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i've been a kpop fan since 2017 and photocard collector since 2023 but the whole year made me really reconsider especially after the seunghan and newjeans situation. i ulted riize and i can't even bring myself to support anymore or even enjoy kpop because first off its so saddening and second i refuse to support these type of actions by the industry i feel as though 2025 may be a year more people are stepping away from kpop or being more mindful of consumption than previous years (i hope)

The small versions that are solo versions piss me off because you'd think that the member you bought would he the inclusions you get and it's like nope. Everytime I get a Liz version of an album, I never get her LOL

i wish platform albums would give you more about the music, maybe like including demos and stuff bc it feels like a waste to buy it and then get the same thing i can do on spotify 😭

ive been a kpop fan for about ~10 years and my fave group is exo. i have never once bought a season's greetings bc i prefer to buy calendars from fansites and join group orders! i agree that the concepts are usually kind of boring and overall buying a sg isnt worth it but i love the ones from fansites cause the pictures are always super nice and normally you can get one with just your bias. also i personally love jewel cases cause if i like albums of groups who arent exo i put them in a different spot which is normally with my other cds, the jewel cases makes it alot easier. (also i save a bit of money cause i get it from ebay without extra stuff since sometimes i dont know all the members of the group or whatever) lastly, i entirely agree with your photocards segment! i personally dont see the appeal of collecting photocards, bc i collect exo albums i have a ton of pcs and dont care who i get so i put them all in one cute binder but collecting photocards outside of getting them from albums costs sooooo much time and money and isnt really a long term investment if you want to sell them or whatever in the long run. cause trends and people wear out fast, just cause one pc is trendy, another will become trendy again and no one will want the first one, or like you said, the person may get cancelled or your bias my change, its just not worth it to drop a bunch of money on collect photos of an idol. overall, great and interesting video!!!

I'm sorry but with buying their albums you are literally supporting hype??. The members are delusional just because they said they want to leave hype the contract is still not over. The arguments aren't even logical like their saying they were mistreated when their beloved mhj was still CEO and they want her back. Don't get me wrong new Jeans is really Talented but without hype they were still unknown. The fame is Thanks to Hype, their advertising , the money they could spent on new jeans without worrying to go bankrupt like smaller Companies. They are so delusional to think they will get treated MUCH better in a other company because show business isn't easy or just a playground.

I just HATE, that I can not get ATEEZ treasure albums anymore, I just started colecting their CDs, thanks to the universe I got the Zero to One version with an amazing discount years before but now...what am I suppose to do?, I don't like plataform versions, I want a DISC, I don't even care about PCs, I want pretty discs. Now, beacuse they are not in print the prices have gone waaay high, I am no way paying that. I get the environment deal, but you can still do albums, I would even suggest stop the PCs if you want to avoid overconsumtion and just sell the PCs on the other versions but yeah...

I’ve been collecting for 8 years now and my gosh like trying to make my shelf look nice is hard why cuz I run out of room all the time so i understand 2:00

actually platform versions do come with a digital photobook. it’s definitely a lot smaller though. most albums come with like 30 something pages while the one i purchased was like 15-20 pictures? not worth it for some photocard not even cards just card

pcs dont pile on ur floor or fill your closet tho...😁

Really great video. I agree except for the digipack/jewel ver because sometimes i don’t like the concept of the photo book and for the cd (because the album song good) I prefer buy these version. I agree for the nemo/Weverse/platform ver it’s totally useless and expensive, I personally don’t buy photo card and the things I look on the album are cds and photobook. I also totally agree about the season greetings it’s so expensive and worth for only 1 year (it’s all on the title but I would say it’s not a reusable as an album) I think the season greetings are just for agency to get more money from the fans so I don’t understand people who buy that. I also think that people who buy all the version of the same album are loosing money ( I think if you are buying more than 3 version : like why?) it’s the same inclusion with differents photos. I personnaly buy the version with the photobook I like the most. You don’t talk about photobook (not the one for with music, athe one as extra from the group) I think it’s also expensive but worth it more than the season greetings. I also saw in some season greetings on extra they don’t put a full set of photocards. For the price knowing it’s the photocards that everyone wants that’s rich (I think that the expression, English is not my first language so if you their mistakes that me)

I love this video, i think that a great concept😊

The Mino and WINNER military controversy at the end of 2024 will be my last straw. He has talked about his very serious mental health problems before his enlistment, so seeing how korean media, gossip and news outlets, as well as winner's KOREAN FANS are treating the situation is disgusting. I'm pretty hopeful since WINNER are The COCKROACHES of kpop, and even though they've been through a lot of shit, they always seem to comeback even more successful than before. However, if anything happens to the group, I'm confident that I'll be done with kpop. I will not be going through another B.IKON 2019 situation and ill just keep supporting my like 5 fav artists without engaging with korean entertainment at all.

i wish groups would go back to having 1-2 regular album version with like a digipack or jewel case on the side, not 4 versions with a digipack, us exclusive jewel case, vinyl (occasionally), platform version, limited/special versions etc. 😭

Girl can you maybe make a video on how to sell photocards please?

