I still remember the day we got our first shipment of the POP MART The Monsters "Have a Seat" Vinyl Plush series. It was a chaotic morning at the PopNya warehouse, boxes everywhere. We were unboxing cases, checking inventory, and doing the usual pre-launch hustle. And then, my partner pulled one from a box. It wasn't one of the regular designs.
It was pink. A soft, almost dusty rose pink. And it had these big, embroidered labubu heart eyes.
We just stopped and stared at it for a second. We knew it was the secret, the chase figure of the set. But this one felt different. It wasn't just a rare colorway or a slight design tweak. It had this... Personality. This look of pure, unadulterated adoration. We immediately knew it was going to be a problem. A very, very popular problem.
That little monster was Ququ. And it completely broke the LABUBU market for a while.
The Anatomy of a Phenomenon: What is Ququ?
For anyone just joining the LABUBU craze, let's get the basics down. The figure everyone is searching for is officially called the "Secret" from the Pop Mart Labubu Have a Seat Ququ series. Most people just call it Ququ, Heart Eyes Labubu, or sometimes even qui qui labubu (a common typo I see in our site search all the time).
This series was unique because it blended a soft, plush body with a vinyl face. You could squish it, but it still had that classic, beautifully sculpted Kasing Lung monster face. The regular figures in the set are all sitting on different colored stools, hence the "Have a Seat" name. They're all adorable. But Ququ... Ququ doesn't have a stool. It's just sitting there, arms open, looking at you with those heart eyes.
The quality on this one is fantastic. The plush is incredibly soft, and the vinyl face is perfectly integrated.It's not just a cheap plushie; it's a well-constructed designer piece. One detail I noticed that most people miss is the slight difference in texture between the fuzzy body and the smoother, shorter pile on the inside of the ears. It's a tiny thing, but it shows the level of thought that went into it.
But let's be real. The design, while great, isn't the only reason for the madness. It was the perfect storm of cute design, extreme scarcity, and social media hype.
A Seller's Nightmare: The "Ququ Labubu Price" Explosion
As a seller, watching the secondary market for a hyped item is like watching a stock ticker go haywire. It's both fascinating and terrifying. The "Have a Seat" blind boxes retailed for around $18-$20. The odds of pulling the secret Ququ are officially 1 in 144. That means you'd have to buy 12 full cases of 12 boxes to guarantee one. Do the math. That's a huge investment.
Naturally, not everyone wants to buy 144 blind boxes. So they turn to the secondary market.
Within the first week of release, I saw the ququ labubu price hit $150. Two weeks later, it was consistently selling for $220-$250. At its absolute peak, I saw a confirmed sale on StockX for over $350. It was pure insanity. For a single, non-limited edition (just rare) plush figure, those are numbers you usually see for high-end art pieces, not a blind box chase.
We had customers emailing us, begging us to sell them our display model. We had people offering to buy any empty boxes we had, just for the art. The demand was unlike anything we'd seen for a single Labubu figure before, even surpassing some of the hype for the Exciting Macaron Labubu secrets. It felt like a turning point, where LABUBU went from a popular designer toy to a mainstream cultural obsession.
This price surge also brought out the fakes. Fast. If you're buying a Ququ on a third-party platform, be incredibly careful. The first sign of a fake is usually the stitching quality and the feel of the plush. The real ones are dense and soft; fakes often feel flimsy and have a rougher, cheaper fabric. Check the tag, too. The printing on fake tags is often blurry or uses the wrong font. Honestly, if you're worried about authenticity, The Honest Labubu Macaron Buyer's Guide has some good general tips on spotting fakes that apply here too.
Real Talk: Why Did Everyone Lose Their Minds Over This One Toy?
So, why? Why this one? I've had a lot of late-night chats with other collectors and spent hours staring at our inventory, and I think I've boiled it down to a few key things.
First, the color. Pink is, and always will be, a powerhouse color in the designer toy world. It's universally appealing and photographs incredibly well for social media. We even have a whole guide on the best pink Labubu figures because the demand is so consistent. Ququ's specific shade of pink is just perfect, not too bright, not too pale.
