Recently, there has been a product called card blind box on the market, which is sold disorderly among minors, and this kind of blind box can easily cost tens of yuan or even thousands of yuan, and can even be hyped to a sky-high price of 210,000 yuan.
Children are addicted to it, and parents are very distressed. What is the magic of cards? Who's hyping up the sky-high cards? The main station's "Financial Survey" exposed →
Elementary school students are addicted to card drawing and can't extricate themselves
What is the magic of cards?
Most of the customers of the card game chain are children, and they almost always come for the "My Little Pony" card mystery box. This is a card blind box product based on the image in the "My Little Pony" cartoon.
In each blind box series of products, the card game company has designed ordinary card slots, medium card slots and high card slots. The higher the card slot, the more scarce it is, and the smaller the probability of being drawn. Only after purchasing and unpacking can you know which cards you are buying.
The reporter found that the children were only interested in rare card slots, and the other medium card slots and ordinary cards that were dismantled were thrown away casually. In order to save up these rare cards, children spend money almost crazy to draw cards, and parents are even more miserable about it.
The children are addicted to card drawing, sometimes elated, sometimes beating their chests, and the more they smoke, the more crazy they become...... In the process of drawing cards, primary school students who are not deeply involved in the world also frequently broke out "thunder sentences", which aroused the concern of reporters.
The childish words of children make adults feel both funny and helpless. In the process of drawing cards, the children even discovered the so-called "new business opportunities", in order to get the cards they wanted, the children traded with each other, some were completed in the public area of the card game store, and some set up their own stalls, they sold the cards they duplicated or did not like, and the money earned could be used to buy new cards. Of course, the rarer the card, the more expensive it sells, which has long been a consensus among children, and each card has become a commodity with real value among children.
According to the relevant provisions of the State Administration for Market Regulation's "Guidelines for the Code of Conduct for Blind Box Operations", minors are not allowed to buy this kind of card blind box alone, but as the producer of the "My Little Pony" card blind box, Zhejiang Card Game Technology Co., Ltd. did not comply with the relevant regulations in the actual operation and management.
In addition to offline card game stores, on card game apps and mini programs, children can also place orders at will with their own minor accounts.
According to public information on the Internet, in the first three quarters of 2023, as the core product of card games, trading cards, the sales revenue will reach 1.675 billion yuan, accounting for 85.8% of the total revenue of card games. The reporter further investigated and found that the card game company has developed dealers in various places, stationery stores, small stores, etc., and there are "Little Pony" card blind boxes for sale.
The reporter visited the toy wholesale market in many places, and almost every booth was selling "My Little Pony" card blind boxes, and the market was very hot. When the reporter asked the reminder that minors are not allowed to buy separately marked on the back of the card box, the wholesale store owner did not care.
The sky-high card hype reached 210,000 yuan
The industrial chain surrounds underage consumers
The reporter found that in order to make the cards more valuable, and even in order for this kind of cards to be traded again, many consumers will take the cards they buy to the card rating agency for rating, and the card rating agency will evaluate the score through the condition of the card. A card rating agency in Chongqing can evaluate more than 100,000 cards a week, and most of them are "My Little Pony" cards.
With the so-called rating, the value of these cards began to soar, and according to the ratings given by the so-called rating agencies, the price of the cards could increase several times or even dozens of times in subsequent transactions. The agency's customer service said that the cards they rated sold for up to 210,000 yuan.
With the help of rating agencies, some brick-and-mortar stores also provide services for recycling and consignment of "My Little Pony" high-card cards in order to get a piece of the pie.
The reporter took a rare card with a score of 9.5 in his hand as an example, and asked the owner of the consignment card store how much difference there was between the rated and unrated prices, and the boss gave a price difference of 100 yuan.
The reporter found a store in Shanghai that specializes in the sale of "My Little Pony" high-card cards, and the two walls of the store are full of "My Little Pony" cards, and the price of the cards ranges from tens of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan. The reporter asked whether to accept the card, and the boss said: Yes, and it is very urgent.
Industry insiders told reporters that in this card blind box trading game, card game companies sell card blind boxes, rating agencies charge card identification ratings, push up card prices, second-hand merchants recycle rare cards and sell them, every link is full of money, only children are addicted to dismantling cards and buying cards, unable to extricate themselves.
The new gameplay in the live broadcast room of the card demolition room has been upgraded
There is no obstacle for minors to place orders
Some children told reporters that their most popular way to play now is in the live broadcast room of the short video platform, where the gameplay is the most exciting.
One of the more common ways to play in the live broadcast room is called "Stacking Music", the rule is that consumers buy blind box card packages, and the anchor dismantles them, and if they remove the middle card SSR, they will open one pack for free, and if they remove the middle card position, UR will open two more free packs. The second round of free card packs will continue to be stacked with new card packs according to the same rules, and the more they are stacked, the more likely it is that the CR of the highest card level will be drawn.
In addition to stacking, counting ponies is also a simple but exciting way to play. The consumer buys the blind box card pack, the anchor opens it on behalf of the player, and then counts the number of cartoon ponies on all the cards, and different quantities correspond to different rewards.
The whole process is small and big, and the small cards have become a lottery-like tool. With the blessing of various ways of playing, the live broadcast room of card dismantling has become very lively, and consumers continue to place orders to buy card blind boxes under the double stimulation of card dismantling and prize redemption, and the more they play, the more addictive they become, and some players even buy directly in boxes in the online live broadcast room.
Almost all live broadcast pages will be clearly marked with the words "minors are not allowed to place orders", and the anchor will also emphasize many times in the live broadcast that minors are prohibited from placing orders. However, throughout the live broadcast, the anchor did not verify whether the consumer who placed the order was a minor from beginning to end.
The reporter clicked the link to place an order in the live broadcast room, and on the payment page, the option of "I am an adult, agree to be dismantled" has been checked by default for the reporter, and the order can be paid directly without any operation, and no one has verified the real age of the person who placed the order.
In fact, it is not difficult to find through the messages on the public screen in the live broadcast room that many viewers in the live broadcast room are minors.
The children are writing their homework in such a "gambling" live broadcast room, chatting at the same time, and placing an order to buy card blind boxes, and the anchor also joins them from time to time to laugh and respond, and the slogan of "minors are prohibited from buying" in the live broadcast room is useless.
Some children who have bought card blind boxes in the live broadcast room also said that the ban on minors placing orders in the live broadcast room is just a cover, and they have never encountered any obstacles in placing orders.
Source: CCTV News