Mercari Bans Pokemon Card Game 30th CELEBRATION Listings From September 16
Mercari is applying a 2025 policy and a 2023 memorandum with The Pokemon Company to a single card game release, and treating the sale window itself as the thing to close rather than waiting for resale prices to spike.
Key Facts
- Mercari announced the ban on September 15, 2026, and it takes effect September 16.
- The ban covers unopened "30th CELEBRATION" expansion packs and the "30th CELEBRATION Card Set" in all nine types.
- Single cards from opened packs can still be listed, but the card set is banned whether opened or unopened.
- Mercari will delete listings, warn users, and monitor through an AI detection system and visual checks by a dedicated team.
- Mercari and The Pokemon Company signed a memorandum on co-creating the marketplace in 2023, and Mercari set a new response policy in 2025.
Reporting from 2 sources: 4Gamer.net, Denfaminicogamer.
Mercari announced on September 15, 2026 that it will ban listings of Pokemon Card Game "30th CELEBRATION" products sold by The Pokemon Company starting September 16. The ban covers unopened expansion packs "30th CELEBRATION" and the "30th CELEBRATION Card Set" in all nine types. The card set is blocked whether opened or unopened, and set sales that include the products are also prohibited. Single cards pulled from an opened pack can still be listed. Mercari says it will delete listings made during the period, warn users, and monitor listings through an AI detection system plus visual checks by a dedicated team. Accounts that repeatedly post the products face usage restrictions. The period runs as long as Mercari judges a safe and secure trading environment cannot be ensured. Mercari says the specific end date and time have not been disclosed. The company points to trouble from a rise in transactions right after sales begin, and to defamation and abuse aimed at trading partners.
The ban applies to the marketplace as well as its shopfront: Mercari will remove the items from both "Mercari" and "Mercari Shops."
- Unopened expansion packs "30th CELEBRATION"
- "30th CELEBRATION Card Set", all 9 types
Mercari's own announcement, posted to its corporate site and its @mercari_jp account on September 15, 2026, frames the action this way: "Based on the 'Basic Principles of the Marketplace' and the new response policy established in 2025, we announce that, for products related to the Pokemon Card Game '30th CELEBRATION' sold by Pokemon Company, we will ban listings from September 16, 2026 for a period during which a safe and secure transaction environment is deemed unachievable."
The enforcement toolkit goes past deletion. Accounts that repeatedly list the products face use restrictions, and listings are checked by an AI-based detection system working alongside visual inspection by a dedicated team.
The two companies already have a working arrangement: in 2023 Mercari and The Pokemon Company concluded a "Memorandum on Co-Creation of the Marketplace," under which they jointly run initiatives to make Pokemon products tradeable more safely on Mercari. Mercari says the trigger for the ban is that marketplace safety could be undermined by trouble from the surge in transactions right after sales open, and by defamation and abuse aimed at transaction partners.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.