Still crazy for stickers after all these years

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Still crazy for stickers after all these years

Pokemon bread, given the name because there is a Pokemon sticker inside each package, is displayed at a convenience store in Seoul. [NEWS1]

Pokemon bread, given the name because there is a Pokemon sticker inside each package, is displayed at a convenience store in Seoul. [NEWS1]

 
A staple for every Korean kid in the early 2000s is making a comeback. 
 
Pokemon bread and its collectible stickers were one of the biggest crazes of the 2000s. People frantically bought the bread to assemble a complete sticker set. 
 
It turns out Koreans are still crazy for pastries and stickers after all these years.  
 
BGF Retail, which operates the CU convenience store chain, announced Wednesday it will offer 11 new pastry and dessert products with stickers inside. The stickers feature characters from the mobile game Cookie Run: Kingdom.
 
A total of 60 stickers make a complete set.
 
The new release includes strawberry flavored cake rolls, madeleines and choux puffs.  
 
Last October, CU released eight varieties of pastries with stickers, also in collaboration with Cookie Run: Kingdom. They were so popular, the company decided to release more.  
 
In October, sales in CU’s bread and pastries category rose 33.5 percent on month, with the Cookie Run: Kingdom products being the top five bestsellers. 
 
A model looks at Cookie Run: Kingdom stickers that were included in the pastries. [BGF RETAIL]

A model looks at Cookie Run: Kingdom stickers that were included in the pastries. [BGF RETAIL]

 
Pokemon bread returned to the shelves of big discount chains, CUs, GS25s, 7-Elevens, Emart24s and Ministops on Feb. 24. The products are seven types of pastries, including chocolate cake rolls, cheesecake and custard bread.
 
A sticker of a Pokemon is included inside, with 159 Pokemon stickers needed to make a complete set.
 
That's eight more than the full set of two decades ago. First hitting convenience and discount store shelves in 1998, an average of 5 million Pokemon bread were sold every month. The product was discontinued in 2006. 
 
Since its comeback, dedicated Pokemon fans and diehard sticker collectors have been scrambling to buy everything in stock. Pokemon bread is hard to find at convenience stores as it tends to fly off shelves. 
 
Some 1.5 million were sold between Feb. 24 to March 2. That’s six times the average sales for SPC Samlip’s new pastry products during their first week of release, according to SPC Samlip. Its pastries have no stickers. 
 
RM of BTS is a Pokemon sticker fan. The singer uploaded a photo of three Pokemon pastries to his Instagram story on Wednesday, writing “please sell more.” RM claimed that he “raided eight convenience stores” to get the stickers.
 
With Pokemon bread hard to find, its stickers are being traded online at secondhand marketplaces like Danggeun Market — but only for big-spenders.  
 
Rare ones such as the Mewtwo Pokemon sticker sell for around 40,000 won ($32.45) each. Popular characters such as Pikachu are traded around 5,000 to 8,000 won. The retail price of a Pokemon bread and sticker is 1,500 won.
 

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]
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