The day Pop Mart opened LABUBU Popland in Beijing, my phone basically melted. It wasn't from notifications about my own store, PopNya. It was a flood of DMs, group chat pings, and frantic messages from fellow collectors. The first photos were hitting social media: a giant, whimsical LABUBU statue at the entrance, themed rides, and most importantly, shelves upon shelves of exclusive merchandise.
For those of us not in Beijing, it felt like we were staring through the glass of the world's greatest candy store. As a seller, I was in a strange position. I was just as hyped as any other fan, but I also had my business hat on. My immediate thought wasn't "I need to go!" it was "How am I going to get my hands on that merch for my customers... And for myself?"
This isn't a travel guide. You can find those elsewhere. This is a field report from the trenches of the secondary market, a breakdown of what actually happened when the world's first Pop Mart theme park opened its doors and unleashed a new level of LABUBU mania.
The Park is the Bait, The Merch is the Hook
Let's be real. The park looks incredible. From the photos, it's a pastel-colored dreamscape dedicated to Kasing Lung's The Monsters universe. There's the "Mysterious Fishing" ride, the massive "POP LAND" sign, and photo ops everywhere. It's a fantastic brand-building exercise for Pop Mart.
But for the 99.9% of the global fanbase who can't just hop on a flight to Beijing, the park itself is an abstract concept. The merchandise, however, is very, very real. And it was designed to create maximum FOMO.
Pop Mart knew exactly what they were doing. They didn't just release a few park-branded t-shirts. They dropped an entire collection of exclusive, must-have items that you could only buy at LABUBU Popland.
The main draws were: * The Monsters City Park Series Plush Dolls: These were the stars. LABUBU, ZIMOMO, TYCOCO, and PATO dressed in adorable park-themed outfits. The quality looked a step above the usual releases. * The Monsters Lay Down Stacked Mini Figure: This was the sleeper hit. A solid vinyl figure of LABUBU, ZIMOMO, and TYCOCO stacked on top of each other. It's a unique sculpt, not just a repaint, which is a huge deal for collectors. * City Park Plush Pendants: Smaller, keychain-sized versions of the plush dolls. * Various other park-exclusive accessories: Mugs, headbands, bags, and blind box display cases.
The moment these hit the shelves in Beijing, the secondary market exploded.
A Real-Time Look at Price Insanity
This is the part that other articles won't tell you. I was tracking this in real-time, getting messages from my contacts and watching the aftermarket platforms.
Let's take the City Park LABUBU Plush Doll. Retail price in the park was ¥299, which is roughly $41 USD. A totally reasonable price.
* Day 1 (Opening Day): Personal shoppers (or "daigou") inside the park were already taking pre-orders for $100-$120 USD. This price included their service fee, park ticket cost, and the sheer difficulty of getting the items, as stock was limited per person. * Day 3: The first batch of these plushies started arriving with international sellers. The price immediately jumped to $150. They were selling out instantly. * One Week Later: The price stabilized, if you can call it that, around $180 to $250. I saw a complete set of the four main plush dolls sell for over $800.
The Lay Down Stacked Mini Figure was even crazier. It retailed for ¥499 (about $69 USD). I saw it listed for $300 within 48 hours. It's a beautiful, heavy piece, but that's a 4x markup driven purely by artificial scarcity. This kind of hype is something we've seen with other series like the Exciting Macaron Labubu, but the park exclusivity added a whole new layer of intensity.
The "Popland Website" Doesn't Really Exist (For You)
A lot of people were searching for the "popland website," hoping to find an online store where they could buy these items directly. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it doesn't work that way.
There is no separate, transactional website for Popland. The park is a physical retail location. The Pop Mart global site did have an extremely limited online release for some of the Popland items a few weeks after the opening. I was there, finger on the button, trying to score some for PopNya.
It was a bloodbath.
