It’s not all that unusual to see valuable but limited merchandise end up being sold on secondhand online markets for questionably high prices, just look at the Nintendo Switch reseller prices. What is unusual about one new case, however, is the product being sold: popsicles. Specifically, Pokemon-branded popsicles.
Earlier this summer, Japanese ice cream maker Akagi Nyugyo released a special Pokemon-themed version of its popular Garigari-kun brand of popsicles. A fresh box of six of these ice pops usually runs for just 350 yen (or around $3.30), and while the rarity of the limited-time Pokemon pops means the price would naturally go up on secondhand markets, SoraNews24 is reporting that most of them are going for as much as 50,000 yen ($472) on Japanese marketplace Mercari. That’s a price hike of over 14,000%.
That would be pretty insane on its own, but things get even wilder from there, because people aren’t actually interested in the popsicles themselves. No, the thing they’re actually selling, and people are apparently buying, is the leftover sticks from already-eaten popsicles.
As strange as this seems at first blush, it turns out that there’s a reason why people are so interested in these sticks. It’s because these expensive limited-time products are “winner” sticks. Normal Garigari-kun come with special marks on some sticks, which can be exchanged for a free popsicle at convenience stores. However, the winning sticks that came with the limited-edition Pokemon popsicles offer something a little more valuable in exchange: an exclusive Pokemon trading card featuring Zarude, the franchise’s newest Mythical Pokemon.
For the uninitiated, rare Pokemon cards can be extremely valuable. It may cost roughly $500 right now to get a Zarude card on Mercari, but that’s nothing compared to the six-digit figures people have paid for the rarest Pokemon cards. Given what people are willing to pay to get their hands on the most exclusive cards, blowing 50,000 yen on a popsicle stick almost seems like a bargain.
SoraNews24 also notes that some sellers are actually skipping the stick entirely and selling the cards directly on Mercari. What’s interesting, though, is that these are being sold for a noticeably cheaper price than the sticks, going as low as 30,000 yen. It might seem like an odd discrepancy, being as the Zarude card is what everyone’s after, but then again, it’s safe to assume the people most likely to spend this much on a rare card are probably collectors. Therefore, it makes sense that they’d rather pay more for a stick they can exchange for a card in mint condition, instead of paying less for one that’s already been handled by a secondhand seller.
Source: SoraNews24
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