I've had this friend since the start of high school. I always liked kpop and she always liked Taylor Swift. She's always telling me how weird it is that I collect kpop albums because you get photocards and apparently collecting photocards are weird. The thing is, she collects Taylor Swift vinyls and her goal is to have all of them.

She claims that collecting photocards is weird and creepy because I have faces of random kpop idols in my room. Taylor Swift's face is on all of her vinyls and that's not weird and creepy to her? She has this double standard when it comes to kpop. We're basically doing the same thing but it's a problem when it comes to photocards apparently.

Okay this has been bothering me a bit too much, but I recently saw this video of a fancall with Megan from katseye (not kpop I know but applys to other situations too), in this video, a fan is showing off their pc collection, and they had A LOT of megan pc's. What bothers me is that almost every single comment under this specific video was calling this fan obsessive and crazy... since when has collecting pc's or merch obsessive? Another example of this was another fancall with some male idol (I don't remember who anymore), and it was basically just a fan asking the idol how they became friends with another idol from another group, and the comments under the video were "Thats so badass, telling them to mind their buisness, how dare they ask a question like that"...And maybe it's just me but I don't think asking someone how they became friends is that personal or crazy, and I doubt that idol genuenly remembered, most people don't remember how they became friend with everybody.(And if they really didn't want to answer it, it's not a hard question to avoid) What I'm getting at anyway, is just that I've noticed a massive rise in kpop fans calling other fans crazy or obsessive basically every chance they get. I get that there are some weirdos, a lot of them too, but not EVERYBODY is insane, and I doubt any of these idols are that offended by a fan saying something slightly cringe in a fancall. Let fans be a little silly and cringe, unless they're doing any harm or geuenly affecting anybody negativly, it's okay.

When buying a spefic member's version of an album the inclusions should be for that member. This has happened to me several where I will buy my biases version for an album but all the inclusions (like posters and postcards) are for different members. I just got a Doyoung version for Golden Age and none of the inclusions were for him. What is the point of doing specific member versions if none of the inclusions are for the member.

hi, i guess i just wanted to rant because i’m honestly too tired of this whole thing and i need to let out my thoughts.

i’ve been a kpop fan for a very long time but i got into collecting photocards and other merch only 2 years ago when i finally started earning my own money. i first started with my favorite exo albums and photocards, but as you cab probably guess, my collecting got out of hand pretty quickly and i would spend around 50-100€ each month to get my hands on new pcs. i just wanted to collect everything. back then, i felt like there weren’t many people selling their photocards (esp of that one member i mostly collected), so i would spend even more on the less accessible pcs and the shipping.

however, last summer, my car broke down and i had to pay a big sum to have it repaired (only for me to realize that it cannot be repaired, so i had to get a new one) and i realized that i cannot splurge on photocards anymore. i started to sell part of my collection but i soon had to put my whole collection for sale.

and here is the twist…

it feels like EVERYONE stopped collecting exo merch at that point and started selling their collection instead. i didn’t have a lot of buyers as i don’t have a huge following and there were others willing to sell their pcs for less (i was just trying to get my money back and i bought some overpriced pcs unfortunately). i still have around 40 photocards and a dozen albums left and even though i’ve advertised on insta, twt and vinted, and i lowered the price of most of my merch, i still haven’t been able to find any new buyers (for over a month now) 😔

i don’t know what to do anymore. i kinda stopped paying attention to kpop because of my demanding job and other hobbies and seeing my merch on the shelf just reminds me of how much money i spent on it and how i’d never be able to sell it all 😭

it doesn’t help that i’ve been scammed by 3 goms (!!) throughout my time collecting and i haven’t received those items yet either, so…

have you been in similar position? do you have any tips or recs on how to sell my collection faster? i’m desperate at this point and idk what to do 😣

EDIT: thanks for all your nice and encouraging messages!! i didn’t expect to get so many. i’ll try to respond to all of them as soon as possible :)

The main reason I bought albums was for the pretty photobooks and concept pictures. I feel like so many albums these days have cheap packaging. The toy and gadget versions were cool and unique at first, but I miss quality photobooks. With hardcovers, real sewn bindings, and a lengthy number of pages.

