What is money - 2018 squandering
Since it’s a new year again, I decided to make another kpop expenses breakdown by group. I’m not terribly surprised that JBJ overtook BTOB last year. A lot of it was from trying to get everything I could before the end of an era. Still didn’t manage to get my hands on a JLG bbu doll since that incident happened and put those projects to an end for him.
Anyways, let’s go over the breakdown. The grand total spent on Kpop in its entirety from what I could trace back was $4.2K. It definitely shows that I spent quite a sum on Kpop stuff because my shelves are packed and now take over my bookshelf. Good bye, my lovely books. Hello kpop albums!
JBJ - Top spot, beating out BTOB by at least $200. This is very accurate because in the span of 3 albums, I’ve managed to equal/beat my collection of BTOB albums. 10 Fantasy albums 2017-2018 purchases), 10 True Colors albums, and 7 New Moon albums. I’m not the type to buy photocards from people so I was playing a very expensive game of Gachapon with my albums. I managed to complete my white Fantasy lenticular card set though! It just took... 9 albums. I ended up buying a bbu doll of every member (except JLG... still want one but not used), 3 copies of their The Moment photobook because I’m insane, 2 copies of each version for JBJ95′s Home album and Donghan’s D-Night, both versions of Donghan’s D-Day, Hyunbin’s YG photobook, random official showcase merch from JBJ95 and Donghan, aaaaaand two different Taehyun fansite photobooks. It’s a very long list. 2019 should be much less unless all of them release an album twice or thrice (in Taehyun’s case should HotShot also get a chance to have 2 comebacks this year in whatever form).
BTOB - For both BTOB and JBJ, there might actually be a few albums missing from the total cost because I don’t have a record of when all the purchases were made so some duplicate albums I bought might have been in 2018 too. Anyways, I went even more insane with BTOB this year because I felt bad about buying 10 copies of JBJ’s album last year so when This Is Us came out, I crazily bought 14 albums. I was also trying to play Gachapon with their album goodies too. I failed though. I finished their bookmarks and 2 postcard sets, but that was it. This was even harder than with JBJ since I got the SAME postcards for like 3 albums in a row. So much of the same Sungjae postcard. Anyways, I calmed down and only bought 6 for Our Moment. The rest were from their Our Concert and This Is Us photobook, their hoodies, random Melzit goods, their seasons greeting, Minhyuk’s Japanese solo debut albums, and Changsub’s solo album. I also included the ticket cost to KTMF because I only bought those good seats to see BTOB as up close as possible. Also included the ticket for Changsub’s Iron Mask Musical that I got to see when I was on vacation in Korea.
Sungwoon + HotShot - So most of the expenses in this category is just Sungwoon. There’s HotShot’s Early Flowering, 2 copies, included in this too even though he wasn’t a part of that. Why not under Wanna One? Well, I’m not really a Wanna One fan so... I’d rather just label it as Sungwoon+. The majority of the cost comes from owning 1 copy of the 4 albums they released and the ticket to Kcon. Although Pentagon* and Dreamcatcher were also there, I only went because I thought it would be the only chance I’d get to see Sungwoon in person performing here. It’s also why I bought the more expensive ticket.
Monsta X places 4th due to their 4 version albums and those tempting pre-orders. How could I say no to all those goodies?!?! I loved their bonus photocards and little extras. Their lightstick and LA concert ticket is also included in this total. I’m expecting MX’s costs to go up this year since I’m planning to go all out and try to get the best ticket I can for their concert in the summer.
CLC rounds it out to the last group that passed the $100 mark. This was mostly from purchasing 2 copies of their signed Mwave albums as well as just owning a regular copy. I also got 2nd membership card as well, even though it’s super useless to overseas fans. I wish they had a lightstick because I would have bought theirs too.
*I got to see Pentagon with CLC and BTOB (along with their ex-company mate KiKwang) at a Hong Kong concert anyways. I think I enjoyed my time there watching Pentagon over during Kcon just because of the issue going on and... others around me.
Hoping that I won’t spend too much on Kpop this year, but I’m already close to $1K from all of KNK’s projects and their concert. I’m not complaining though. It’s been one rough year for them and 2018 wasn’t a pleasant journey. I’ll gladly try to support them as best as I financially can.
