its not unheard of physical stores in japan to do things like this. during covid for example, there was a gunpla shortage, so to mess with scalpers, anyone buying a kit in some stores had to immediately open the box, one of the runner bags and use nippers to cut a part of the runner. This prevented scalpers from being able to sell a scalped kit as “brand new” as its now opened and cut into, killing a chunk of their profits.