Clutching a large tote bag, a collector is looking for someone to trade a wide range of anime toys from cards to stickers in the new craze for rare items that cost over 100,000 baht per piece.
"I bought ice cream with stickers in childhood. It is a pity that I lost them. When Oden-ya corn snack came back [in October], I started hunting for cards," said a geek, who asked not to be named, at a cafe in Bangkok.
Last weekend, collectors gathered to swap sought-after anime toys amid the rage for the return of Oden-ya, the popular corn snack in the 1990s. Each packet costs 20 baht and offers two Dragon Ball Z cards. It is available at 7-Elevens only.
They come in four groups -- normal, rare, special rare, and super special rare -- but collectors are hunting for the last group of cards that make up only 150 items in the world. A collector recently paid 50,000-130,000 baht for each of four exclusive cards.
"It is out of stock, but I found some shop assistants had hidden them to resell at higher prices. I forced them to open a storeroom and found two packets," he said.
A collector shows the cover of his album. Thana Boonlert
Dragon Ball Z stickers are also popular, but collectors are not speculating their prices because a manufacturer sold them in equal numbers. Each pack contains five stickers at 119 baht. Some go the extra mile to buy the whole parcel of 50 packs (250 stickers), but trading is the most common practice.
"Dragon Ball is my childhood cartoon," said Nuttapol Talalux, the owner of G2 Production, which sells copyright anime products. He has offered the present collection of stickers for months, but the coronavirus lockdown dampened promotional activities.
"I would like to bring back the hobby to kids and adults who grew up in the 90s," he said.
Nuttapol is monitoring a second-hand comic group of over 40,000 members. Collectors have enormous purchasing power because most are full-time workers in their mid-30s to late 40s. In those days, they read comics and watched anime on TV, especially Modern 9 Cartoon. Childhood games involve playing cards where winners took stickers they did not have from losers.
"Unlike now, not many Japanese cartoons were available. Dragon Ball was featured in all comic magazines. It is a magnet like Doraemon," he said.
A collector puts sought-after cards in his album. Thana Boonlert
Jeeranat Paetudom, a product designer, said he took up his job because he enjoys watching anime and collecting old toys. He can identify what collectors are looking for.
"However, we are required to follow a style guide. People keep asking me why there is not the iconic death of Yamcha [in Dragon Ball Z]. That is because it is not included in the style guide," he said.