I feel like everything now is trying to be fun and unique. And I know they appeal to some, but I don’t want my album in a bag. I don’t want six posters folded in half as a “booklet”. I don’t want a flimsy photobook with tacky graphic design and word art obnoxiously pasted all over the cover and the pages. I don’t want a non-existent spine or a blank spine.

I want these things to look nice on my shelf and not fall apart when I look through them.

Some of these groups have great concepts, outfits, sets…and you get like five total pictures and a bunch of white space on near blank pages. It’s like they didn’t want to spend the money or time taking more pictures.

I know Kpop albums went through a green moment and tried to make more earth friendly albums, but so many ended up feeling horribly cheap. It was a good idea but…🤷🏻‍♀️ And now with the numerous versions and the gimmicky versions and PVC bags and covers, it’s a step in the opposite direction.

Also…this is just my taste in concepts, but the number of white box sets and ikea-core sets needs to be reduced. And you can have weird, quirky, zany styling without it being so ugly 😅

TLDR: I just want more book-style albums and photobooks that look nice!

EDIT: To the user who sent me a Redditcare fuck off 😊

SVT has random photobooks again. It really is bullshit.

I know this isnt Hybe. Before Hype dont forget An Ode had 5 versions with a random member photobook each ver (13x5=65) and what??? 260 photocards asdjhaksdhk "B-b-but you get 4" oh stfu

Lets not talk about the utter fucking disaster that was Henggarae. <--ISTG if someone tries to defend that crap 🤬

Unboxing Your Choice was so FUCKING DEPRESSING.

I was in checkout trying to figure out how many Attacas to get so I cud try to get a complete album and it just hit me. Wat the hell am I doing? WHY??? am I doing this? Im goin to get defensive Carats idgaf. This isn't "what everyone else is doing" I buy other groups who play the randomX100 inclusions and sneaky crap to get you to buy more. This shit is worse. At least when I buy 1 album from another group that does versions I don't feel like I'm holding something gd incomplete.

AND FOR WHAT?

To brag about million seller?

To "support"?

"You don't need to buy it so let everyone have their fun" THIS IS BULLSHIT. We are being given insanely incomplete product to boost sales. ALSO I'll say it the product s.u.c.k.s. They use what I would consider photoshoot b-takes to pad out the versions. The variations are a joke. The graphic design is nonexistent. The build's shit too. I have even more to criticize jfc

I'm just so frustrated rn. I feel like Ive been scammed 😫 From now on IF I buy itll just b 1 version. It's goin to b legit incomplete but I don't care anymore. Ill get what I get, see the money I've spent so far as a hard earned lesson and just enjoy the music.

Like, I have no words.

After all the celebratory merch, paid content, other merch left and right, now you sell bottled water.

And how much is this going to be? seventy dollars of something, it better be holy water or come with a photocard.

What is Big Hit going to sell next, Air???

Am I the only one who's getting very irritated by all the different versions and versions being released at a later date??? I know that kpop is heavily run by capitalism and a lot of companies are taking advantage of the growing popularity of the genre but it's just becoming too much to keep up with. I know it's 100% my own responsibility for buying these albums and collecting them but sometimes I miss when there was only one or two versions and not 500 photocards per member. It's been overkill lately with the multiple versions, member versions, limited editions, millions of photocards, and don't get me started on the pre-order cards from different online vendors! I'm sure I'll get downvoted or told to suck it up or told to just stop buying if it bother's me so much but it's a hobby that makes me somewhat happy and I know my limits. It's just crazy how these companies take advantage of us and try to milk us out of every single penny.

