Pop Mart Mini Labubu Resale Prices Top $340, Doubling Before Official Launch
Pop Mart’s new miniature Labubu collectible figures are sparking a speculative frenzy, with resale prices more than doubling on secondary markets before their official release, signaling sustained hype for the company’s key intellectual property.
Ahead of the official online launch at 10 p.m. Beijing time on August 28, presale listings for the “THE MONSTERS Heartfelt Password Series” have flooded Chinese e-commerce platforms. A full set of the figures, which has a retail price of 1,106 yuan, is being pitched by resellers for as much as 2,450 yuan.
The fervor is most pronounced for the rare “secret” variants. A single blind box costing 79 yuan (US$11) has seen its hidden design trade for as high as 1,188 yuan—a more than fourteen-fold premium. One popular resale platform has already recorded 251 transactions for the yet-to-be-released toys at an average price of 1,921 yuan per set.
This presale demand highlights the continued strength of Pop Mart’s Labubu franchise and the speculative nature of China’s art toy market. The excitement comes as the company’s chief executive officer projects a significant jump in annual revenue for 2025, with data from Tmall showing over 420,000 potential buyers have already added the new product to their online shopping carts.
Pre-Launch Price Surge
The new mini Labubu series, set to launch offline on Friday, comes in two sets, A and B, each containing 14 regular designs and one secret design. While a full set officially costs 1,106 yuan, gray-market sellers have been quick to capitalize on the anticipation. On the e-commerce platform Xianyu, one seller is asking 2,450 yuan for a set, requiring a 735 yuan deposit with a promise to ship within three days of the official launch. Another secondary market platform showed 764 listings for the unreleased items, with transaction volume surging to 81 sets yesterday alone.
The Hunt for Rarity
The highest premiums are being commanded by the "secret" figures, which have a low probability of 1 in 168. The "Love Heart" secret figure, from a single 79-yuan box, was sold by two separate users for 1,188 yuan and 1,100 yuan on August 25. The lowest asking price for the same rare figure currently stands at 679.5 yuan, nearly nine times its retail value.
Market Outlook Remains Volatile
Despite the high asking prices, a stable market price has yet to emerge. "Want-to-buy" posts from prospective customers show offers for a complete set ranging from 1,300 yuan to 2,000 yuan. Some scalpers have posted listings with clauses like "price changes will be honored," but the market remains unpredictable. Factors including Pop Mart’s initial inventory levels, its measures to prevent scalping, and overall consumer reception will heavily influence final resale values, making the secondary market price itself an unopened "blind box."
Pop Mart Eyes Record Revenue
The intense demand for the new series provides a strong tailwind for Pop Mart. The company reported 13.88 billion yuan in revenue for the first half of 2025. During an August 20 earnings call, Chairman and CEO Wang Ning expressed strong optimism for the full year, stating, "We hoped to achieve 20 billion in revenue this year. Now it feels like 30 billion should also be very easy." The strong pre-order interest for the mini Labubu series suggests the company's core intellectual property continues to be a powerful driver of growth.