Pictures show hundreds waiting in line to buy Pokémon cards despite COVID-19 restrictions

The hype around Pokémon trading cards (from US$24 on Amazon) is as strong as ever. In Japan, the country from which Nintendo's cute pocket monsters originate, long waiting lines have formed when shops started selling their stock of reprints of certain popular sets. According to Kotaku, the sets in question are "Eevee Heroes" and "Shiny Star V", which have been on sale in very limited quantities over the last weekend.

Booster packs and boxes of these desired Pokémon trading cards were reportedly sold for triple their original MSRP, which means their price was set at around 5,500 Yen (approximately US$50). Considering the fact that even a single rare Pokémon card is valued at much more than that, it is somehow understandable why Japanese fans decided to wait in line for this opportunity.

According to some estimates from people who witnessed the hype, about 550 people waited in line in front of a single store. When the world's largest Pokémon trading card shop opened this summer, approximately 700 Japanese waited to get their chance at buying Pokémon cards. The strict COVID-19 restrictions that are currently in effect in Japan apparently did not deter these committed Pokémon fans, which makes it likely that there will be even more waiting lines in front of Japanese Pokémon card shops in the very near future.