It’s no secret that Pokémon TCG reselling has hit a boiling point, and to combat this, the company has announced it is considering using My Number Cards (a form of ID) to help turn the tide against scalpers.
The Pokémon Company announced today that it is considering introducing an ID verification system in Japan to curb scalping for Pokémon Trading Card Game products and related events. The system will use Japan’s “My Number” card, a government-issued social security card, to allow fans to enter lotteries and purchase select TCG products from Pokémon Center Online.
The original announcement post was initially found by Automaton, and the new system will effectively limit certain TCG purchases and lottery entries to Japanese residents only. The My Number Card is issued primarily to Japanese citizens and long-term foreign residents with a residency record, and this requirement would prevent buyers from overseas (and even those potentially using a VPN) from making obscene purchases.
The original post explains the process as “We plan to use an external service to read the IC chip on your My Number Card with your smartphone and authenticate your Players Club account,” adding that the service will use the “User Authentication Electronic Certificate” embedded in the card to verify purchases, and the announcement promises the information and My Number Card ID would not be stored after the point of sale.
Although The Pokémon Company has not specified exactly which products will require My Number Card ID checks outside of “lotteries” and “certain products,” scalpers have been known to use various tactics (including creating multiple accounts) to buy large quantities of TCG cards to resell. As evidenced by many viral online videos and every Pokémon Center ETB release almost instantly hitting the resale market, TCG scalping has become a problem everywhere. The Pokémon Company Japan is considering ways to fix the problem at the root, and this method is at checkout.
The next TCG set, Chaos Rising, is scheduled to launch tomorrow, May 22. While it hasn’t been confirmed, the company is considering implementing this new system around August 2026. If it does happen, they will announce the specific implementation date, target products and events, authentication methods, and all the finer details when the system is finalized.
