McDonald's Japan Happy Meal Scalpers Are Causing Resale Chaos

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Only grownups can truly ruin a kids' meal. The iconic Happy Meal, which is meant to excite and delight small children all over the world, has now been taken over by Happy Meal scalpers. In Japan, in particular, McDonald's Happy Meal scalpers had a field day with the fast food chain's August 2025 Pokémon Happy Meal promotion. The Happy Meal (called "Happy Sets" in Japan) included the usual kids-size happy meal food, drink, a small Pokémon toy, and a Pokémon trading card. Even though these cards are highly collectible, the Happy Meals including them cost the standard price of around ¥510, or $3.40 — which led to a frenzy.

In fact, these Happy Meals were so sought after by adults that they were willing to take drastic measures to snag and sell the Pokémon items online. Resellers reportedly flooded physical and digital lines to order the maximum capacity of toys and cards, and left piles of discarded food and containers inside and outside of McDonald's Japan locations, drawing international attention to food wastefulness. McDonald's Japan was forced to issued a statement condemning the food waste, halted the Pokémon promotion after a single day, and even canceled a "One Piece" Happy Meal promotion initially scheduled for late August. 

Meanwhile, resellers posted the cards online, with eBay listing prices of $56, $380, and up to $7,499 and $32,900 for a single card or two-card set. Many still sealed packs have sold for thousands of dollars, without counting the additional costs of international shipping. However, now in the wake of another upcoming release — this time with super-popular Sanrio characters — McDonald's Japan has instituted new rules for Happy Meal purchases.

Nostalgia drives many collectors, be it for the most pricey Pokémon cards, valuable sports memorabilia, or even rare and collectible Furbies. However, resellers don't need to share that same emotional fandom to take over a McDonald's line and destroy the fun of fast food -– they are likely just looking to make a quick buck. With that in mind, McDonald's Japan is attempting to curb cold-hearted Happy Meal scalpers with a new set of rules.

McDonald's Japan will limit orders for upcoming Sanrio Happy Meals to in-person only. Store app orders and third-party delivery orders will not be allowed, and a maximum of only three Happy Meals will be allowed per order. While cutting out third-party delivery orders and drive-through orders may help, people previously found ways to cheat the system. In fact, during the Pokémon promotion, critics pointed out that some adults were simply paying teenagers to order for them, or even spending the day ordering the maximum per order before heading to the end of the line to do it all over again.

Whether or not McDonald's remains committed to stopping food waste, or making money off of Happy Meal toys destined for collector resale, remains to be seen. McDonald's Happy Meal toys can be worth a ton of money, but aggressive resellers can make even the happiest of meals quite unhappy, indeed.