Card Shop Chanploo specializes in buying and selling trading cards and Data Carddass cards. They deal in a wide variety of items and genres that includes not only cards like “Yu-Gi-Oh!” and “Vanguard” that are sold in packs, and the “Dragonball” and “Kamen Rider” type cards that are sold in vending machines, but also the medallion-type collectibles like the “Pokemon” and “Yokai Watch” range. They’ve also opened an online store, and I’m told that inquiries come from all over the world. So as you can imagine, the amount of stock they deal in is incredible. Just going by what I saw, there was easily more than 10,000 items in-store. According to the manager, there are so many items that they have a hard time keeping track of it all. Aside from the store itself, they also have a storage facility for stock control apparently, so it’s quite likely that this store deals in the greatest number of items in Fukuoka.

With the spread of the Internet, the store’s business has grown with more domestic and international customers coming to the store and more people buying online, apparently. Office workers from the Kanto region stop by the store when on business trips to Fukuoka, and tourists from South Korea and China buy cards to take back home as souvenirs. A lot of overseas visitors, I’m told, buy cards because they’re impressed by the quality and design of Japanese trading cards. On a side note, the market price of trading cards changes daily – just like the stock market. There are cards that fetch more than 10,000 Yen, and lately auction items are also apparently becoming quite popular. “Cool Japan” isn’t only about big-budget movies and life-sized robots. As this store has shown, there are other Japanese contents and businesses out there that penetrate deeper levels of an even broader user demographic.

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