Pokemon Cards might seem like an innocuous pastime for kids or avid tabletop players, but they've become a sought after commodity for scalpers and collectors. Some cards go for a much as $57,000. It's so bad, there are counterfeits flooding the market - 7.6 tons of which were seized at an airport in Shanghai.
For reference, a car weighs 1.4 tons on average, so that's around five cars worth. That's a lot of fake cards. It's such an epidemic there are guides all over the internet with information on how to spot fake cards so you don't fork out large sums of cash for something fraudulent. After all, the demand is so high, shops are starting to take them off the shelves after people have been reported frantically rushing and shoving others to get them.
These tend to find their way online, going at higher prices - hence the 'scalpers' I mentioned. But it can be tough to sus out what's real and what's not, avoiding being scammed. Luckily, customs managed to stop 20 boxes worth of cards in their tracks before they ever made their way online.
As spotted by NintendoLife, a Chinese outlet called Yicai Global reported Shanghai's Pudong Airport seized 7.6 tons of Pokemon trading cards, making it the largest haul in "recent years." They can be seen in the video, kept in stacks of grey packages. They look genuine, licensed even, so it's easy to see how people could be fooled.
These boxes were on the way to the Netherlands, shipped by Qingdao in the eastern Shandong Province. The airport's customs managed to stop them before they reached Europe - it's certainly a far cry from the cards' origins in the '90s as a fun extension of the games and anime.
Nintendo is selling them like Pokéblocks. Last year alone, 3.7 billion cards were sold - it's no wonder the franchise is so lucrative. That's just one part of its expansive merchandising.