Anyway I'm just gonna share all my recent K-pop related purchases. These were purchased over the span of a couple weeks, so this post is going to be a bit longer~
Starting off, I bought these albums opened/used off someone on Facebook. These are two albums I've wanted for a while, and the opportunity just presented itself so I just decided to buy them off the person.
I got B1A4's Ignition Special Edition for $20. It came with Baro's photocard (not pictured). I don't really care about the photocard, but it would have been nice to get either Jinyoung or Sandeul since they're my two favorites from B1A4. Anyhow, I don't have B1A4's Ignition (normal edition), and I'm not going to bother with it since this Special Edition has all the songs that the regular one has (and more) and I didn't like the album/title track that much to buy the normal one too. "Baby I'm Sorry" was kinda blah. There are quite a few b-side tracks I like from this album though.
Anyway, if you're interested, B1A4 Ignition - Special Edition available here.
I also picked up VIXX's Hyde from the same person. It's Ken's version, which is so perfect since he's my favorite member. I still need to get a couple of VIXX's CDs to complete the collection of their CDs that I want, but I don't think I'll be buying all their CDs. I got this for $10 -- crazy good deal! I don't even care that it's not in the perfect condition and it's already opened.
If you're interested, VIXX's Hyde is available here.
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Next up are some Infinite photo cards. I've recently gotten really into collecting their photo cards. I think now that I've been participating in Facebook groups and other social media platforms trying to sell K-pop merchandise that I no longer want, my urge to collect this kind of stuff has really been encouraged. Not sure if it's a good thing or bad thing, but whatever. It's not like I'm going to spend tons and tons of money trying to collect them.
Another thing is that now I feel like I should go ahead and collect these cards while they're pretty readily available instead of waiting -- you never know what's going to happen. For example, Inspirit only came with photocards in the beginning, then they stopped including the photocards, so now they're pretty rare and pricey. Sadly I got a Sungjong photocard in my Inspirit album, and the second one I ordered maybe a month afterwards had no photocard. I'm still trying to find Sunggyu and Woohyun's photocards from that album, but alas, no luck so far. They're all being scooped up super fast. I wonder if I'll ever be able to find them.
Anyhow, right now I'm trying to collect Sunggyu and Woohyun's cards, since they're my favorite. I have absolutely no plans on collecting all 7 members for Infinite's different albums.
Wow that was a long prelude. Okay. So I purchased some photocards from eBay.
I got Sunggyu's photocards from "Destiny" and "Paradise" off the same seller on eBay to take advantage of combined shipping. You have to message sellers on eBay and ask them for it, but they will give it to you.
Anyhow, both of these are no longer available from the seller I bought it off, jace0337, who by the way is 100% legit and packages items very well, but it shouldn't be hard to find these cards off other sellers. I got Destiny for $10USD and Paradise for $13USD (+$4.80 for shipping).
I got Woohyun's photocard along with my Destiny album that I ordered last year, so now I have Sunggyu's and Woohyun's -- Destiny complete!
(I got Woohyun in my New Challenge album too, so now I just need Sunggyu for that album ><)
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I also somehow ended up collecting Hoya and Woohyun's photocards from Paradise. I wanted Woohyun but I dunno, I bid kind "for fun" on Hoya's and I won. Woohyun's card was also an auction, but I actually lost it to a higher bidder. The seller, however, offered me a second chance deal to purchase it, so I bought both. Again, I took advantage of combined shipping.
I won these off the seller 109fish_com, who is another legit seller who packaged the goods very carefully and well.
I got Hoya for $8USD and Woohyun for $12.50USD (+$4.90 for shipping). Again, it shouldn't be that hard to find these same cards off a different seller since the Paradise albums are still available and they still come with photocards.
So now...
I have 4 photocards from Paradise.
Just a different view of them. Again, I only really wanted Sunggyu and Woohyun, but somehow I ended up with these four, lol. But I won't be buying any more.
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Next up is a bit of an annoying and negative experience.
I bought these Inspirit photocards off of a seller on eBay who had no feedback at all - so that was a warning sign already...
Anyhow, they stated that these cards are official, but they're not.
At least I didn't pay too much for them, around $25USD (free shipping) for the whole set, but I'm still unhappy. I'm not sure what I'm going to do - perhaps just keep them because who knows if I'll actually be able to find Sunggyu and Woohyun's real ones - but at least now I've learned a very important lesson. To do my research and be suspicious before making purchases...
