A popcorn bucket that sells out in 10 minutes

Reselling of limited goods is probably an issue all over the world but from my experience, in terms of limited anime and manga goods Japan is at its own level when it comes to reselling.

I recently experienced such a case when I visited Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. In September a collaboration with Demon Slayer started at the park and they have a limited-edition popcorn bucket with the character Nezuko from the anime for sale right now.

When I researched Universal Studios on YouTube I found someone who said the waiting time to buy the Demon Slayer popcorn bucket was one hour, which at that time was a lot more than the waiting time for most rides - which were rather short due to the restriction of visitor numbers.

I did not try to purchase one, but I saw the very long line of people waiting to buy it.

Someone who visited the studios a few days later reported that the buckets were sold out in 10 minutes, which probably means the line was closed 10 minutes after opening but people still had to wait several hours to make their purchase. Have you ever heard about a popcorn bucket being this popular?

When I checked Mercari I saw the Demon Slayer popcorn bucket being sold for almost 4 times the regular price. At that time, it was only a few people selling it but by now Mercari is flooded with resellers that sell it at around 10,000 yen, which is still more than double of what it costs at Universal Studios.

For some reason, they allow you to purchase more than one bucket per person, so it is a perfect opportunity for resellers. I don’t understand why they allow this. Usually, one popcorn bucket is enough for one person if they plan to use it, so limiting the numbers you can purchase would make more than enough sense.  Everyone is aware that Demon Slayer is popular and therefore an easy target for resellers.

Reselling has also been an issue with other limited merchandise available in Japan like figures and trading cards, and unlike Universal Studios some shops here have come up with creative ways to make the life of resellers harder.

Some shops started to implement a kind of quiz that you have to answer correctly before you can buy anything. These quizzes are designed in a way that a fan has no trouble giving the correct answer.

In the case of trading cards, some shops ask you to open the pack in the shop so that it cannot be sold as an unopened pack anymore. For someone that purchased the pack to open it anyway that should not be an issue.

A Lolita fashion brand once required buyers that wanted to buy a popular dress to wear clothes from the brand to prove that they actually do like the brand and want the dress for themselves.

I approve that some stores are now trying to implement such measures as I also had experiences when I could not buy something because it was sold out due to resellers buying all the stock.

On the other hand, it is also sad that such measures are necessary just because some people ruin the fun for everyone else in order to make quick money.