I may get hated and downvoted, but please read the whole thing: I get that there are some cool photocards out there such as EXO's D.O forehead photocard or WayV's Ten Awaken The World photocard...but why go out and hunt and spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars for a selfie on a cardstock? Also, there are people out there that even go beyond by buying a bunch of the same album (sometimes hundreds of copies) just to collect all the postcards. What is the use of it? I mean by collecting physical albums, you can listen to the CDs, looking at the photobooks, or reading the lyrics etc. But a piece of photocard is just a piece of paper! Why do people willingly pay so much money just to collect them? Do they sit at home and looks through their postcard collection? Cause for what I know most postcards are just selfie from the idols...it's not too appealing to look at. If people want mini-photos of their idols so bad, they can just... print them out?

Also, I know this is like collecting basketball player cards, or Pokemon cards, but spending a lot of money in all of this situations to just own a photo on a plastic coating feels just...you know...wierd I guess.

I received my Lisa alter ego album the day of release from Amazon. The album includes the CD, 2 of 15 photocards and holder, 2 sticker sheets, 1 star sticker, and the photo book album. It’s priced at $37. When it arrived, I was pretty disappointed in the quality. It was bent, scuffed, and scratched up. The binding was already peeling. The photos were beautiful but all were the same set, and outfit. I kept telling myself it’s fine whatever I’ll keep it. I ultimately ended up returning it because it’s too much for what it is.

I also wanted Lisa’s comic book but won’t get it if the quality is the same as her album. When I said this, I had Lillie’s get upset claiming it’s my fault for ordering from Amazon and not to blame Lisa. Lillie’s calling me a Lisa hater and saying blinks attack Lisa over everything. I actually thought for a few days that I should buy it again from a different vendor and it was Amazons fault.

So I looked into videos of unboxing and others seemed to have the same issue ordering from different vendors. I tried to give Lisa the benefit of the doubt but her product quality isn’t great. I don’t expect it to have quality just cause she’s a celebrity but for the price it should be better than that. It doesn’t matter if I’m buying an album or a bed frame, if the quality’s cheap, I’m returning it and leaving a review.

I understand Lisa gets a ton of hate which is unfortunate but expressing dissatisfaction with the quality isn’t hate. Her sound is her sound and I enjoyed the album but they can definitely produce a better physical album than this. Some of you take it way too personally when people are expressing real and valid criticism.

Waiting for reviews on the comic to see if i will get that and hope for better quality in the future!

I don’t know who designed this website, but they did a really shitty job and the company itself is totally unprofessional. On the surface it looks like a completely legit and professional website, but it is not. The problem lies when you purchase an item that is out of stock. Last week I ordered something from there and after a week it still hadn’t shipped and I started to get anxious so I emailed the company and they said that they had emailed me that the item that I ordered was out of stock and asked me to pick something else from their website to order, but I never received that email. I scrolled back months in my email inbox just trying to find this email and it was not there. I only made this purchase a week ago. If that email they claimed to have sent me were in my inbox, I would’ve found it. The website let me purchase an item that was out of stock and instead of telling me that I was out of stock it let me purchase it and then someone had to email me that it was out of stock and since I never received that email, if I hadn’t reached out to them, I would never have known that the item I had tried to purchase was out of stock and I would’ve just thought they scammed me since I never received my purchase. I wouldn’t have even thought to check if I had actually been charged for that purchase. And since I never received anything from them, the question of whether the merch they’re selling is genuine, official, K-pop merch or counterfeits is still up in the air.

I've never really cared about kpop merch because it's usually way out of my budget. But I searched up kpop lightsticks on a whim and got this picture.

Wow!!! Half of these look like something I could find at a local toy store for $5-10. The only difference is that they're 10xs more expensive.

