What Is Ichiban Kuji? Japan's Everyone-Wins Anime Lottery, Explained
Ichiban Kuji (一番くじ, roughly "number one lottery") is a prize lottery brand run by BANDAI SPIRITS. You pay a fixed price for a sealed ticket, and every single ticket wins a prize — there are no blanks. The gamble is not whether you win, but which prize you take home.
How a draw works
Each Ichiban Kuji series is built around one franchise — a set of prizes designed and produced just for that release. Across the 22 Dragon Ball series we track, a ticket costs between ¥730 and ¥900 depending on the series.
At the store, you pay at the register and draw a sealed ticket from the box. The letter printed inside is your prize rank, and you redeem it on the spot. Every lot ships with a fixed assortment of tickets: only a handful map to the big figures at the top of the lineup, while most map to the smaller goods further down.
The prize ranks
Prizes are lettered from A downwards. The A Prize is the flagship — in Dragon Ball series, almost always a large painted figure — and the letters below it descend through smaller figures into practical goods like towels, glassware, and acrylic stands. We break down what each rank is actually worth on the aftermarket in Prize Ranks Explained.
The Last One Prize
Whoever draws the final ticket in a lot receives the Last One Prize on top of whatever their ticket won — usually an exclusive variant of the top figure, such as a recolor or an alternate pose. Because exactly one exists per lot, Last One Prizes are consistently the most expensive prizes on the aftermarket: the ones we track currently list around a median of $164, against $90 for A Prizes. Browse every one on our Last One Prize list.
Double Chance
Many series also run a "Double Chance Campaign": tickets carry a serial code that can be entered online after the sales period for a shot at an extra prize, typically another run of the top figure. It's a second life for a ticket that drew a low rank.
Where tickets are sold
Availability differs per series, but across the series we track the usual suspects are convenience stores (7-Eleven, Lawson, FamilyMart, Ministop), Ito-Yokado, bookstores, hobby shops, some game centers, and Bandai's official Ichiban Kuji shops. There is also an official online version, Ichiban Kuji ONLINE — but it ships within Japan only. If you live outside Japan, see our guide to buying from overseas.
Why prizes get expensive after the series ends
Ichiban Kuji prizes are produced once, for one sales run, and never restocked. Once the lots sell out, the only way to get a prize is the aftermarket — and for popular series, demand doesn't stop when supply does.
Track any Dragon Ball prize
OtaArchive records eBay market prices for all 219 prizes across every Dragon Ball Ichiban Kuji series, updated weekly. Start from the series index or jump straight to the most expensive prizes.
Published 2026-07-17. Market figures on this page are recomputed from the latest weekly price snapshot every time the site builds.