Jack the Black Cat Squishmallow is rare for one simple reason: Kellytoy only ever made 500 of him. He was not a normal retail toy that quietly sold out. He was built as a trophy, the 500th Squishmallows character ever designed, sold in a single run on a single website, and gone in under two hours. Every unit that exists today came from that one drop.
Quick answer
Jack is rare because his 16-inch debut run was capped at 500 units, sold only on the official Squishmallows store at $39.99, and sold out in under two hours. A smaller 12-inch follow-up run is widely reported at 1,000 units. A common Squishmallow is produced in the tens of thousands, so Jack exists at roughly one one-hundredth of that scale. Tagged 16-inch examples are quoted at $1,800 to $2,500 in 2026.
That number, 500, is doing all the work here. Rarity in the Squishmallows world is not a vague vibe, it is a printed production cap, and Jack sits far below every tier the brand normally sells. Below is what he actually is, what he actually sells for, how to avoid buying a fake, and why the “investment” case for him is weaker than the price tags suggest.
Jack by the numbers
Jack the Black Cat at a glance
Sources: The Toy Book announcement, official Squishmallows store listing, StockX sales history.
Jack was designed to be a milestone, not a product
By late 2020 Kellytoy had designed 499 Squishmallows characters. Number 500 was never going to be another shelf-filler owl. Jack launched as the first entry in the Select Series, the tier the brand created specifically for tiny, collector-facing runs, and everything about him was built to signal that.
He is a matte black cat with closed white eyes, white whiskers and a pale pink nose. The identifying marks are the interesting part: a gold heart patch stamped 500 on his ear, the number 500 embroidered inside the opposite ear, a gold sewn-in label, and a black matte hangtag rather than the usual glossy card. Black hangtags are still the official marker of the Select Series today.
He also sold for a cause. According to the trade announcement in The Toy Book, net proceeds went to Compton Jr. Equestrians, a Los Angeles program that pairs equestrian training with tutoring and mentorship for at-risk kids. That detail rarely makes it into resale listings, but it is part of why the drop was framed as an event rather than a restock.
Note
Jack was sold only through the official Squishmallows website. He never shipped to Target, Walmart, Costco, Five Below or any of the other chains where Squishmallows normally live. That single-channel launch is why almost nobody stumbled onto him by accident, and why the buyer list skewed heavily toward people who were already following the brand closely.
How 500 units compares to a normal Squishmallow run
Jazwares publishes production caps for each rarity tier, which makes this unusually easy to measure. A “Rare” Squishmallow, the entry level of the collector tiers, can exist in up to 75,000 copies worldwide. Jack exists in 500. The gap is so wide that a normal bar chart would render him as a hairline, so the chart below uses a logarithmic scale.
Maximum units produced, by rarity tier
Logarithmic scale. Each bar is drawn on a log axis so the small runs stay visible.
Tier caps from the official Jazwares rarity scale. Jack and JSK figures from published collector reporting.
Two things fall out of that chart. First, Jack is roughly 150 times scarcer than a silver-tag Rare. Second, he is not actually the scarcest Squishmallow anymore, which is the part most articles skip over.
| Tier | Hangtag | Max units | Where sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rare | Silver foil | 75,000 | Broad retail |
| Ultra Rare | Gold | 50,000 | Select retailers |
| Special Edition | Special marking | 20,000 | Select retailers |
| Select Series | Black matte | Small, capped runs | Official store |
| Check-In Series | Purple | Location limited | Specific venues |
| Founders Edition | Redemption card | Smallest of all | Trading card packs |
There are two Jacks, and buyers mix them up constantly
The 500-unit figure applies to the 16-inch original. A 12-inch Jack followed shortly after, and collector reporting consistently puts that second run at 1,000 units. Jazwares never published an official count for it, so treat 1,000 as the community consensus rather than a confirmed number.
This matters when you are shopping. Listings routinely say “1 of 500” on a 12-inch plush, which is either sloppy or deliberate. Measure before you pay.
| 16-inch Jack | 12-inch Jack | |
|---|---|---|
| Run size | 500 (confirmed) | 1,000 (reported) |
| Original price | $39.99 plus shipping | Lower, listed at $20 retail on StockX |
| Last StockX sale | $1,500 | $1,196 |
| Status | The grail | Still very scarce |
What Jack actually sells for in 2026
Prices depend far more on the hangtag than on the plush. A Squishmallow that lost its tag typically drops 50 to 70 percent in value, and Jack is the extreme version of that rule, because many of the original 500 went to households where a child promptly cut the tag off and slept on him.
16-inch Jack: resale value by condition
Bars are proportional to the top of each quoted range. Ranges compiled from collector market reporting and platform sales history, 2023 to 2026.
The single largest price variable is whether the black matte hangtag is still attached and undamaged.
For context, this is the same dynamic that turned a discontinued IKEA monkey into a hundred-dollar plush, only with a far smaller supply. We covered that market in our piece on why the Punch baby monkey plushie sells for hundreds on eBay, and the mechanics are identical: a fixed supply, a discontinued line, and a fandom that treats the tag as proof of provenance.
A timeline of how Jack got here
How to tell a real Jack from a fake
Jack is one of the two most frequently counterfeited Squishmallows, alongside Archie the Axolotl, for the obvious reason that a convincing fake is worth more than a thousand dollars. Work through this checklist before any money moves.
- Find the gold heart. Authentic Jacks carry a gold heart patch stamped 500 on the ear. No patch, no deal.
- Check inside the other ear. The number 500 is embroidered there, and it should be stitched cleanly, not printed or heat-pressed.