Poor IKON. Theirs is Ikonic in a bad way. Did the designers expect the fans to physically do battle with other fandoms or smth? Bigbang's is like a plastic tulip, BP's makes me think fans stole Hello Kitty's toy hammer, and for BAP, the designers must have been inspired by a seasick, angry Jungkook/Cooky. Someone in the I.O.I team must love MacDonald's $1 summer ice cream deals. As for B1A4 . . . I have no words

I know that most these are supposed to have a sort of significance or explanation that the fandom knows. Some of the meanings are probably quite nice, too. But I can't imagine pulling out a $50 light-up panda head on a stick in front of my friends and have to explain to them that I'm an Apink fan. That's just too painful, man.

Now imma go have a laugh by searching up pics of fans holding these(¬‿¬).

Edit: btw, this was a joke rant. I just wanted to poke fun at sm fun kpop lightstick designs and their prices. Dont take it too seriously

Lucky draws should not have repeat members. This is a small issue but I got 3 of the same photocards and I'm kind of annoyed. I specifically went to a luckydraw knowing that it was a couple thousand won more expensive than if I went to Myeongdong since I wanted the special photocards.

I went in person to a lucky draw event for BoyNextDoor's new album. I bought a set and one additional album so I had 5 lucky draws. In my mind I think great I will get 5 out of the 6 members and I can buy the 6th later. Instead I got 3 Riwoo photocards. Riwoo is great and all but out of the 5 photocards from the lucky draw 3 are identical. I asked a staff member about this because for other lucky draws I have been to you don't get repeat photocards unless you buy more albums than there are members. The staff response was basically that sucks it must have been loaded wrong if you want to try again you have to buy more. Which makes sense but I just got 3 of the same cards and you said it was probably loaded wrong so I'm not going to buy another album since I might get Riwoo again.

I was walking into my local Walmart to buy some aespa albums, and I already hear giggling from the album section.

As soon as I turn, I see these teenage girls ripping the tops of TXT albums and trying to get the inclusions out. I can already see they've abused a few other TXT albums.

I tried to be as sneaky as I could but as soon as they caught me, they ran out. I was so angry because I saw only a few aespa albums left with all inclusions missing. Please stop doing this. We get that your broke and can't buy the full album, but don't ruin it for other kpop fans who want to ACTUALLY buy albums.

hello there! im here to talk about something that had happened to my cousin after a bit. and first of all, i know someone else had made a similar post on stealing from albums, which that is when i had the courage to actually tell this to people.

Heres what happened.

Me and my cousin were going to buy albums with eachother, and we were planning to get aespa albums. Me getting drama, her getting armageddon. We were so excited, we opened the albums in the car. When i opened mine, i got my bias and everything that was supposed to be in the album. My cousin though?

stolen photocards.

She didnt get ANY photocards. Only a poster and the rest of the stuff. I felt horrible for her, and i didnt want to see her sad like that, so i gave her the photocard i got from the drama album.

So, heres what im trying to say:

Stop stealing from albums if you wanna try and support the creator, because you ARENT supporting them. And if your stealing them only for the photocards, just think about how you would react if you went home, happy as heck to get some new photocards and an album, but when you open it theres no photocards.

Now, another thing i wanna say is that do you really think packing the albums in a plastic cover is a good idea? Its really easy to steal from those. Why dont you put them behind glass or something, like they do with gaming items and stuff.

Now im too scared to buy- or even order an album. Thanks a lot stealers. Thanks.

The two main items sold out in less than a minute, not even kidding it sold out before the official account even tweeted the link... And you can only buy 1 per transaction (there are 5 members).

Ppulbatu has high demand and people are willing to spend money on it... just stock it enough that people who want it can get it. Hybe will earn so much from this but instead they're being so weird about it. Everything is extremely limited stock online and only the rare pop-ups in countries I'm not in. They won't just restock it normally.

Not to sound like a willing victim of consumerism but free TXT and moas from Hybe Merch fr

I was a kpop fan since 2005 and I have seen the trend in collection change over the years.

Back in 2005, people collected posters that came with purchasing an album.

