Labubu fever: a new wave of investment is emerging around collectible figures

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 08. 22. 11:22

There are more and more signs that collectibles and other collectibles are not just a fad, but also an investment opportunity, writes Telex. Canadian billionaire businessman Kevin O’Leary, a well-known character in the show Shark Tank, told CNBC about this, showing off his Louis Vuitton Labubu figure during an interview.

According to O’Leary, something similar is happening in the collectibles market today, similar to what happened in contemporary art two decades ago: collecting, which starts as a hobby, can in some cases become a real investment asset class. As an example, he mentioned the Labubu series produced by the Chinese company Pop Mart, which has led the list of collectible brands on the StockX reseller platform since October 2024. Demand for the figures is unabated: in the first half of this year, the word “Labubu” was searched for 2.4 million times, and in some cases, a piece originally sold for $40 sold for $4,000.

According to the billionaire, however, the potential is not only in the toy figures. He highlighted the sports card market, which generates $380-400 million a month in the United States. O’Leary sees a collection of baseball cards sitting in a dusty basement as being worth millions today, and some pieces are even appreciating faster than the S&P 500 stock index. On the Card Ladder platform, individual cards are still being offered for millions of dollars.

Based on the example of the Labubu craze and sports cards, O’Leary believes that the collectibles market may increasingly become a target for investors in the coming years, and the collecting passion may even bring serious financial returns to those who act in time.