Please please please make more of these videos

Kpop is like fast fashion now days. No longer about quality just companies pumping out as many products as they can.

I love the season greetings because I am a paper planner. I don’t care about photo cards and I get only the album version with the aesthetic I like the most for their respective comeback. However I am a Minsunger so I do get the individual versions for LeeKnow and Han XD I don’t need to have all the versions, I don’t see the point, the music is the same in all of them

I really hate how 4th and 5th gen groups do their albums. So many versions and photocards. I used to think 4 versions were a lot. Like Ateez photocards make me want to slap KQ, and then 2/3 of the photobooks have boring concepts. I don't mind US exclusives, especially when there is a sale. I actually hate the different cover things that SM does.

Regarding season's Greetings, YES TO BUYING THE INDIVIDUAL ITEMS SEPARATELY! I'm someone who's been buying the desk calendar for the past few years (and sometimes the photocard set of my bias/biases) because I LOVE calendars in general and that's all I really look forward to when it comes to season's greetings (this all depends on the concept though and I also rotate between groups so I'm never buying the same group consecutively. And I only choose one group a year). The whole kits are SO BULKY and take up way too much space. Granted, this usually works more for groups with large b/s/t communities and not smaller groups unfortunately. My ult bias released a season's greetings one year but because almost nobody collects them anymore/weren't selling the individual items, I ended up buying the whole kit. But I did find a GO for it which reduced some costs and I actually ended up using/displaying every item in the kit except the dvd. And now I use the box that everything came in as storage.

red velvet, aespa and nct wish fan here🙋🏻‍♂️🙋🏻‍♀️ As a graphic design and fashion student, i LOVEEEEEEE collecting my ult’s albums. The designs and photoshoots are always so good and they inspire me a lot in my own work. Those 3 groups (and sm artists in general) just have THE BEST physical albums imo, i know it’s biased but you cannot tell me otherwise 😫 I discovered something last 2024 that helped me save A LOT of money-unsealed or secondhand albums. As someone who doesn’t care much about the photocards and appreciates the physical album better, this is the best thing for me. They’re basically just the same albums with inclusions, only missing the photocards, yet they tend to drop to like 40-60% of the original price?!? ( at least in my country ) It’s really just a matter of waiting 1 - 3 weeks after the release when people would start selling their albums after getting the photocards.

IM SAVING THIS VIDEO AND WATCHING IT WHEN I WANT SOMETHING THAT I DONT NEED!! Love this video, as a person who only buy photocards when I think it’s cute and when I’m in the mood, and just spent $12 on two cards today, I sometimes feel ashamed because I can actually have a meal of $12 instead of these pieces of paper. I’m following this channel and help me calm down on my "collection" ‘cause I’m not only spending money on K-pop items but also collecting supplies, I need to stop.

I've been into kpop for almost as long as pcs were a thing and I still don't understand why people like them tbh

Girl, pepople criticize for New Jeans for protecting and doing anything Min Heejin demands! Shes a literalnie pedo causa the word grooming doesnt captute what she really did. Shes such a stinky, creepy person whoch deserves to be banned from working with children anywhen. They're cultish when it comes to her and its disturbing.

I made up rules for whenever im thinking of getting a album to catch me from overbuying. 1. Dont preorder one (idk what it looks like, the pics, the materials, cd, etc. 2. Never get another version of a album(ion need the 3 ver of (for example) strategy by twice, just get the one i want the most) 3. If ion like the album packaging & photobook im not getting it, even if i like the music. (Why i sometimes get jewle cases, just want the cd loll) And just a reminder, pcs are "rare" when they dont make them anymore. No blue hour soobin or eggkarina is rare when u have a chance of pulling them 😭(love a cutie pc, i never discourage someone from collecting pcs, BUT you need to set boundaries & be financially stable! All in good fun)

I don't really buy any of these lol

coming from someone who collects western albums and k-pop albums i prefer jewel cases as they are easier to display with my western albums

For me digipacks are more of an exception, only because I use up the inclusions (like CDS) and depending on the album you’re buying it can be cheaper (quantity wise, not quality wise) But I do agree that digipacks can be in less quality depending on which one you get

The way you so smugly admit to overpricing photocards is one of the biggest problems in the photocard collecting community. “I’m so educated in this” 😒 makes me sad for the collector who is just trying to complete their photocard collection and the only place they can find the card is for way more than it’s worth. You only care about saving your own money and not helping anyone else. -Buying “expensive” seasons greetings 🙅‍♀️ -Selling a photocard for super expensive to someone else ✅ But it’s ok because you’re not a pc collector, right?