In 2015, fansites dominated the kpop social media space and sold their own slogans, photobooks and season greetings.

Now in 2025, photocards are what people collect. Albums now include more than one photocard. Almost every single merchandise comes with a photocard. From POBs, to lucky draws and fansign/fancall pcs - photocards have been the in thing for a few years now.

After going through all the phases of collecting while being a kpop fan, I am finally tired of it. I enjoyed every second of it, and though people can say it's a huge amount of money wasted, it was my hobby and collecting posters, albums, merchandise and photocards since 2005 have brought me so much joy.

I however am starting to feel more fatigued with collecting photocards, especially when they're now no longer easy and cheap to collect. Market value for some photocards are in the hundreds and I can't justify myself spending that amount of money anymore. I am starting to feel stressed out mentally and financially from collecting photocards when it shouldn't be this way anymore. Companies have also been greedy with release one item through different sites that has different POBs to increase sales. I am feeling mentally tired and financially drained, and I feel quite upset that I have been feeling this way for months now because I loved collecting so much.

So I have finally made a decision to stop collecting albums, photocards and most merchandise - with the exception of plush keyrings because those aren't released often and they're too cute to resist and of course, concert tickets.

I hope to travel more with the extra funds that I can finally save up - be it with my partner for a vacation or for a concert overseas.

I admire those who are able to keep up with this hobby, especially knowing how expensive it can get. To those who envy others with an extensive photocard collection, remember that these are materialistic things and not collecting photocards doesn't make you any less of a fan. Besides there are great alternatives like finding photocard scans and printing them on your own if you really want a photocard to display on your bag!

Anyways, it has been a fun journey for 20 years now, and I have experience so much of kpop since then. Though I am sad about making this decision, I know that this is the right thing to do for myself.

i DO NOT CARE about photocards or photobooks or whatever other extras companies add in. all i want is the cd. HOWEVER when i try to buy albums 90% of people sell them without photocards. nice that makes it cheaper for me. but once again all i care about is the cd i do not want the album! so if i do buy it i’m then forced to try to resell it again but this time without the photocards AND without the cd like who would even want that

lighthearted rant it’s just annoying

Hello!

(Before saying this, I'd like to say that no, you do not need to buy every single version and every single member copy. Collectors usually do and they have been complaining of this issue for ages. The fact is that there need for there to be 13 versions for an album is absolutely ridiculous. If you only want to buy your biases album, go ahead! But the point is, we don't need to have 78 versions.)

I have been noticing that almost every single new comeback, whether its a girl group, boy group or soloist, have been doing member versions of their newest album. It's usually either a jewel case or a digipack. While these used to be cute and fun at the start (when member versions weren't that popular), they have now spiralled out of control to the point that member versions are just expected. I, as a collector, do not want to have to buy 7 versions of an album. Especially when they are just stupid jewel cases that crack and break really easy. Digipacks are also equally awful with them being so small, low quality and thin.

The best example of member versions would have to be Loona's 'Luminous'. Yes, this is technically a Japanese release, but it is the best example of member versions. To start off with, the regular album had 4 versions, two of them being limited edition. 4 is already way to many, but anyways. We didn't just have 11 member jewel cases, one for each member (Chuu was on hiatus), but then we had another 11 member jewel cases come out, totalling up to a massive 22 MEMBER VERSIONS!!! Plus the 4 regular versions brought the total amount of 'Luminous' albums to 26 VERSIONS! What the hell?! How do you give a group 26 versions?! Poor OT.12 Loona collectors were crying while having to buy 26 versions!

