This year marks the 30th anniversary of Pokémon - and a Stockport shop is taking an innovative approach to help fans celebrate.

Pokémon is an internationally-recognised franchise from Japan, where players collect characters and battle them out in various card and video games.

To mark the anniversary, the franchise has launched one of their most anticipated trading card games to date - it has resulted in a fan frenzy, with Pokémon players around the globe queuing outside shops overnight to secure the latest products and packs.

But Titan Pops, a collectibles shop based in Stockport town centre, has come up with a much fairer way of distributing the new products.

They allowed 500 people to come into their Chestergate store at their leisure to pick up a free raffle ticket.

These people then get the chance of their number pulled out in draws all the way through to November and then assigned to one of the many products in the collection to purchase.

If their number is pulled they have a week to come in store to purchase the product - keeping the whole process fair and giving more people the chance to take part.

This whole process was designed to redress three things: the lack of product in the market against demand; new releases coming on weekdays when people are working or busy; and scalpers who purchase the product and then resell it at a higher amount to make money.

"We introduced our raffle system to level the playing field", said David Bailey, Titan Pops' director.

"If you are working, for example, you can't be at a shop on a Friday morning or whenever the product hits the shelves.

"We gave people up to a week to come in store at any time, grab a ticket and then be in with a chance to get your hands on the newest product."

Although the 30th anniversary Pokémon raffle has now closed, they will be holding a further raffle for the Ultra Premium Collection (UPC) in November and smaller valued products from the set will be on general sale once they get them.

Titan Pops does this with all big releases and drops - next week they will have a new raffle for Destined Rivals ETBs which again will allow people to get a free ticket and if successful they can then purchase one.

"We will continue to do this to support the community in helping people who maybe who wouldn't be able to get products normally", David added.

You can find Titan Pops at Graylaw House on Chestergate.

Their opening times are 10am-5pm on Monday to Saturday, and 11am-4pm on Sundays.

You can also browse their stock online here.