14:28 then you sell them or trade them. Plus for the cancelling part there’s always someone out there who will still support them

I always look at the groups I stan and pick the one season's greeting I like best and get that one (I do skip years if I don't like any at all). People are scared of me as I use the inclusions XD but that's part of the fun to me and I always make some money back by selling photocards of the members I don't really collect, making those more affordable.

Most of this stuff I would have gotten for myself LOL I was very tempted to get the two Nana figures but I couldn't justify the price when I really didn't like the yellow in the outfits. But I hope this opens the doors for more shoujo figures. Lovely Complex is so cute. The drama movie was also fun from what I remember. Speaking of figures, MF is so beautiful!! I have a couple of the LoL Nendoroids and I am hoping they release some skin versions like KDA or Star Guardian for them in the future. Really hoping that KDA comes back next year for Worlds because they completely scrapped Heartsteel. :( That Proplica is SO BEAUTIFUL!! I have a couple really old ones and some new Brilliant Color Editions, and I'm really eyeing the Disguise Pen Set and the Eternal Tiare now... ugh UGH!

Would be interested in a video on your thoughts about k-pop concerts, tickets, VIP add-ons, etc.

This was funny to watch, because as someone who usually doesn't have much money to spare, earns their living in a currency that makes official kpop products 6 times more expensive than they are for someone from the US, and is 32 years old, I'm kinda shocked at how much stuff you still say is worth buying. Over a decade of being a kpop stan, I've collected a total of 20 or so albums from different groups, only have the official photocards that came with some of them, and have gone to 2 concerts + fanmeetings (the type where you pay for the ticket, not a lottery type). I guess that + some digitally bought songs back when Google play music was a thing and I wanted to support the artists, is all the money I've spent on kpop artists I like. I'd like to have a few more albums and a couple of lightsticks. Also, I'd definitely go to more concerts, but that's about it. I'm not saying you're wrong for buying the stuff you consider worth it, I'm just surprised at the difference in our realities, I guess lol. Maybe I should take your advice and sell some of my photocards, and maybe I won't be spending that much money if I buy a couple more albums I really want and sell the pocas 🤔

For me I do like the smaller digipack versions and jewels because it takes up less space but you're right on the money about quality. Also here it can be like digipack is €20 and album is €40 so it does make a difference, does it stop me from buying both though? NOPE lmao Poca versions to me make more sense then sminis lmao at least you technically get more than one pc but then ppl hate when they're concepts lmao for rockstar by stray kids they did great with it like €20-25 for all selfies for the nemo version then they caught onto it and changed it for one selfie and 3 versions ffs 💀 I'm also tired of the hundred different apps for these albums, like why can't one company come out and they all stream on one app not with a QR but numbers like weverse has numbers when the QR doesn't work. Season's greetings I 100% agree with the lost their spark like 2020 era I think, all of them are so bland nowadays I was however looking at the TWS one and it's really cute but I just don't have the effort or space for it and it's stuff I wouldn't use but the bag is hella cute. I agree again about US exclusives I especially hate how SM take away the regular card and replace it with exclusive and then being in Europe trying to get it 💀 Sometimes hmv has them and sometimes they don't it's a hit or miss and then Twice for eg have them but they're concept pcs and pc collectors usually don't like concept pcs. I agree with you to an extent on pcs iwl Tell me how I want Doyoung's 2 Baddies Panda intl pc and ppl are selling it for €30-50 I can buy 2 more albums and get 4 more cards in total for the same price God damn. I am however a ducker for pcs, I look at them a lot tbf and I try not yo spend too much on a single card. I bulk buy for mercari and just divide the price by how many pcs I get and a lot of times you can get a set of cards for decent prices. Spending 30,40,50+ on one single card makes no sense to me. Ppl we're selling that Wonbin b&n flower card for literally $200 and it sold from a $15 album... Things I don't why it's a thinking is 100's of different pobs, special nct pcs, random merch inclusions like these envelopes I got with my 17 weverse pcs, posters and postcards because they are difficult to store and then you've to buy more pages, all the most random merch like candles, mugs, cups, towels, lightstick straps with a PC, characters each group creates with pcs and then just the merch without pcs and turned into lightstick covers, pillow cases, key chains etc. There's so much lmaooo I'd definitely like to see more especially about how ridiculous pobs can be 😭😭😭

I personally collect photocards but 99% of the time I’m just buying the photocard from someone else. And yes, you need to draw the line in what to collect and what not. However, I don’t buy albums. Just for my top #1, so yes I have a big photocard collection but it doesn’t match my album collection and I also don’t buy seasons greetings and big merch anymore. And I prefer smaller albums so whenever an artist is releasing something and I see the album details, if the album is gigantic, I’d simply pass on it because I HATE having a bunch of things. It’s not practical. Also, around 2021 I decided to be very selective with my collections and if I ever got bored of them, I’d simply put them in storage. Selling things is so draining and you don’t get your money back, at least not all of it ( I don’t even buy expensive photocards, I’m really cheap lmao). If I ever sell my collections, I’ll sell it to one person and give them all the photocards and the binder and sleeves. Can’t be bothered, with that mindset I’ve been very happy with what I have and buy.