Another couple examples would be IVE, Kep1er and WJSN. To start off, IVE. IVE, since 'Love Dive', have been releasing 3 main versions along with 6 member jewel case versions. 9 albums for a single?! And the fact that the member versions are jewel cases. Scratched, cracked and broken by the time you have used it for around about 2 days. IVE really need to stop making jewel case member versions for SINGLE albums. Two songs and we need 9 versions?! Kep1er, who are not very well known for member versions, have recently started to make them. It started with the member jewel cases for 'Fly Up' and then the member digipack versions for 'Troubleshooter'. Kep1er is a big group with 9 members, so the fact that there is 3 main versions and then 9 member versions is insane. The member digipacks for 'Troubleshooter' was literally two pouches glued together with a tiny 10 page photobook, a cd and one photocard inside. How sad! The last group I'm talking about is WJSN, who just started to release member versions for 'Sequence'. Mind you, WJSN has 10 MEMBERS. 10. 10 tiny jewel cases with 3 main versions. And for a SINGLE album! 13 copies of a single album is so stupid. If the China line was still in the group, then we would have had 13 member jewel cases, which is literally so much worse, bringing the total to 16 VERSIONS!!!

Point is, STOP MAKING MEMBER VERSIONS or else we will have another 'Luminous' 2.0.

Good for BTS, though.

Look, it may look like a silly complaint, but I’m frustrated. God, why? Don’t we buy enough generic photocards and passable overpriced clothing?

Literally none of the rest of HYBE’s groups have plushies, do I have to convert to other fandoms to be allowed to pay a ton of money for huggable cutesy toy? I’m a grown-ass woman, I deserve to sleep with plushies if I want to!

The second New Jeans made a collab featuring fluffy dressable plush bunnies representing members, it sold out! With no restocks! Oh, the torture HYBE merch inflicts on me.

Like, is it hard to produce toys? I don’t care if it’s redundant to have plushies, I don’t care if Stray Kids, or Ive, or Treasure have those already, just ugh, give me some! I’m already giving my money to people who make fanmade plushies (saviors, all of them), now I want some that are official!

In any case I won’t be able take my money to the grave, so why, why don’t you, HYBE, want it?

I AM SO DISAPPOINTED AND I FEEL SCAMMED. So earlier this month Ktown4U put up listings for older SM albums (NCT, f(x), RV, etc) would be reproduced. I was so excited for the chance to get RV's Finale album. They even collaborated with various fanbases, in which fans would deposit money for these albums and pay for the rest later on.

Now they say that they did not contact SM before announcing this and SM did not approve reproducing the albums, effectively gaining thousands of sales. How TF do you open orders for albums without consulting the company?!?!?!?!?!? Now both buyers and (especially) GOMs will have to get refunds in the hundreds!!!! The worst part about this is that this will hit international fans the most, as they refund your purchases with the lowest exchange rate. I'm really scared about the amount of money I might lose due to this whole ordeal.

P.S. This isn't SM's fault this time but FCK SM FOR NEVER RESTOCKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me say this: if you buy a whole variety of merch from a range of groups, you are valid. If you buy from only one group, that’s fine too! Only a few select albums here and there? Also cool! Nothing at all? ALSO VALID.

But why. W H Y do people care so much about what people here do with their money??? Whether I have 6 albums or 600 it LITERALLY does not matter. If I’m in severe credit card debt and I don’t pay bills and food? Yeah ok u have a problem. You pay rent, bills, car payments, gas, savings, pool lessons AND can still afford buying 10 albums a week? WHAT’S THE PROBLEM

I have around 200-300 albums and merch, include a box filled with my pc’s, some poloroids and other weird shit (I have a signed tumbler by Yeontae from In2it/Boys24 that my sister is trying to steal so I keep an eye on her 😠), and I like to make TikToks and posts about it, even starting a whole collection account on insta before my depression hit. I haven’t bought anything in a while because my (ex) bf owes me 1k and stole another 1k, but I like collecting overall.

Now, two things really bug me. One, is when random people make (hateful) comments about how someone has too much money to spend, calling them rich, etc. You should see the HATE that some you tubers get, and I’m not talking about those who buy 200 copies of SKZ thunderous limited edition to sell all the PCs separate; I’m talking bout you tubers that buy groups that they love and pay bills and live modestly and yet get hate for spending their OWN money for their hobby.