Second, and most obviously, the heart eyes. This is the emotional core of the figure. Labubu's default expression is a little mischievous, with that toothy grin. It's what we love about him. But the heart eyes change the entire narrative. It's pure, unfiltered love and adoration. In a world that can feel pretty cynical, holding a little monster that is literally looking at you with hearts in its eyes is... Powerful. It's a shot of pure serotonin. It's a mood. It's the ultimate reaction image in physical form.
Third, the timing and format. The vinyl-plush hybrid was a fresh concept for The Monsters. It made it more of a "cuddle companion" than just a shelf piece. It dropped at a time when LABUBU's popularity was already on a steep upward curve, thanks to series like the Macarons and the hype around crossover collaborations like the One Piece Labubu set. Ququ was the spark that lit the bonfire.
And finally, the social media feedback loop. Someone would post their lucky pull of Ququ. The post would get thousands of likes. People would see it and the desire would grow. They'd go out and buy more boxes, creating more scarcity. The few that appeared on resale sites would get snapped up instantly, driving the price higher. It was a self-perpetuating hype machine.
Our Take as Sellers
Okay, let me be 100% honest with you. Is the Pop Mart Labubu Ququ figure amazing? Yes. It's a fantastic piece and one of my all-time favorite secret designs. Is it worth $300? For me, personally? No.
As a seller, it's weird to tell people not to spend money, but I believe in being straight with our community. For the price of one Ququ on the secondary market, you could buy two entire cases of a brand new LABUBU series. You could get 24 chances at a new adventure, a new secret, and the fun of unboxing.
The value of Ququ is now almost entirely driven by market hype and its status as a "grail." If you are a die-hard collector, you have the disposable income, and this figure would be the crown jewel of your collection, then go for it. But if you're a casual fan who just thinks it's cute, please do not go into debt for it. There are so many other incredible figures in the wider LABUBU collection that will bring you just as much joy for a fraction of the price. The hype around the Have a Seat Labubu V2 series was also intense, but even its chase didn't quite reach Ququ levels, showing how unique this situation was.
The Minnesota Question and Finding Labubu in the Wild
This is a slightly random but surprisingly common question we get. We see search terms on our site like "labubu minnesota" or "Labubu Chicago" all the time. The reality of the designer toy scene in the US is that it's still heavily concentrated on the coasts. There are very few physical stores in the Midwest, South, or Mountain West that carry a deep inventory of POP MART products.
If you're in Minnesota, or Nebraska, or Idaho, your chances of walking into a local shop and finding a "Have a Seat" box, let alone a Ququ, are practically zero at this point. That series is long sold out from official distributors.
This is a huge part of why we started PopNya. We wanted to be that "local" shop for everyone who doesn't live near a major city with a dedicated toy scene. We ship from our warehouse, so whether you're in labubu minnesota or Labubu, Florida, you have the same access as someone in Los Angeles. The internet has become the great equalizer for collectors.
So, where can you get a labubu heart eyes now? Your only realistic options are:
1. Secondary Marketplaces: StockX, eBay, Mercari. Be prepared to pay a hefty premium and be vigilant about fakes. 2. Collector Groups: Facebook groups and Discord servers are great places to trade or buy directly from other fans. You might get a better price, but the risk is higher. 3. Pure Luck: Maybe you'll find one at a toy convention or stumble upon an old box in a small, forgotten shop. It's a long shot, but the dream is what keeps us collecting, right?
The labubu heart eyes figure, Ququ, isn't just a toy. It's a piece of collecting history. It is a moment when a character's design perfectly captured the hearts of a massive audience, creating a tidal wave of demand that the market is still feeling today. It's a reminder that sometimes, a simple pair of heart eyes can be the most powerful design of all.
Even now, whenever we get a Ququ on consignment, it doesn't even make it to the website. It's usually sold within minutes to someone on our waiting list. It still has that magic.
Disclosure: PopNya may earn a commission if you purchase through links on this page.
