The rise of Labubunomics: How merchants and marketplaces are cashing in on the viral Pop Mart toy

While some Labubu figures retail for $20-$30, limited editions can fetch hundreds or even thousands of dollars on resale platforms like StockX and eBay. Recently, a rare, first-generation Labubu figure sold for $150,000 at an auction. 

Chalice has seen many trends — from the Beanie Baby craze of the 1990s to the rise of Jellycats — but co-owner Kenny So told Modern Retail, “We’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Labubu debuted in 2015 as part of a Nordic-inspired picture-book series by artist Kasing Lung, and Pop Mart started to license and manufacture the monsters as toys in 2019. New collections are released every few months, on average, and restocks happen on Thursdays through Pop Mart’s official website, often selling out in a matter of seconds. Pop Mart has 21 stores in the U.S. and aims to have at least 40 by the end of 2025, the company’s head of licensing at Pop Mart North America told Bloomberg.

Labubu has turned into a viral sensation thanks to TikTok haul videos, “blind boxes,” — which means customers don’t know what version of Labubu they have until they open it — flash drops, and a fervent collector base willing to pay a premium on secondary markets to snag one of the little gremlins for themselves. Units on StockX and Whatnot routinely sell out in a matter of seconds. Buyers are setting calendar alerts. And prices keep climbing.

This is Labubunomics. There’s a competitive and frenzied economy forming around Labubus, spawning a booming secondary market driven by skyrocketing demand, tight supply, price gouging and, invariably, knock-offs. For third-party marketplaces and sellers, Labubu has become a powerful revenue engine practically overnight. But its success has also invited consumer frustration over shortages and counterfeits. 

“Anecdotally, every time I look at Labubu, it’s hitting a new high,” Drew Haines, merchandising director at the resale platform StockX, told Modern Retail. “We see things spike and fall very quickly, and when you see something steadily rising month after month after month after month, that’s an indicator to us that it has staying power.”

Haines gestured to the fuzzy Labubu keychain on his backpack, which he acquired as part of Pop Mart’s “Big Into Energy” drop in April. “They’re making incredible products, and there’s so much demand right now,” Haines said. “It’s becoming a household name, and yet, I still think we’re early in the upward swing.”

The Labubu boom

Labubus have surged in popularity ever since BLACKPINK’s Lisa sported a Labubu doll as a clip-on on her bag in 2024. She also shared her obsession for Labubu in a 2024 interview with Vanity Fair. The hype has translated into big business for Pop Mart. In 2024, Pop Mart’s revenue doubled from the year before to nearly $2 billion, driven in large part by Labubu’s growing internet fame.

Since then, more celebrities have hopped on the bandwagon. In February, Rihanna was spotted with a Labubu bag charm. As recently as Memorial Day weekend, Lizzo posted a video on social media where she rapped, “Can’t even outdress my Labubu.”

Now, third-party marketplaces are also increasingly cashing in. 

At Whatnot, Labubu is “one of the fastest-growing categories” on the platform, Armand Wilson, Whatnot’s vp of categories and expansion, told Modern Retail. The platform saw Labubu sales “really take off” in March, Wilson said, in line with more attention from influencers and celebrities. The GMV of Labubu products has jumped 300% month over month since then.

“A lot of what makes Labubu great is the collectibility and the unboxing behavior,” Wilson said. But the rise of Labubu also reminds Wilson of other buzzy, collectible products on Whatnot. “They’re very crossed over with sneaker and streetwear culture,” Wilson said. “A lot of our sellers have the ability to get Labubus, and they’re selling them because they’re the hot thing.” On Whatnot, the number of Labubu sellers has more than doubled each month since March.

At StockX, the success of Labubu has helped Pop Mart become the No.1 traded brand in collectibles for eight months straight. Labubu has also become one of the top-traded names on the site, across all categories. “A large portion of our business is these Labubu products,” Haines said.

In April, Labubu set a StockX record for release-day sales with its six pack of “Big Into Energy” plushes. Those have racked up more than 12,000 sales in the last two months; their average resale price is $268, a nearly 60% premium compared to the original retail price of $168. Other releases — the “Exciting Macaron” Labubu in 2023 and the “Have a Seat” Labubu in 2024 — “sold out immediately,” Haines said.