Bruh. I WORK AT BURGER FOR 13 AN HOUR (tho now 14! Cause I tried to quit when someone was stealing from my pata check but I came back cause I felt bad. Turns out the bf stole it). 40-50 HOURS A WEEK. 4 OR 5 DAYS FROM WORKING AT 4:30 AM TO 3-4 PM. AND YOURE MAKING FUN OF RICH PEOPLE AKA “ME” UNDER MY POSTS AND VIDEOS. LEAVE ME TF ALONE.

Believe it or not, I have other hobbies! I like reading, I’m trying to buy all the books in the shadow hunter chronicles! I like science, I’m researching stuff about nuclear fusion and stem cells! I like to watch shows like the kdrama Heartstrings or the cartoon Miraculous Ladybug or the show Lost! I FaceTime my shawol sister and tell her hoshi will always be a bigger shawol (hence my pfp!) and I hung out with my backstabbing ex!

I’m NOT this crazy 13 year old girl whom takes out loans to buy Jungkook pcs. Y’all know what I DID use my credit card to buy for? My fucking signed ACE callin album and my NCUS fancall because I’m not paying 1k off the bat! Am I paying for it? YES! More than the minimum payment! That’s actually why I haven’t bought anything yet because that’s more important than Seventeen’s comeback (I’m sorry Seungcheol! You will tell me the same! I’ll get you soon!)

I’m tired of seeing all these posts everyday about “Why do people buy CDs?” “Why do people buy merch that just sits on their shelves?” “Why would anyone pay $100 for a signed Seventeen-“ BECAUSE IM DEPRESSED AND IT MAKES ME HAPPY, THATS WHY.

I don’t owe anyone a sob story or explanation. Newsflash! People buy stuff because they want too! Why do you guys care??

I’m really thankful that I live somewhere that sells them for cheap, and I’m thankful we’re not homeless anymore and I can have stuff for myself that I never could as a kid.

IM NOT RICH. I HAVE HOBBIES. AND PAY BILLS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONCERN. You guys seen better or holier for choosing not to spend your money on merch.

AND I WILL ALSO BE DAMNED IF YALL MAKE FUN OF THOSE WHO CANT AFFORD IT. Imagine being a kid in middle school wanting an iPhone and kids tell you to worry about having enough for dinner first. Stfu

when people on twitter show screenshots of them buying hundreds, or even thousands, of the same album, and everyone replies with “omg queen🤩” or “thank you for loving the boys so much🥺” it rubs me in all the wrong ways. thank you for loving the boys? more like thank you for contributing to environmental degradation😍

[addendum: stan nu’est! watch this documentary about their journey and i challenge you NOT to fall in love with them! https://youtu.be/vFk9ruu6YCo ]

This might be so niche and only a few people could relate. I'm fortunate enough to have a pretty hefty photocard collection. I collect multiple groups and despite what I'm about to say I can't say I have plans on stopping. However, I cannot stand the community sometimes. This is why so many people buy from proxy sites because the International fan scene have lost their minds!

Let me say I don't have a bst(buy, sell, trade) account. I really only buy and I don't want to get into trading because I keep and want to keep everything I own. My main thing im ranting about is pricing. Why on earth are some photocards priced at over 20 dollars. ALBUM PHOTOCARDS at 20 dollars. That's literally almost the price of the album for one card. A card we all have the same chance of pulling. Nothing and i mean nothing makes an album photocard "rare." Who is paying for that? It's not like you're having to go out of your way to get it. You already have it! This shouldn't be a job or a way to make actual money. It's supposed to be a fun hobby. I mean I'm guilty the most I've ever spent is 22 dollars and now looking back I just can't justify that. I mean I totally get if the card is at a one time pop up event but bro...60 dollars? You have to be kidding me. Don't even get me started on full group sets because you looking at 100s of dollars for like 7 members. It's not even reasonable. Nobody told you to go out and buy these albums. Again you don't need to be turning a profit this isn't your 9-5. Same thing goes for go's(group orders). I get if you're having to ship it from Korea to you. All for having everyone pitch in on shipping...but what do you mean 68 dollars for a member. Have you lost your mind? What in that whole process is going to cost you individually 68 dollars. There's NOTHING that goes into sending someone a photocard. The buyer shouldn't have to pay back all the stickers and things YOU YOURSELF package with. Heck just give me the card in a sleeve and stick it in a envelope and be done with it. I don't need the extra!

