Special key chains presented by the Hanshin Tigers pro-baseball team and the Hanshin Koshien Stadium to high school baseball players affected by the novel coronavirus have been appearing on the flea market app Mercari. The key chains, intended to encourage the 3rd year baseball players, have in some cases sold for nearly 10,000 yen -- and criticism is rising over the sale and purchase of the well-intended gifts.
Hanshin Tigers manager Akihiro Yano, who suggested the presents, said, "We gave (the key chains) as a token of our encouragement to the 3rd year students who lost the opportunity to participate in the Koshien (tournament) in their last summer (as high school students)."
The key chains contained soil collected from the Koshien stadium that was gathered by Yano and Hanshin Tigers players. Starting from Aug. 31, the chains were shipped out to about 50,000 high school baseball players who belong to member schools of the Japan High School Baseball Federation and 3rd-year baseball-playing high school girls. In September, however, some of the key chains started appearing on Mercari as unused new products for 10,000 yen and trading for 9,000 yen. Comments for the product included, "Don't sell this after you got it" and "Director Yano might be sad."
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