While not all Labubu dolls come on keychains, many do — a fact StockX hopes to lean into when marketing around the back-to-school season. “What is everyone going to want for their backpack?” Haines asked. “Labubu.” He also thinks Labubu will be big for the holidays.

Social media has turbocharged the craze, with collectors and even retailers posting videos and photos featuring Labubu. On TikTok, the hashtag #labubu has been used in 1.6 million posts, with many being “blind unboxing” videos, in which users reveal which figurine they pulled from a multipack and react in real-time with delight or disappointment. The mystery of not knowing what’s inside each box has fueled the hype around Labubu, driving collectors to chase down every version. 

On the Reddit community r/Labubu — which has 92,000 members — fans not only share photos of their collections, but they also trade tips and tricks about how to snag the elusive dolls for themselves. Pop Mart’s most recent collection featuring the viral monster dolls dropped late at night on June 12, and it’s already sold out, according to the company’s website. To beat the system, savvy consumers try entering a direct URL structure based on prior product pages to find new listings before they’re made public.

Even Pop Mart’s TikTok livestreams, which may or may not include Labubu drops, attract thousands of hopeful viewers. The odds of scoring one at retail are so slim that many fans turn to the thriving secondary market. 

Brooke Monk, a 22-year-old TikTok creator, estimates she’s spent more than $800 buying Labubus from local resellers in the past two weeks alone — often paying two to four times the retail price to secure her favorites. On social media, collectors have accused some resellers of being scalpers.

For its part, Chalice tries to keep its prices reasonable, but Labubu’s value is climbing so rapidly, it’s difficult to keep up. Chalice has seen prices for Labubus from its suppliers — which source all over Asia — rise as much as 30% in a single week. By the end of the year, Chalice expects Pop Mart toys to make up about 50% of its business. The company is also in the process of getting a direct account with Pop Mart to help scale the business even further. 

‘Dupest of dupes’

Still, the Labubu boom is potentially a legal minefield, as knockoffs known as “Lafufus” have started circulating online. They have become divisive among fans. For instance, there are entire threads on Reddit forums and Discord servers devoted to distinguishing real Labubus from fake ones. But some collectors, like Elizabeth Denton, a 40-year-old fashion journalist, are deliberately snapping up Lafufus rather than paying a premium to acquire the genuine article on resale platforms. She described her Lafufu as “a dupe from the dupest of dupes.”

Resale platforms, concerned about selling fake products, are also on the lookout for Lafufus. Last year, the two top-counterfeited products coming into StockX were Labubus. To be “extra thorough” in its verification process, StockX removes the cellophane wrapper from Labubu multipacks, Haines explained. StockX then verifies each box inside individually, using a QR code on the back that’s unique to that box.

But the counterfeits don’t end with Lafufus. Across eBay, Etsy and AliExpress, sellers are churning out miniature knock-off designer outfits, from matching Prada sets to Gucci overalls, all designed to fit snugly over the Labubu’s small frame. (Clever merchants cover up logos, like the case with this Alo sweatsuit on eBay.) Labubu owners can also dress up their monsters in crochet onesies of Disney’s Stitch. (Some owners, like 30-year-old security analyst Reagan Klinger-Neviska, crochet original dresses and skirts for their Labubu. “I’ve made her multiple outfits,” she told Modern Retail.)

Chalice has actually been gifted faux designer looks from suppliers to sell. But Chalice would rather sidestep any potential legal risk. “We just give them away for free, because we try not to sell anything that’s not authentic,” So said. StockX’s Haines made a similar point. “There’s a cottage industry that’s popped up around Labubu clothes,” he said. “But it’s nothing official, and for that reason, it’s not in our scope.”

While platforms like Etsy and eBay are generally shielded from liability if they promptly remove infringing listings after receiving a takedown notice, that protection can disappear if platforms are found to knowingly facilitate infringement, according to Robert Freund, a marketing and advertising attorney. Nike, for example, has been locked in a tense legal battle with StockX since 2022 after Nike said it found counterfeits of its shoes sold on StockX. As Labubu becomes more mainstream, brands may be increasingly incentivized to take action, according to Freund. 

“It’s the nature of the way trademark laws work,” Freund said. “That essentially means that brands have to very actively police the marketplace.”