I'm new to kpop and I agree with basically everything you said lol except I do like to collect albums/vinyls and always have been since I was younger so when getting into kpop realizing there are 20+ versions of the same album was mind blowing and ridiculous to me personally I get like maximum 3 different versions of the same album but more than that I cannot understand why 😂 personally I don't like buying kpop albums either is bc they don't release full albums like most western artists so I feel like it's not always worth my money when I can just listen to those 5 songs streaming lol but if it were a 10+ song album that's worth it to me personally. But I also still buy kpop albums I really enjoy so I'm contradicting myself a bit lol. And don't get me started on photocards 😂 but I will say the only photo card I physically really want is Winter(aespa) drama photocard 😂 but I'm not actively trying to buy one haha but if I ever come across one in the future future I might buy it tbh 😭

Cause i've always wanted that experience of collecting, I only collect my ults of ults, not even my ults. Even then, I only collect the versions I either love the best or fit with my color palette of my room/other albums. Mainly from mecari japan cause in my opinion, it's easier if your a pc collector like me and don't have to worry about selling/trading a pc maybe you didn't want that you pulled. I would rather buy an album 2nd hand with all inclusions in pristine condition, with no pcs. That way, I can just get the pc's separately for a much cheaper price, getting more than 1 pc for a better deal. Then even with pcs, I collect album pcs only, cause pc collecting can get very stressful. Cause at the end of the day, not having loads of merch or merch at all, doesn't make you any less of a fan <33

I saw a tiktoker tape the plastic page sleeves on the wall to showcase their photocards. You can just sleeve the carts and put them in the pages. That is if you have enough space, but I think there is many ways you can showcase them too

happy new year!!:) but yeah.. I'm feeling kinda attacked because I do get tempted by the US exclusive item which usually is a photo card that is not even a selfie.. more like concept photos printed on a piece of cardboard x)

it is because of you that i realized my whiplash aespa album (speed version) was actually a digipak. and my zone jihyo album was a target exclusive. thank you for your wisdom 😭

I love platform versions though…. It saves up space. I think it’s a matter of choosing just 1 version to buy.

I like jewel cases as some of the artists I like only do jewel cases as they are western artists. + they are so much more cheaper as you get a cd the cace the back splash and a credit booklet. yes I am ok with that as I am supporting a artist I like. (I am talking about Ariana grande and little mix

I only buy albums from my ults which is like taemin and stray kids basically. I have a cd player and that’s why I buy albums. Occasionally I’ll really like a non ult album and just get the cd for that one

For me I love jewel cases cause I only care about the cds in albums, cause I listen to the cds alot on my players

Most kpop cd cases kinda suck because they're incovenient and not made to preserve cds but I just get empty jewel cases to put my cds in. It's that simple. Also wanna add about the photocards, printing out the photo you found digitally! That way you can still display it physically^^

HELLO???!/!:): no waaayy i won 😭

For me I was able to get 1 pc of each member of a couple of groups from buying the weverse ver. But overall I won’t be buying many more the only thing I’d collect I group pc cause there aren’t that many and I like group related items more than solo but after getting one pc of each member that’s my limit mainly then I just get albums if I really love the themes and music.

i only collect photocards and poca/jewel/digi albums are my fav!! they are ugly collection wise but i dont display them anyways so it rlly depends on the type of collector you are

I agree with all the things to not spend money on except I have a few exceptions for digi packs. For me a digi pack would replace the photo book version, and I'd only get a digi pack for certain artists that I want the music physically. For some albums, I'm not a fan of the photo book due to either uninteresting/plain concept or a lot of blurry/oddly focused photos. Another exception is if the normal version was huge compared to the other albums of the group and it wouldn't fit on the shelf, so I settle for the digi pack since I want a physical album.

I just saw an article earlier today about how kpop album sales are down 20% compared to last year and I am sure its because everyone is EXHAUSTED trying to keep up. There could be potentially 20+ versions per comeback not including merch, US exclusives, etc. I even hard stopped buying albums earlier this year because quality is going down while quantity is going up.