People are buying Pokemon McDonald's Happy Meals in bulk, because of course they are

Pokemon Pikachu — (Image credit: The Pokemon Company)

The McDonald's Pokemon card promotion is being hijacked by collectors, with scalpers selling the boxes at massive markups.

As we previously reported, the Pokemon McDonald's Happy Meal promotion was only a rumor a little over a week ago, and now it's become a full-fledged race to collect 'em all, with adults pulling out all the stops to get their hands on something meant for children. The Happy Meals come in a special edition box with Pikachu's face on it, with 50 cards available to collect. Obviously there's not all 50 in each Happy Meal, which is why adults are buying the kid's meals in bulk.

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According to Polygon, not only are people waking up at 5am to try and get a Pokemon Happy Meal - which are only available at select McDonald's - but others are buying them in bulk and throwing out the food because society is broken. As a result, McDonald's are placing restrictions on how many Happy Meals can be purchased and when. Scalpers are already selling the cards individually at huge markup, especially considering a Happy meal will only run you about $3. And since boxes of the cards are on sale on eBay for between $600 and $1000, it seems there's a bit of a Pokemon Happy Meal black market in the works, as well. We just can't have nice things, can we?

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Don't worry, some people are buying the Happy Meals and giving away the food to those in need, like Twitter user JT_Valor, and others are just buying a reasonable amount of children's food to enjoy a little taste of nostalgia or a return to the Pokemon Trading Card Game. It all works out in the end, even if you can't catch 'em all.

Here's some of the best board games to keep you entertained when you take break from TCG.

Alyssa Mercante used to be a features writer at GamesRadar+ and is now a freelance writer and editor. Prior to entering the industry, she got her Masters's degree in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Newcastle University with a dissertation focusing on contemporary indie games. She spends most of her time playing competitive shooters and in-depth RPGs and was recently on a PAX Panel about the best bars in video games. In her spare time Alyssa rescues cats, practices her Italian, and plays soccer.