Collecting shiny cardboard is no longer a
simple hobby but one of the most lucrative and dangerous businesses in the
world. With millionaire robberies and brutal hoarding, the government
of Japan decided that enough was enough. Legislators from the Liberal
Democratic Party are about to launch an exclusive parliamentary group to
intervene directly in the colossal trading card industry,
seeking to put a definitive stop to the mafias that have hijacked this market.
If you've ever tried to buy Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh! packs
at starting price and failed miserably, you know exactly what we're talking
about. What was once a quiet hobby for the community is now
fertile ground for scams and aggressive speculation. With absolute gems like
Pikachu's mythical Illustrator card selling for more than sixteen million
dollars, criminals have wasted no time. In recent months alone, we have
witnessed absurd cases such as that of two brothers who stole almost a hundred
thousand dollars worth of merchandise, or the cancellation of a free event in
South Korea due to the uncontrollable avalanche of forty thousand attendees
desperate for profit.
To understand the seriousness of the matter,
this market moved more than three hundred and thirty-eight billion yen during
the year 2025. In their first major meeting scheduled for July 23, authorities
will seek to implement strict rules to combat mass purchases, money laundering
and counterfeit distribution that plague colossal franchises in
the medium. In fact, The Pokémon Company itself has already anticipated this
purge, recently announcing that it plans to require government-issued IDs in
order to sell its most coveted products and ensure that they reach true fans.
Seeing that getting a simple card pack has
become an almost impossible mission for the average consumer.
