Labubu price: what it really costs

Three different prices for the same character

The first is the Pop Mart launch price: the one shown while the series is available in store or on the official site. It is the lowest price, but it assumes you are there at the right moment.

The second is the reseller price. It is higher, and that is normal: it pays for sourcing, tied-up stock, authenticity checks and after-sales service. It is what you pay to have the piece available right now.

The third is the secondary-market price between collectors. There, cost logic no longer applies: scarcity sets the price. A « secret » piece from a sold-out series can reach several times its original price.

What actually drives the price up

Scarcity within the series first. In a blind box, not every character is distributed at the same rate: so-called « secret » pieces are deliberately rare, and that rarity creates the price gap.

Condition next. A sealed box, never opened, is worth markedly more than a figure out of its packaging, even in perfect condition. To a collector, the packaging is part of the piece.

Age finally: a series withdrawn from the catalogue will not come back. Its price then depends only on what collectors are willing to pay.

Format matters too, in the other direction: a plush keychain and a large figure sit in completely different price brackets.

When a low price should alert you

This is the most useful reflex to build. On a sought-after product under pressure, a spectacular discount does not exist: nobody undersells a piece that sells itself.

A price far below market almost always signals one of three things — a counterfeit (« Lafufu »), a box already opened and resold as new, or a shop that will never ship.

Our rule: if the gap with the market exceeds half the price, treat it as a signal of a problem rather than a bargain.

The hidden cost: customs and import charges

This is the line many buyers forget. A figure ordered from outside the European Union — or, from Switzerland, from outside the country — arrives with import VAT and the carrier's customs clearance fee.

On an item worth a few dozen francs or euros, those charges sometimes match the product itself. The advertised price is therefore not the price paid: always compare on a landed basis, once every charge is added.

That is precisely what buying from a seller established in your own country removes.