HowTo Network emblem How To: Gaming THE HOW TO CO. — EDITION 10
A case of sealed blind boxes stacked under warm shelf light, one box open at the front.

SHELF 02 / 07 · BLIND BOXES

TWELVE
DESIGNS SEALED
IN IDENTICAL BOXESand one that almost
never comes.

Pop Mart made the format famous, but the arithmetic is older than the toys. Learn the rate first and the shelf costs you a great deal less.

You are here.

SHELF 02 / 07 · BLIND BOXES

01 YOU ARE HERE 02 03 04 05 06 07 BLIND BOXES. POP MART · ODDS & CHASE · FAKES
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 BLIND BOXES. POP MART · ODDS & CHASE · FAKES

Every chapter in this region is a bay on this wall. This one is 02. Back to the wall to walk the rest.

The pull, drawn to scale.

DRAWN IN THE GALLERY

A case is twelve boxes and twelve designs, which is the part everyone already understands. The chase is not a thirteenth box — it is a rate, and most series publish it at about one in a hundred and forty-four. Below, that rate is drawn to scale against the case: the gold cell is the chase, and every cell beside it is something you paid for on the way.

REGISTER 01 — THE SERIES LINEUP TWELVE DESIGNS · ONE SEALED BOX 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 LID SEAM GLUE LINE FOIL BAG ONE BOX, SHUT THE LINEUP CARD REGISTER 02 — THE PUBLISHED RATE ONE CHASE IN 144 BOXES ONE SEALED CASE ONE CHASE 144 BOXES — TWELVE SEALED CASES REGISTER 03 — CHANCE YOU HAVE PULLED ONE BY CASES OPENED 0 25% 50% 75% 100% 00 06 12 18 24 TWELVE CASES EVEN MONEY WHAT IT TAKES 01 CASES — 8%06 CASES — 39%12 CASES — 63%24 CASES — 87%
REGISTER 01 — THE SERIES LINEUP TWELVE DESIGNS · ONE SEALED BOX 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 THE LINEUP CARD LID SEAM GLUE LINE FOIL BAG ONE BOX, SHUT REGISTER 02 — THE PUBLISHED RATE ONE CHASE IN 144 BOXES ONE CASE ONE CHASE 144 BOXES — TWELVE SEALED CASES REGISTER 03 — CHANCE YOU HAVE PULLED ONE BY CASES OPENED 0 25% 50% 75% 100% 00 06 12 18 24 TWELVE CASES EVEN MONEY WHAT IT TAKES 01 CASES — 8%06 CASES — 39%12 CASES — 63%24 CASES — 87%

The lineup, and the seam.

PLATES 01—02

The drawing above is the argument. These are the two objects it is made of: the row of designs a series prints on its lineup card, and the closed edge of the box that is the only part of the deal you get to inspect before you pay.

A row of small invented vinyl figures standing in a line on a shelf under warm light.
PLATE 01 · THE LINEUPTwelve designs in a row — the only place you ever see all of them at once, and the reason the eleventh duplicate stings.
Macro on the glued lid seam of a sealed blind box, light raking across the fold.
PLATE 02 · THE SEAMGlue that shines, a lid that sits proud. The cheapest check there is, and the one a reseal fails first.

Three cases, three ways to pull.

SHELF 02 · CASES 01—03

Three doors off this shelf. The first is the company that built the format, the second is the arithmetic underneath it, and the third is the one that keeps your money in your pocket. Taken in that order, the shelf teaches you something before it charges you for it.

CASE 01 · THE FORMATVISIT → Pop Mart. The house that turned a sealed cardboard cube into a habit — series, sizes, drops, and how the queue actually works. SERIES · SIZES · DROPS CASE 02 · THE MATHSVISIT → Odds & Chase. What one in a hundred and forty-four costs in practice, and why a full case is the only honest way to buy a set. RATES · CASES · SECRETS CASE 03 · THE INSPECTIONVISIT → Spotting Fakes. Seams, weight, paint edges, and the authenticity code that leads nowhere. Six checks before the money moves. SEAMS · PAINT · CODES
A shelf of sealed blind boxes in warm light, one open just right of centre with its foil bag half drawn out.

You are not buying the figure. You are buying the draw, and the draw has a price list.

POPPY — CLASS: CURATOR
A single chase-variant figure alone under a small spotlight on dark cloth.

FROM THE CURATOR

I stopped opening them at the counter.

For two years I opened every box in the shop doorway, because the disappointment felt smaller in public. Then I did the sums properly and it changed how I buy: I set a number of boxes I am willing to lose on a series, I buy them in one go, and I open them at home on a cloth with the box flats kept flat. The pulls did not get better. My shelf did — because I stopped buying the eleventh copy of a figure I already had and started buying the one I actually wanted from somebody who pulled it. There is no shame in the secondary market. There is a lot of shame in a drawer of duplicates you paid full price for.

BY POPPY — CLASS: CURATOR · THEPINKPIPER.GG

On this shelf shortly.

5 PIECES · IN THE ARCHIVE

The catalogue for shelf 02, in the order a collector tends to need it. Listed here as a promise, not as links — nothing goes live from this page until the piece is written and checked.

01

How to read a blind box series before you buy into it

Design count, box count, the secret rate, and where the series is in its run. Four numbers, and they are all findable before you spend.

BY POPPY
★☆☆ · 6 MIN

02

How to buy a sealed case without overpaying for it

What a case actually guarantees, what a reseller charges for that guarantee, and the price above which the singles market is simply cheaper.

BY IRIS
★★☆ · 9 MIN

03

How to tell a chase from a common in three seconds

Paint separation, a different plastic, and the card that comes with it. The tells are physical, and they are the same across most series.

BY POPPY
★☆☆ · 4 MIN

04

How to spot a resealed blind box on a marketplace

Glue that shines, a seam that sits proud, weight that reads light. What a reseal looks like in a listing photo and what to ask for instead.

BY IRIS
★★★ · 7 MIN

05

How to trade your duplicates without losing the room

Duplicate stacks are the tax on pulling blind. Valuing them honestly, trading in sets, and the one figure never to lead with.

BY POPPY
★★☆ · 5 MIN