- Look for the black matte hangtag. Select Series releases use a matte black card, not the standard glossy one. Fakes often reuse a generic tag.
- Read the spelling. The brand is Kelly Toys. Counterfeits are notorious for “Kelly Toy” and for wrong copyright years.
- Confirm the third tag. Genuine Squishmallows carry a hang tag, a product tag and a sewn-in tush tag with a batch number. Jack adds a gold sewn-in label.
- Squeeze it. The real filling behaves like memory foam and springs back. Fakes feel stiff, lumpy or flat.
- Measure it. A 12-inch plush being sold as “1 of 500” is either mislabeled or a warning sign about the rest of the listing.
Warning
At this price point, treat the transaction like a used-electronics sale, not a toy purchase. Insist on photos of both ears and all tags in the seller’s own hands, pay only through a platform with buyer protection, and never move to a direct transfer to “save fees”. Our guide on how to spot and avoid online scams covers the payment red flags in detail.
Black cats that are not Jack
A large share of the people searching for Jack actually own, or are about to buy, a completely different black cat. Squishmallows has released several, and most of them cost less than a pizza.
| Character | Squad | Telltale detail |
|---|---|---|
| Jack | Select Series | Gold 500 heart patch, black matte tag, closed eyes |
| Autumn | Halloween Squad | Open eyes, purple accents, sold at mass retail |
| Catarina | Halloween Mystery Squad | Blind-bag release, common in 4-inch and 8-inch |
| Assorted seasonal cats | Various | Standard glossy hangtag, no numbered embroidery |
If your black cat has a normal glossy hangtag and open eyes, it is not Jack. That is good news for your kid and bad news for your retirement plan.
Could Jack be reissued, and what would happen if he was
Jazwares has never reissued Jack, and the whole point of the Select Series is that runs are not repeated. But collectors should understand what a reissue does to a price, because it has already happened to another grail.
Fania the purple owl peaked at a reported $2,999 at auction in 2020. She was later re-released, and current market prices sit around $27 to $45. That is a decline of roughly 98 percent, wiping out the entire scarcity premium in a single production decision. The same risk sits under every plush whose value comes from a number printed on a tag rather than from any physical property of the toy.
Tip
If you are buying Jack because you want him, buy him and enjoy him. If you are buying Jack as an asset, size the position as if the manufacturer could halve its value on a Tuesday, because it can. The Select Series is an active line, with new bundles still shipping in 2026, and Jazwares owes the secondary market nothing.
Is Jack a good investment
Honestly, probably not, and it is worth saying plainly because most pages on this topic will not. Jack has three specific problems as an asset. The float is tiny, which sounds good until you need to sell and discover there is no bid. StockX currently shows no active asks on the 16-inch, meaning price discovery relies on a handful of trades a year. And the value is almost entirely tag-dependent, so a single moment of carelessness removes most of it.
Compare that to the collectible categories with real market infrastructure. Graded trading cards and sealed sets have standardized condition grading, published sales indexes and daily liquidity. Plush does not. The gap between “quoted at $2,500” and “sold for $2,500 this month” is where most collectible losses live, a lesson that also runs through the dispute over a $200,000 LEGO collection we reported on earlier this year.
Frequently asked questions
How many Jack the Black Cat Squishmallows were made?
The original 16-inch run was capped at 500 units, sold exclusively on the official Squishmallows website. A later 12-inch run is widely reported at 1,000 units, though Jazwares never confirmed that figure publicly. Combined, fewer than 1,500 Jacks are believed to exist in any size.
How much is Jack the Black Cat Squishmallow worth in 2026?
New-with-tag 16-inch examples are quoted at roughly $1,800 to $2,500. Tagged but displayed copies land nearer $900 to $1,200, and untagged, played-with Jacks sell for $200 to $500. StockX shows $1,500 as the most recent recorded sale for the 16-inch.
What was Jack’s original retail price?
The official store listed the 16-inch Jack at $39.99 plus shipping when he launched in 2020. Resale platforms carry a $30 retail reference for the 16-inch and $20 for the 12-inch, which is why you will see conflicting figures quoted across collector sites.
Is Jack the rarest Squishmallow ever made?
He is the most famous scarce one, but not the scarcest. JSK the Cat, a Founders Edition redeemed through trading card packs, exists in about 250 copies and has traded far higher. Golden Hans, reported at 30 units in the 24-inch size, is scarcer still.
Does the hangtag really change the price that much?
Yes. Losing the original hangtag typically costs a Squishmallow 50 to 70 percent of its resale value, and on Jack that is the difference between a four-figure sale and a few hundred dollars. Never remove or reattach a tag on a limited release.
Where can you buy Jack today?
Only on the secondary market: authenticated platforms such as StockX, plus eBay, Mercari and collector groups. He has never returned to the official store and no restock has ever been announced. Any listing claiming to be “new stock from Jazwares” is a red flag.
The bottom line
Jack the Black Cat is rare because a manufacturer decided, once, to make exactly 500 of something and never make it again. That is the whole mechanism. The 500th-character milestone, the charity tie-in, the black matte tag and the two-hour sellout all layered story on top of the scarcity, and story is what turns a $39.99 plush into a $2,000 one.
The practical takeaway is narrower than the hype. If you want Jack, budget for a tagged example, verify the gold 500 heart and the ear embroidery before paying, and use a platform that will refund you. If you are holding one, leave the tag alone and keep him out of sunlight. And if you are hoping the next Select Series drop is the next Jack, remember Fania: the same company that made a plush scarce can make it common again whenever it wants.
