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It’s no secret at this point that resellers will try to profit on pretty much anything with Pikachu’s face on it. Though Pokemon TCG products are especially popular, plenty of other Pokemon collectibles make their way to eBay and other resale sites with staggering prices. That said, Pokemon cards, especially limited-edition promos, remain the most coveted. This demand is no doubt part of why the 2026 collaboration between Pokemon and McDonald’s skipped the promo card altogether. But apparently, that hasn’t fully deterred scalpers.
Last year’s Pokemon and McDonald’s collab featured a truly adorable Pikachu promo card. As is often the case these days, the card proved so popular that the campaign ended well before originally intended. This year, probably in response to that fiasco, the collab lineup does not include a promo card. Instead, this year’s McDonald’s and Pokemon crossover features Pokemon-themed boxes, plastic cups, and reusable pouches. The highlight of the collection is an adorable Pikachu timer, and it’s already been spotted on resale sites for some truly staggering amounts.
Pikachu French Fry Timer Is the Latest Proof That Pokemon’s Scalping Problem is Out of Control
So far, this Pokemon collab is only available in Japan during the month of July. It is a celebration of both Pokemon’s 30th anniversary and McDonald’s 55th, which both fall this year. There are quite a few cute items in the campaign, including a special Pokemon box for McDonald’s 15-piece Chicken McNuggets. Similar collaborations have come to the United States in the past as well, but nothing has been announced yet.
With no promo cards in this release, the item that’s catching the most attention comes via a lottery system. The “Summer Chance Bag” is only available via the Japanese McDonald’s app, and you have to win the lottery to buy one. It retails for about $24 USD, and includes McDonald’s gift vouchers worth about that much. The Pokemon goodies inside are a color-changing Pokemon plastic cup and zip pouch, plus a Pikachu timer. All of them look like fairly inexpensive, simple plastic goodies like you might expect in a Happy Meal. And yet, scalpers are already trying to sell that Pikachu timer for up to $1000 on eBay.
The 2026 McDonald’s Pokémon fry timer is already reselling for HOW MUCH?! 😭 https://t.co/IIloRV4ljU pic.twitter.com/cyJCrvyRMP
— DCC (@dccdotclub) July 10, 2026
The timer is admittedly very cute. It shows the electric mouse popping out of a package of McDonald’s fries when the timer goes off. But at the end of the day, it’s very much just a Pokemon and McDonald’s-branded kitchen timer, with simple minute, second, and start/stop buttons. Yet one Pokemon fan account on X spotted eBay listings asking nearly $1000 for the plastic timer. My own search shows that today’s listings are more along the lines of $100-200. So if that original screenshot is accurate, prices have already dipped quite a bit.
While $100 feels more reasonable after looking at those $1000 screenshots, it’s still pretty outrageous. After all, this is essentially a free Happy Meal toy thrown into a McDonald’s box that retails for $24. Trying to resell it at all is indicative of how bad the scalping problem has become in the Pokemon fandom. I remember the old days of getting Pokemon toys at McDonald’s and Burger King, and actually treating them like, well, toys. Not that some of us didn’t bank on those gold-plated cards being worth something one day, but we certainly weren’t fighting against a wave of resellers trying to make a buck.
At this point, it’s unclear when or if the Pokemon reselling craze will die down. Pokemon TCG remains really difficult to find on shelves, and even retailers are gearing up to charge scalper prices for the upcoming 30th Celebration line. Now, we’re even trying to sell plastic potato timers for hundreds of dollars, instead of letting this be a fun promotion celebrating the fandom, like it should be.
Would you like to see a similar Pokemon collab come to McDonald’s in the United States? Or are you burnt out on watching scalpers ruin these events? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the Forum!
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