Recalling her first visit to a café in downtown Shanghai months ago, Shu Yu, 30, still felt shocked. It was a Saturday afternoon, and the café was so crowded that dozens of customers had to wait in line on the stairs outside. 

"I had never seen any café as popular as this one," Shu said.

What attracted the endless stream of patrons, including Shu, was not the items on the menu, but the kind of lucky draw it offered. Cooperating with The King's Avatar, a trending animated series at that time, the café allowed its customers to randomly draw a paper coaster, which were all printed with images of The King's Avatar characters.

The coasters, although nothing more than pieces of palm-sized cardboard, were quite precious to the show's enthusiasts as they were limited in number and not for sale.

That day, following the café game rules, Shu blindly chose an envelope among dozens in a wooden box. She opened the envelope and luckily found it happened to be the coaster of her favorite character in The King's Avatar, Ye Xiu. "I almost jumped up," she smiled. "I had not been that excited for long."

Returned customers

Compared with major brands such as Starbucks, Costa and Luckin, which are already famous among customers, a few lesser-known cafés around the country's first- and second-tier cities are trying to gain popularity with such a raffle game.

The method is simple: cooperate with a trending ACG (animation, comic and game) work, make a batch of cheap paper coasters with images of the work's characters, and then let customers randomly pick one. 

"To get the coasters of the characters they like, many enthusiasts have to repeatedly go to these cafés, spending more money there," Shanghai resident Keiko (pseudonymous) told the Global Times.

Keiko, 27, is a big fan of the coaster raffle. When a café on Shanghai's Sinan Road offered the game in the summer of 2017, she frequently went there and participated. "I'd been there dozens of times," she said.

It was also a set of The King's Avatar coasters. Unlike other fans who would be satisfied with getting their favorite characters, Keiko's goal was collecting all of this set's 26 coasters. 

That goal may cost her lots of money. According to the café's rule that stipulating one can only draw if they order something on the menu as well as the price of the cafe's cheapest product being 38 yuan ($5.42), it would probably cost Keiko at least 988  yuan if she was lucky enough to never draw a repetitive one. 

Keiko spent much more than 988 yuan. Successfully collecting all the set's 26 coasters, Keiko said the game cost her "several thousand yuan" at last.

Only for the game

The Global Times recently experienced the game at a popular ACG-themed café in Shanghai's Huangpu district. 

It was not an open café compared to others, requiring customers to reserve seats online in advance and pay a 30 yuan deposit. Customers have to arrive at the appointed time, and are not allowed to stay for more than 90 minutes.

The café was packed with enthusiasts that day. The café was lively when a staffer came to the dining area with a small wooden box, asking customers to randomly draw coasters in turn. When successfully picking the favorite coaster, some enthusiasts screamed, clapped or jumped up. 

Almost all the customers came only for the coasters, a staff member of the café, who preferred to be anonymous told the Global Times. "Some people even directly left after the game, leaving the food and drinks they ordered untouched," she added.

Keiko admitted that most  items on the menu at these cafés are unattractive. "Many taste bad," she said, mentioning a blue soda drink she had ordered many times but seldom finished. "It's too sweet, smelling like toilet detergent."

Secondhand market

For enthusiasts whose city has no cafés providing this raffle, they have to look for secondhand coasters online instead. 

The prices of popular ACG characters' coasters can be quite high on secondhand e-stores. Shu once bought a coaster she had been longing for on Xianyu, an online marketplace for used goods run by Alibaba. The coaster cost Shu 200 yuan.

But Shu thought it was a worthy deal. "Compared with the coaster's rareness in secondhand market, 200 yuan is a reasonable price," she said.

The Global Times reporter had also tried to sell a coaster she had drawn at the café for 150 yuan online. It was reputedly a very rare one, and was purchased within minutes.

These coaster game cafés are seemingly operating a gambling business, Shu described. "It continually attracts customers to open the box and see which piece of chocolate they can get. The feeling, to be honest, is not bad."

Keiko agreed. "The moment of drawing a coaster always makes me excited and expectant, and I really enjoy it," she said, adding the activity is one of few things that makes her feel that way.