First hitting the scene in 2020, Chiikawa quickly took the world by storm. After its anime adaptation dropped, its unique charm captivated even more fans. Recently, the adorable franchise announced a major league collaboration: a tie-in with Major League Baseball (MLB) for the new season's opening series at the Tokyo Dome on March 18 and 19.
Naturally, when the collaboration merch for the series dropped yesterday (March 8), fans went absolutely wild, leading to an instant sell-out. Predictably, the dreaded "resale" market immediately exploded, with scalpers listing items at 4-5 times the original price. But then, later that very evening, the official announcement came: they were doing a special made-to-order run! This meant more fans could snag the goods at retail price, but it also kicked off a heated debate.
Here's the timeline: The merch went live at 11 AM on launch day (March 8), triggering an immediate buying frenzy. Online stores saw almost everything vanish in mere minutes, while physical shops were swamped with hordes of fans. Many heartbroken fans were left empty-handed, lamenting that they couldn't get anything.
As soon as it sold out, the resale platform Mercari was flooded with scalpers. Prices immediately skyrocketed to 4-5 times the original retail cost – and get this, some people actually paid those insane prices! This, understandably, fueled a lot of anger among fans who missed out.
But then, in a totally unexpected move, the official Chiikawa X (formerly Twitter) account dropped a bombshell that very evening: "Due to the overwhelming popularity of '#Chiikawa x #MLB TOKYO SERIES,' we've decided to open up additional made-to-order production!" This meant that once pre-orders opened, everyone could snag the goods at their original price, completely bypassing those greedy scalpers.
And boy, did that move work! The announcement instantly froze the resale market. Nobody wanted to touch the scalpers' overpriced goods, forcing sellers to slash their prices and sending the resale market into a total crash.
This powerful tactic earned massive praise from netizens, who cheered: "Now THIS is how you fight scalpers!" "What an awesome decision! Everyone who wants one can get it at retail price, no more getting fleeced by resellers!" "Turns out this is the best way to deal with scalpers! Scalpers lose, everyone else wins!"
Media outlets also chimed in, highlighting the effectiveness of the strategy: the immediate announcement of made-to-order production guaranteed availability for all, causing resale prices to plummet.
While the move definitely put a dent in scalping, some netizens still grumbled, asking, "Why didn't they just do this from the start?" They pointed out that some consumers had already been forced to buy from resellers, only to then find out the official solution had dropped.
This whole situation has many wondering: should all future collaboration merchandise switch to a made-to-order model? That way, fans could be sure to get their hands on items, instead of scalpers hoarding stock and jacking up prices.
While this approach might be the ultimate weapon against reselling, if the official team had just started this way, perhaps even more consumers could have happily snagged their desired items at regular prices from the get-go.