In mid-June, two boxes from Pop Mart, the buzzy toy shop with an outpost in Stonestown Galleria, arrived at Angel Marie Letele’s home in South San Francisco. Letele had placed a big order, which included three Labubus — those ubiquitous plushies with mischievous grins that hang off purse straps and belt loops the world over.
One of the boxes was untouched. The other had been clearly torn, its bubble insulation deflated: This was the box with Letele’s Labubus inside.
“I've never really had a package been ripped into preemptively before it comes. I’ve had them be misdelivered or lost but not damaged,” Letele said. Fortunately, the Labubu toys were still inside.
Oakland resident Marisol Gutierrez had a similar experience: Her most recent Pop Mart order was delivered with what looked like peep holes poked on the sides. “It was obvious they pulled on the holes to look inside,” she said in a text message. (Fortunately, this one was not snatched because despite all of her Labubu orders, this order was for another toy: Molly.)
Letele and Gutierrez are not alone: Packages all over the country containing Labubus have been tampered with before being delivered. On Reddit and Discord enthusiast communities for these coveted toys, it’s a known caveat emptor: Labubu boxes shipped from Pop Mart may be opened or otherwise messed with. Horror stories abound of boxes being dropped off that were already opened, or worse, boxes that were stolen seconds after a delivery notification has been sent.
“I was sharing my experience with others on [the local Bay Area fan] Discord and others also shared their pictures of crushed or opened packages,” Gutierrez told me. “It seems very common.”
These toys are serious business. Pop Mart is the sole official vendor of Labubus in the United States, and was recently valued at $43 billion, in large part off the popularity of these toys. The elven plushes, inspired by Norse mythology, were created by Hong Kong-Belgian artist Kasing Lung — and exploded in popularity in Thailand, then across Asia, when Lisa of the K-pop group Blackpink and The White Lotus was spotted with one hanging from her purse. (It’s since been spotted with everyone from Houston Rockets player Dillon Brooks to Rihanna to Thai royalty.)
Some of the more in-demand Labubu toys can be found on the secondhand market for triple digits. Many Pop Mart locations, including the one in Stonestown, have ceased selling the toys altogether for crowd control purposes, only making them available via the Pop Mart app and website, Pop Mart’s QVC-esque livestreams on TikTok, or vending machines parked outside of Pop Mart stores.
The demand has “wreaked havoc” at these vending machines, where arguments and full-on brawls are commonplace, San Francisco-based Labubu stan Cara Huang told Gazetteer. As they’ve blown up, they’ve gotten more expensive, in part due to tariffs imposed on Chinese-made goods. An entire ecosystem of scalpers, “Lafufu” knockoffs, and secondhand shops selling both has sprouted in the wake of Labubu fever.
Therefore, the way that most people can secure an authentic Labubus without paying an exorbitant markup, purchasing a knockoff, or getting into fisticuffs is getting one from Pop Mart’s digital platform during a new Labubu drop. But even those lucky enough to snag one cannot guarantee that they’ll come intact.
So, who’s messing with the Labubus?
Porch pirates, of course, are the obvious culprits. Customs officials in the US have also been floated as a possibility. But the theory that has ultimately prevailed among Labubu collectors is that the delivery drivers responsible for their precious cargo are the ones taking them. The logic: How else could packages be left at doorsteps already opened? It’s an idea widespread enough that some aggrieved customers are apparently filing police reports and purchasing Ring cameras.
“The branding is what’s causing delivery service people to decide to peek inside or take less care of the packages,” said Gutierrez.
Letele, a Labubu collector for over two years, says she’s seen more and more incidents of tampered-with packages as the toys have skyrocketed in notoriety.
“I think people just figured out, Hey, Labubus come from Pop Mart. This box clearly says Pop Mart. Let's go check this one,” said Letele.
Complaints about the issue have been met largely with muted responses from Pop Mart. (The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Gazetteer.)
“Some people have gotten, basically, a ‘fuck you’ from Pop Mart,” Letele said. “Or if you really raise the issue enough, maybe they'll give you a $5 coupon, but they won't go and replace things.”
For what it’s worth, Pop Mart has caught on to some extent. Up until a few weeks ago, the shop’s packages were sealed with “Pop Mart”-branded tape — making the contents inside more or less apparent for those in the know. Now, packages come with a more discreet crown logo stamped on the tape.
Despite this fix, Letele says that the number of reports she’s seen online of damaged and stolen packaging has “exploded” in recent weeks.
If Pop Mart has caught on, so has everyone else. The Labubu economy is ruthless.