I was just lured in by the price :/
Btw the seller's name is kkoo-memo. Even if they say their items are official, don't trust them.
After I received these cards, I went and did a bit more research (figures... I do research after I make the damn purchase) and there have actually been quite a number of people being tricked into purchasing these counterfeit cards, thinking they were official.
Apparently, if the seller's name has an underscore/hyphen, there's a good chance they're not legit. Another thing to note (which should have been the biggest indicator for me... I was dumb, I know) is that it is a problem if they have no feedback at all.
Be careful when you're purchasing, folks.
I think I'll do a separate post detailing how I know these are counterfeit, and risk looking like a total dumbass. But whatever. I don't want anyone else to go through the same thing.
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Next up is this magazine clipping I got off another seller on eBay. Yeah, I've been totally lurking around eBay a lot these days :P
This is Infinite's photoshoot out of the July issue of "The Celebrity" magazine. The entire magazine would have cost $30+ so I decided just to buy this clipping instead.
It's a very pretty photoshoot/spread, but you wouldn't die if you're an Infinite fan and don't have it, though. I just went a bit cray. I also sort of wish that this was actually stuck together like in a magazine, but they were clipped out... so what can I do? :/
I got this clipping off luckydelivering, another legit seller for around $7CAD. Shipping was a little over $3CAD so altogether it came to around $10CAD, which I think is fine.
This clipping is still available here through luckydelivering, if you're interested.
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Finally the last stretch of items!
So here are the items I received today.
Beast's "Good Luck" albums, both the black and white versions, finally arrived today (yesterday, since it's like 3AM now.. lol)!
I've been really enjoying this new mini album. So glad Beast came back -- and they've been raking in all the music show wins too! Go Beast!
Anyhow, I preordered these off of MWave Shop. They were $18.99USD each - a great price compared to YesAsia, KR, and other sites.
Beast Good Luck - Black and White versions available here at MWave Shop.
I wouldn't say this album has the prettiest design or anything. But it is pretty cool.
I ended up getting one Doojoon photocard (black ver.) and one Kikwang photocard (black ver.) - I want to trade Kikwang's for Doojoon's white version, since he's my favorite. I lucked out even getting one of him, which I'm super grateful for ^__^
The 'molds' on the cover of the album coincide with the other colour, so they kind of 'snap' together, which I thought was cool. It makes them much easier to store on a shelf as well, lol.
--if you look at the black album, the top part's writing sticks out, and on the top part of the white one, there's indents for the black's writing to 'fit' in. That's what I mean by 'snap'.
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Alright onto my last items!
I purchased two magazines (both July2014 and with Infinite on the covers) from YesAsia, along with version A of Infinite's Japanese version of Season 2.
star1 magazine available here.
The Star magazine available here.
Infinite - Season 2 Japanese version A available here.
The magazines are totally worth it in my opinion. The star1 is $9.99USD and The Star is $10.99USD, which I think is fine. But these magazines are actually like 3000won in Korea, which equates to about $3... but yeah... whatever. I don't live in Korea =_= plus it's free shipping so it all evens out I guess.
The photo shoots inside of Infinite are SO cute. But I think I like the one in The Star a little better, just cuz Sunggyu is so freaking adorable in them! Actually, all of them are really adorable in that photoshoot. Definitely recommend if you're an Infinite fan.
The Japanese album on the other hand is kind of ridiculously pricey for what it is. It costs $23.75USD on YesAsia, which is ~$25.50CAD. It comes with a CD (three songs, Jap. versions of Last Romeo, A Person Like Me and Nothing's Over), a DVD (Last Romeo Jap. MV and MV making of) and a thin booklet. I still want the B version of this album and the regular version, though, just cuz I think they're so pretty.
Japanese versions always tend to be pricier than Korean CDs though -- probably because they come with the DVD with the MV. I know that in Japan, MVs are actually not released in whole for free on the internet - instead, they're treated like merchandise to be sold and bought, not promotional material to get people to buy the CD like in Korea.
-Phew- Damn that was a long post. I'm going to just post that short post of why I know those Inspirit photocards are counterfeit, then head to bed. It's getting late, even by my standards.
~♔Josephine ♥