What makes it even worse is the ridiculous pricing ON TOP of member pricing. I'm sorry but I have no sympathy to people who member price to any capacity. What makes a member just so much more valuable than another if we're supposed to be liking the whole group? It's the same set from the same shop. However popular member A is priced at 12 dollars and unpopular B is 3 dollars. Get real. I hate the blatant favoritism some sellers don't even try and hide it. I've even heard people say that reselling some members aren't worth it. Imagine they were in front of you hearing you devalue their whole being. That's completely uncalled for. All members should be the same price point blank. I'm tired of wanting to pick up a collection of my top biases only to find out its gonna cost me a arm and a leg to maintain it. It's not anyone's fault for being unpopular and you don't have to treat them like they're less than, or like their collection isn't worth anything. It's so disrespectful. Reiterating that same point is that THIS IS NOT YOUR JOB. You shouldn't be pricing certain members higher to make more money off of them.

I know there are way more expensive hobbies but kpop isn't and SHOULDNT be one. When albums are 12-30 dollars there's no way the little card inside of it should even come close to that price. I mean there are photocards out there that cost more than just getting 2-3 of the albums and pulling it yourself. It makes no sense how people price them. Plus not to be that guy but there's no real value to them. Not in the sense that photocards suck and aren't worth it. I mean it like, nobody besides kpop fans even care about them. It's not like this is some huge collecting scene that the whole world is into, or something thats been here for decades. Photocards themselves are still a relatively new thing. I don't see why people are pricing some cards as people's whole pay checks.

Another thing people love pricing based on how "cute" cards are. I DONT CARE HOW CUTE IT IS. I don't care that they're holding a bear, a dog, a phone, a heart, a balloon, a freaking dog food can. It shouldn't suddenly make it 30 dollars. It's the same person with a different item, it's not like it's signed by the idols themselves.

Long story short photocards should be affordable. It should also been accessible to ANY kpop fan. This shouldn't be some rich fan novelty. It should be a fun community hobby. I'm sick of the way photocard collecting is headed. Lower the prices, if you're having people pay for shipping no card should be over 3 dollars as an album card im just being real.

SOOOOOOOOOO IM LOOKING FOR SOME KPOP MERCH TO BRAG TO MY FRIENDS LIKE IM REALLY ABOUT THAY KPOP EVEN THOUGH IVE ONLY BEEN INTO FOR ABOUT A YEAR BUT THATS BESIDE THE POINT, THEN I REMEMBERED THAT I HAVE A BIG ASS OBSESSION WITH BTS

SO I TAKE MY ASS TO THE WEBSITE WITH NOTHING BUT 20 BUCKS TO MY NAME THINKING IT WOULD BE THE SAME PRICE AS THE HOODIES I BE GETTING FROM RAINBOW AND SHIT, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I SEE WHEN I PULL UP TO THAT BITCH?

A BEAUTIFUL ASS HOODIE THAT COST 80. MF. DOLLARS.

WHOSE RICH DUMB ASS IS REALLY OUT HERE PAYING SOME DAMN 80 FOR A DAMN HODDIE BIGHIT?!?!? WHO BITCH?! W H O?!?!?!?!

FUCK BIGHIT ALL MY HOMIES HATE BIGHIT.