"Recently, many children came to the store and asked me,’ Do you sell cigarette cards here?’" Guo Lin (pseudonym), who runs a supermarket in Heping District, Tianjin, found that many children, including his son who is in primary school, showed strong interest in used cigarette boxes. Once, he found that his son always took away his finished cigarette cases. Upon inquiry, he learned that his son was trying to participate in a "cigarette card" game transformed from empty cigarette cases.
It is understood that the props of the "cigarette card" game come from the cigarette box. Children make rectangular cards by folding the lid of the cigarette box and put them on the ground in turn. Whoever can flip the other side’s "cigarette card" can win the other side’s "cigarette card". The more expensive the cigarette, the more "advanced" the corresponding "cigarette card" is.
A recent investigation and interview by the reporter of Rule of Law Daily found that "cigarette cards" became popular among primary school students, and many primary school students obtained "cigarette cards" through various means. In some supermarkets and online shopping platforms, "cigarette cards" have been packaged and sold, and the price of a card book covering all kinds of "cigarette cards" can reach 399 yuan.
Can "cigarette cards" be sold? Will it have a bad influence on children? With these questions, the reporter conducted an investigation.
Stationers openly sell cigarette cases.
On his way home from work one day, Liang Zhou, a resident of Chaoyang, Beijing, saw his son squatting in a circle and playing games with several children under his building. Liang Zhou took a closer look, and several children were holding some cigarette cases. Liang Zhou immediately asked the children warily where they got the cigarette case. Several children replied in unison: "I bought it online."
Liang Zhou reacted immediately. Recently, his son often took his mobile phone, and he often paid bills with small expenses, and there was always a courier at home. "I thought it was my son who bought toys at first, but after I discovered this, I carefully browsed the shopping records and found that my son placed an order for a’ cigarette card’."
Not only that, Liang Zhou often found his cigarette case "missing". He thought it was thrown away by his cleaning aunt at home, but he didn’t expect his son to "steal" his cigarette case.
By browsing the shopping links provided by Liang Zhou, the reporter found that some merchants marked slogans such as "First-hand goods, see who has more than me" and "There is a high probability of exploding rare cards, and my mother no longer has to worry about me going out to pick up cigarette cases" on the purchase page. Moreover, most of these shops are named "stationery stores" and "daily necessities stores".
Ms. Wang from Nanning, Guangxi, recently discovered that her fifth-grade son had some special "toys" in his schoolbag. "I give my children some pocket money every month to make it easier for them to buy some stationery after school, but recently I found that children spend their pocket money very quickly, often spending a month in a week. It was recently observed that children often buy’ cigarette cards’ at some stalls after school. "
Ms. Wang told reporters that she saw some small vendors laying a piece of cloth on the ground on the only way for her children to go to school, with various "big-name cigarette cards" on it. According to Ms. Wang’s son, the more "big-name" cigarette cards are, the more expensive they are. Ordinary "cigarette cards" are 1 yuan, and "good-quality cigarette cards" like China are 5 yuan. They not only buy "cigarette cards" from vendors, but also sell them among classmates. "Whoever owns more cards and is expensive will have the capital to show off."
Teacher Cao, a primary school teacher in Henan Province, mentioned that recently, many boys in the class got together to play "cigarette cards" during recess.
She has seen a boy show off in front of his classmates with a cigarette case. "I thought this boy was smoking in class and encouraging other students, so I called several children to the office to ask and learned that they wanted to make a’ cigarette card’ with cigarette cases." Teacher Cao said, "I asked them where these cigarette cases came from. Some of them said they wanted them from their parents and some bought them online."
Recently, the reporter visited several schools and shops near the community in Tianjin and found that most stationery stores and food stores sell "cigarette cards".
The reporter asked about the price on the grounds of buying a "cigarette card" for his younger brother. The boss immediately enthusiastically took out several card books for the reporter to choose, and introduced several "cigarette cards" with good sales in detail: "There is one from 5 yuan and one from 20 yuan. The more expensive it is, the more fun it is. Buying this kind of’ rare card’ will give children more face." When the reporter asked what channels these "cigarette cards" were purchased, the boss looked evasive and vague.
On the e-commerce platform, there are also many "cigarette card" products that are selling well. The reporter searched for the keyword "cigarette card" on several e-commerce platforms. The store with the highest sales volume on the homepage showed that it had sold "20,000+",and the customer service of the store claimed to be a "cigarette factory" and directly stacked the boxes.
Some so-called "out of print" and "rare cigarette cards" have higher sales, with tens of thousands of people paying. Among them, the card book containing 200 rare "cigarette cards" costs 399 yuan, and most of the product reviews are "children like it very much". In some shops called "stationery", almost all the goods are "cigarette cards".
The reporter also found in these comment areas selling "cigarette cards" that when someone asked whether it was genuine, there were also buyers who left a message saying "Fidelity, especially dirty, with smoke on it".
Not only that, in some short video platforms, there are also many self-media bloggers who shoot "smoke cards" to make videos, and the amount of praise is as high as thousands. In the lower right corner of the video is a link to sell "cigarette cards". When you click in, you will find that it is actually a shop where merchants sell "cigarette cards", and the prices range from 3 yuan and 5 yuan to tens of yuan.