Hi 
I pre-ordered some booster boxes of the new 25th anniversary set from HelloJapan.
You are meant to get 1 free 25th anniversary promo pack per every 4 booster packs you buy.
What are the chances that HelloJapan will give these boosters?
Has anyone bought any items that come with a PokƩmon centre promo from HelloJapan before?
Thanks 
Nobody answered 
But itās ok I got a response from hello Japan finally in case anybody was thinking of preordering yet 25th anniversary set:
ā We are not getting the products from the Pokemon Center but directly from the supplier.
If they give us a promo card, we will include it but there is no guarantee as of today.
We are actually all waiting to hear about it, if it will included or not.
Thank you for your understanding and we hope to bring you some good news when we will know.ā
Hi bud,
Did you get your order cancelled from Hello Japan? I ordered a month ago and was emailed last week that I was refunded (no refund as of yet) and they said that the supplier has changed and they have had to put the price up so cancelled everything under the 200 euro price.
Preordering japanese product right now is the same as not ordering anything at all. :galaxybrain:
Nah, its giving a interest free 3 month loan to anyone who has a stock image of the product :5Dbrain:
Agreed! For the first few waves, it looks like the 2nd hand market is going to be the only way to acquire the Japanese release.
I figured it was worth having a thread regarding this product and changes since there was significant shift in how this will be released. I did see a little discussion on the Japanese Mega Thread so feel free to delete if you feel like this repetitive.
Yesterday was a huge bummer when I heard. Instead of being able to preorder them in post offices starting yesterday, there is a new way to order them similar to the lottery system. You must submit a special postcard to enter and winners will be chosen from that. Initially, they said they would do 80,000 with more possibly if there was interest. Now it looks like that may have increased with the convention to possibly 100,000 but I was unable to confirm the additional 20,000.
There will be two dates to acquire this product. All pick ups must have a valid Japanese ID and in person.
One is at the Japan International Stamp Exhibition 2021 Venue.
Application Dates: Now Through Aug 8th
Notification Date: Around Aug 17th
Pick Up Date: Aug 25-30th
The second is through general post offices.
Application Dates: Aug 22th Through Sept 15th (Partially in person and some online)
Notification Date: Around October 18th
Pick Up Date: Late October to Mid November (no official date)
I am curious what everyoneās thoughts on this are and have a notification in case you didnt see the news.
My personal thoughts are a bit bummed to be honest. I collect Pikachu cards and I have concerns that it will be difficult to get the Pikachu promo for a fair price (Just trying to find 1 for personal. No reselling). I hope Iām wrong but I am concerned. I was initially one of the people who preordered a box on ebay for 220 but ebay refunded my order today due to the delay (not my choice but its what they decided to do since its their policy to only allow preorders 30 days in advance). I hope the box/promo will be at this price or lower which is sad to hope for 6x but that feels like the times we live inā¦
On the one hand, it is awesome that this will avoid bots and scalping for sure. Plus you would think that 80K-100K copies will make this very accessible but I am just not sure.
On the other hand, this is alot of hoops to jump through to acquire one and I worry it will end up in the hands of scalpers anyway which will drive up the price.
They were selling them on ebay for 200-250 (retail 40ā¦). My prediction is that it will be higher, at least for the first release and it may calm down after during the October release but who knows. Thoughts?
Once again, I figured it was worth the discussion and updated if you were like me and tried preordering a box on ebay/others (My mistake. I just get nervousā¦) If you have any advice or predictions let me know. Feel free to correct any wrong information. I cannot read Japanese so I am sure I missed something.
I donāt like lottery systems for limited run products, but quite frankly it is extremely tiring to see people outside of Japan getting their hands on new Japanese stuff, while for everyone inside of Japan it is basically impossible to find ANY new Pokemon card products without markup, and in plenty of areas you canāt even buy booster packs of any set from shops. In this case, I welcome the lottery, and there will no silly nonsense like people lining the streets or crowding shopping malls in the middle of a pandemic.
Personally I am happy with the way they are doing it.
Iām not really sure how else you could do it whilst also preventing most of the product from āending up in the hands of scalpersā (whatās the difference between buying off a āscalperā and buying it off some pre-order on ebay anyway?)
Not really much of a difference. I was more meaning the worry it goes even higher. Its already really bad and its more me worrying it will get worse than 6x since extra steps.
The key is patience
^
Unfortunately, the lottery system has become a necessary evil, thanks to the bots. But like you., I welcome this lottery rather than having to wait in line, especially as Tokyoās positivity rate has climbed to 15 percent and there is no sign of it abating.
Rather than banking on pre-orders, maybe can try to make friend with 1-2 Japanese resellers/scalpers. The price will certainly be higher than the recommended retail price but still generally lower than the secondary market. I got my 20+ Eevee Heroes Espeon Gym Boxes for myself and friends at about 285 USD each this way (including shipping and taxes).
Itās one box per person this time. Theyāre using ID confirmation to prevent duplicate lottery winners, and postcards submitted for application will not be returned to them whether they win or not.
True but Japanese resellers will probably be able to get better prices from their local network.
With a release of 100k Iād be surprised if you are unable to get one for a reasonable price if you want one.
Either way if you arenāt in Japan you canāt do much about it until they release so no use in stressing about it.
Iāve said it multiple time in patreon, but Iāll say it here publicly. I donāt even bother with preorders. You are just loaning money for nothing.
These arenāt going to be some type of trophy release. 100,000 is a lot. Like base unlimited a lot. If they actually release that amount it will be easy to just buy them on the secondary market.
I enjoy the irony of people saying they want to pay a āreasonable priceā. What they actually mean is they want to pay an unreasonable price.
A reasonable price is determined by the market, ie. what people are paying on ebay. This is the price that takes into account time to acquire, opportunity cost, quantity available, shipping, demand, etc. at a given point in time. Yet when people say āreasonable priceā they are referring to the price the Japanese lottery winners pay which is a very unreasonable thing to expect to pay. Itās the equivalent of claiming the price of pineapples in your grocery store is unreasonable because Costa Ricans only pay a small fraction of the price.
I agree that would be ideal for sure. I have had trouble finding someone truly reliable that I can count one where I am not so far down the list that I get brushed off. I collect tons of Pikachu cards so I buy Japanese cards fairly often. Still its hard to find people like this. Maybe I have been looking in the wrong places.