The items were listed as "Coming Soon." The moment the timer hit zero, every single item switched to "Sold Out." We're not talking minutes. We're talking less than a second. Bots, scripts, and thousands of desperate collectors all clicked at the same instant. The chance of a normal person successfully checking out was practically zero.
So, for all intents and purposes, these items remain park-exclusives. Your only realistic options are paying a daigou or buying from a reseller like us, and both routes involve the significant markups I mentioned earlier.
Our Take: A Seller's Honest Verdict
So, is any of this worth it? As someone who both collects and sells, here's my honest take.
For the casual collector or someone new to LABUBU: Absolutely not. Do not spend $200 on a single plush doll. The price is pure hype. You can get so many other amazing LABUBU figures for that price. The hype around these exclusives is similar to what we saw with the initial LABUBU Big into Energy drop, where scarcity drove prices sky-high. Your money is better spent exploring the core series or grabbing a beautiful older piece. Start with our main LABUBU collection to see the incredible variety that exists outside this bubble.
For the die-hard, completionist collector: I get it. The Lay Down Stacked figure is a genuinely unique and hefty piece of art. The City Park plushies have a certain charm and a story attached to them. If you have the disposable income and it will bring you joy to have a piece of Popland history on your shelf, then go for it. But please, be smart.
Here's my real advice: Set a hard limit for yourself. Don't get caught in a bidding war. And be patient. Sometimes, after the initial hype dies down, prices can dip slightly. Or, Pop Mart might do a wider, more accessible release later on. They did this with some convention exclusives in the past. It's not guaranteed, but it's possible.
A Collector's Tip: Quality, Fakes, and What to Look For
Because I've handled both the Popland exclusives and countless other LABUBU products, I can give you some ground-level details.
The quality on the Popland plushies is excellent. The fabric feels a little softer, and the stitching on the little outfits is very clean. The tag is the most important part. The official Popland merchandise has a specific paper tag with the "POP LAND" logo and a holographic Pop Mart sticker. This is your first line of defense against fakes.
And yes, fakes are already out there. It's sickening, but it's the reality of the market. I saw a fake City Park LABUBU plush being sold for $50, which is just above retail, preying on people looking for a "deal."
How to spot a fake Popland plush: 1. The Tag: As mentioned, look for the official POP LAND logo and the holo sticker. Fakes often have a generic "The Monsters" tag or a poorly printed, non-holographic sticker. 2. The Face: This is the hardest for counterfeiters to get right. Look at the eyes and the teeth. On fakes, the eyes are often slightly misshapen or not perfectly symmetrical. The teeth might be painted on sloppily, with paint bleeding outside the lines. 3. The Price: If a deal seems too good to be true, it is. No one is selling a legitimate Popland exclusive for under $100 right now. It's just not happening.
The Lay Down Stacked figure is harder to fake due to the complexity of the mold, but I'd still advise buying only from reputable sellers with a history of selling authentic designer toys. Check their reviews. Ask for detailed photos. This is a high-value item, and you need to be careful. The popularity of these unique items echoes the frenzy for special editions like The Monsters x One Piece Labubu, where authenticity is everything.
The opening of LABUBU Popland is a massive moment for the designer toy world. It solidifies Pop Mart and LABUBU as a global phenomenon, moving from a niche collectible to a full-blown entertainment brand. It's exciting, but it also creates a new tier of "unobtainable" items that can be frustrating for the average fan.
My hope is that Pop Mart finds a better way to serve its international audience in the future. Maybe a dedicated online store for park merch with a lottery system, or more stock allocated for the global website. Until then, the market will be dictated by those on the ground in Beijing.
For now, my "trip" to Popland remains a virtual one, experienced through glowing screens and the thrill of tracking down these elusive little monsters for my shop. It's a wild, expensive, and sometimes frustrating part of the job, but seeing the joy when a collector finally gets their "grail" makes the hunt worthwhile. Just be sure you know what you're hunting for and what you're willing to pay.
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