A short guide to buying K-pop merch for your fangirl heart’s satisfaction

It’s comeback season! Did the K-pop fever reach you? You’re not alone. It’s fascinating how your fangirling moment can take you. You’ll soon realize you have a stack of albums, posters, photo cards, and all other K-pop merch your idols have released. (How did that even happen?)

If you’re a first-time collector or simply an enjoyer, here’s a short guide to buying your own K-pop artist’s merchandise:

K-pop merch

Buying merchandise such as albums, DVDs, light sticks and seasonal greetings has been one of the many ways that a K-pop fan can support their idols. Albums, especially, boost their popularity as it makes way for their idol to be on top of the digital and physical charts. This has been the basis of some groups’ success.

Other than that, many fans collect such merch too. There have been several people who collect the albums, especially the photocards. Although it’s not necessary to get EVERY merchandise they sell, many fans just find this fulfilling for their fangirl/fanboy hearts.

Buying options

There are different ways that you can get your album. You may consider buying directly from the official merch stores by the Korean entertainment companies, participate in group orders organized by local stores or buy from the Korean merch stores near you.

K-merch physical stores

Many Korean stores have popped up these days where they can provide you with the K-pop merch that you need. K-pop stores such as N.Cat can be seen in malls so it’s easier as you can directly get and pay for the item on hand. There are also other physical stores you can check out such as Chingu Dachi and CNA from having different branches in the Metro.

The downside of this is that you have to wait for them to stock the albums that you want. But, you may also contact them for your preferred album and they will be the ones to order for you.

Direct ordering

You can consider direct buying from officially recognized stores such as Weverse (BigHit Artists), SM Global Shop (SM Artists), YG select (YG Artists), or JYPJ Store (JYP Artists). This would be a safer way to avoid scammers.

There are also other sites that can provide other benefits that can’t be found in other K-pop merch stores. Synnara, for example, can let you participate in exclusive fan signing events with your idol.

Although, you also have to shoulder the other fees needed such as the international shipping fees, which can be very pricey.

GO’s

To lessen the cost of the international shipping fees and all, you can also order your K-pop merch through GOs (Group Orders) online.

There are different group orders organized on Twitter that you can try. Since every album contains a random photo card, you would prefer to get your hands on your bias’s photo card, right?

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Lucky for you, there are GOs that will let you choose which photocard you can receive. This will be, of course, based on the people who participated in the group order. It is prevalent in GOs, where you can choose to pull your bias when you receive your albums.

But, despite its convenience, scamming is prevalent with these GOs. There are many organized group orders that would turn out to be a scam. So, you need to keep your eyes open for these types of orders.

You may check the reviews, proof of transactions, and such before considering ordering here. These orders would usually take time before you can receive them unless you choose the fastest expected time of arrival which can take only a month before you get it.

Terms used for group orders

If you’re considering sticking with group orders, here are some terms you may encounter:

GO – Group Order
DOP – Deadline of payment
DOO – Deadline of Order
MOD – Mode of Delivery
MOP – Mode of Payment
LSF – Local Shipping Fee
ISF – International Shipping Fee
POB – Pre – Order Benefit
OOS – Out of Stock
PAYO – Pay as you order
DP – Down Payment
PB – Photobook
PC – Photocard/Post card
PF – Packing Fee
ETA – Expected Time Arrival
Fast ETA – 1 – 4 weeks after release
Normal ETA – 1 – 3 months after release

Wanting to collect or buy your favorite K-pop merch can be tricky with the number of scammers being rampant, especially online. Therefore, you should always be careful with ordering. If you’re a minor, it is important that you are ordering under the supervision of someone older.