How Secret Rares Work in Pop Mart's System
Pop Mart's blind box system has multiple rarity tiers. Regular figures are included in every box. Within a series, each figure has a roughly equal pull rate. Hidden or limited figures (marked on the packaging) have lower rates. Secret rares are a separate category entirely — they're not mentioned on the outer box at all.
A standard blind box case contains 12 boxes. Secret rares are distributed at approximately 1 per 144 boxes — meaning one full case of 12 is not enough to guarantee a secret rare. Statistically, you'd expect one in every 12 full cases (144 boxes total). In practice, pull rates are random and some buyers pull secret rares early while others never get one.
Why Secret Rares Are So Valuable
The combination of genuine scarcity, surprise discovery, and design uniqueness drives secret rare value. Most secret rare Labubu variants have significantly different colorways, finishes, or design elements compared to standard series figures — they're not just a slight variation but a noticeably distinct piece.
On the secondary market, secret rares from popular series routinely sell for 5–20x the original retail price of a single blind box. A blind box that retails for $14.99 might contain a secret rare that sells for $150–$300 on StockX or eBay. High-demand secret rares from sold-out series have exceeded $500.
Strategies for Getting a Secret Rare
Buy full cases: purchasing a full case of 12 blind boxes improves your statistical odds (roughly 1/12 chance of having a secret rare somewhere in the 12 boxes). This is expensive upfront but better expected value than buying individual boxes if a specific secret rare is your target.
Buy the secret rare directly: on secondary market platforms (StockX, eBay, collector Discord servers), secret rares are sold individually by people who pulled them. Paying the secondary market premium is expensive but eliminates the gamble.
Join collector communities: before a new series drops, collector communities research and document which packaging feels different (sometimes secret rare boxes have slightly different weight). This is not officially confirmed by Pop Mart, but community experience from thousands of pulls does identify patterns.