensive strategy: implement short-term access controls while simultaneously investing in long-term supply increases. The irony is that the most effective anti-scalping measure may ultimately be mundane—simply printing enough cards that nobody profits from hoarding them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the My Number Card verification system come to North America or Europe?
No announced plans exist for ID verification systems outside Japan as of now. North American and European consumers will continue relying on purchase limits and queue-based systems at retailers and the official Pokémon Center website.
Can I still resell cards I purchased at official retail?
Yes. Once you legally purchase cards through official channels, reselling that product privately is not restricted. The Pokémon Company’s enforcement targets preventing scalpers from obtaining bulk inventory at MSRP through bots or fraud, not legitimate secondary market sales.
Will the new Millennium Print Group facility completely stop scalping?
The facility is designed to double production capacity by 2028, which should reduce scarcity-driven pricing premiums for new releases. However, limited print runs, promotional cards, and competitive staples will likely remain profitable to resell even after capacity increases.
What happens if I try to buy multiple products on Pokémon Center Online in August 2026?
The My Number Card verification system in Japan applies to priority lottery and select Pokémon Centre Online products, allowing one purchase per registered ID per purchase window. Attempting to use multiple IDs would violate the terms and risk account suspension.
Do retailers outside Japan have purchase limits?
Yes. Most retailers, game stores, and Pokémon League venues worldwide have implemented per-person purchase limits (typically one to two boxes per day per customer) to combat scalping, though these are store policies rather than enforced by the Pokémon Company.
Why hasn’t Nintendo just printed more cards before now?
Manufacturing capacity requires time and capital investment. The company operated at maximum capacity with existing partners starting in 2022. The new facility took years to plan and construct and won’t be operational until 2028, but represents the fundamental long-term solution to scalping—matching supply to demand.
