A full-fledged economy has developed around Animal Crossing villager trading, with Raymond being the most valuable of them all. The smug, odd-eyed cat is dapper, delightful, and outrageously desirable. Devoted fans regularly trade stacks upon stacks of Nook Miles Tickets and millions of bells for the chance to get Raymond on their island. Earlier this month, Raymond “in boxes” sold in an eBay auction for $902.
PokéNinja, a streamer and content creator, wanted to shake this up by handing out villagers for free as an antidote to high prices and greed. Using a game save editor, he was able to create any villager—even Raymond—in a ready-to-move status. When a villager is “in boxes,” the first person who visits them can talk them into moving into their town. Soon after PokéNinja hosted his giveaway, he was overwhelmed by requests. “I currently have about 100+ PMs + 100+ replies all asking me for a villager. I’m not ignoring y’all,” he said in a tweet.
Over the course of a few hours, he gave away about 30 Raymonds, along with other popular villagers, like Marshal and Judy.
Unfortunately, his grand giveaway is over, but he’s planning to share more villagers in the future. “I did see a message from someone saying that they’d like to donate to a charity of choosing for a villager and I loved that idea so I might snowball that into another random idea soon as well,” he tweeted.
