Where to buy signed / autographed Kpop albums

Unlike the western music industry, signed Kpop albums actually exist! But it can become a big of a confusion where to buy them. There are several places where you buy, some places where you can buy with no worries and others where the guide of spotting fake signatures shall be needed and a bit more studied required as well! Here is another article I wrote for the newbies out there!

There are several places where you can get signed albums:

★ In a fansign

★ On an official website like mWave or Yesasia (previously also Soompi but they stopped the shop)

★ On eBay, tumblr, Facebook, forums, .... 

FANSIGNS

In Korea, the idols do regularly fansigns, so kfans get the opportunity to achieve signed albums. but as for us, international fans how is it possible? 

Concerning the fansigns, majority are done in S. Korea and Asian countries, there's a very slim chance to go to a fansign in your country if you're European, American (North American/Latino American) or even African. So yay if you're Singaporean, because chances that you might be able to go to fansign is quite possible! But for instance, your chances are almost 0 to go to a fansign for Super Junior in France (although it is one of the most common European country kpop groups go to), but for a more nugu group that might come, you might have the chance to assist to some sort of fansign (limited and pricier to be able to do that)  I know for a thing Boys Republic came To tour in Europe, and people with VIP tickets could get signed posters. (Sadly I learned about the event way too late.... Because I never check the news ;_;) But usually if a kpop group comes to your country, the closest interaction you'll be able to achieve is a high5 event (quick, effortless, and yeah... Not always satisfying for us fans). 

BUT the fansigns outside of S. Korea ARE very different from the ones held. The ones in S. Korea allows you more interaction with the idols (you get a good 20-30 seconds with each member, you talk to them, they answer your question on the post-it, you can lock your fingers with them...), whilst for instance for BTS's highlight tour in North America, the fans barely had a second to talk to the members, the members just signed on a poster in front of the fan and had to do it very quickly (bad organization as well).

The fansigns outside of S. Korea do not usually involve signed albums, but more signed posters or other objects. They are basically available whilst the group is in your country, and sometimes they may offer along the concert a ticket that includes a fansign. For instance, HISTORY will have a european tour in February 2016, there were 150 VIP tickets for the Romanian stop (which were sold out in 15 minutes!), and this includes a fansign, where the people will receive a signed poster.

But IF you ever happen to go to a fansign in S. Korea (I have never been so yeah I can't give you details), there's two types of fansigns, FIRST come FIRST served and Lottery based one. First come first served is for more "nugu" groups or rookie groups. For 24K it was First come First served, basically there's 100 spots available, and if you manage to be one of the first 100 people to buy from a specific CD store (you'd have to tell them you want to participate for that fansign), then you got yourself secured a spot! You will receive a ticket with a number, that goes from 1-100, and that'll be the order you'll go. Groups that have done first come first served were: 24K, C-Clown, HOTSHOT, The Legend, .... etc. Basically if a group is not very popular, odds that their fansigns are first come first served are very high. Rookie groups which did do the first fansign with that system was UP10TION but it got sold so quickly! I am pretty sure now they do the lottery system. Now, what is the lottery system? NOT everyone gets to get in, there's this sort of lottery, 1 album bought makes 1 chance to be selected at the lottery. One entry. So the more popular a group is, the HARDER it is to get in if you only buy 1 album). So you want to go to an EXO fansign but only got 1 album? Chances are extremely low for you, but you want to go to a Boys Republic fansign? Chances are you won't get any trouble getting in even with one album, apparently even if they do the lottery system, it seems like there isn't a lot of competition going on. Since I am a big ARMY, I can only tell you about BTS, the fact is in fansigns, for lottery system, only a percentage is allowed for foreigners, I believe for BTS they only allow 20% of the spots to be given to the foreigners. As a result, foreigners tend to buy MUCH MORE albums in order to secure a spot in contrast to the koreans, as for instance Japanese fans have a lot of money and tend to be able to buy A LOT. So you have on one side Korean fans who usually buy 40 albums in order to secure a spot, whilst foreigners would need to buy 80 albums. This is based on the RUN promotion fansigns, those numbers may increase! You aren't obligated to buy 80 albums, but it just means the chances to be picked are higher, some people who bought that amount may have not been picked as well! It is all about luck! Do not forget that lottery is based on luck and buying more albums just increases your odds to be picked but DOES NOT guarantee the fact that you'd get in.
So you got in, what happens? Basically you will have an order to go to the front where the idols are, and once your turn comes, each member will have its own seat, and you will have to pass one by one. They will sign the booklet in your album (one page dedicated to each member). You may also prepare a post it in advance where you write a question to each member. You get approximately 20-30 seconds per member, and it depends on each group. You get to talk to the members, give them gifts if you wish, and have skinship such as locking hands! And to top it off, you leave with a signed album, dedicated to you, as they sign " TO: YOURNAME". And may sometimes write an extra little word on it!

MWAVE / YESASIA ALBUMS

But not everyone can have the luck to have a group coming to their country or going to Korea, or even to have the money? (buying 80 albums in one go.... can be very expensive!) 

So the trick is, you can buy official signed Kpop album on mwave. (Http://mwave.interest.me) I was a bit sceptic all because I didn't know the site at all at the beginning, but after doing my research, this site is the most legit. Indeed, in Korea there are weekly broadcast shows such as Inkingayo, The Show, M! countdown and so on... M! Countdown is organized by Mnet, aka Mwave, which is an official channel in S. korea. So you are sure that the albums sold there are 100% legit! The website also organizes meet and greets, which is basically you purchase an album (or more as you wish) and you can leave a message to the idols. The idols will do an hour broadcast which you can watch live, and they will do some activities, read some comments that people leave when they purchase the album, and select randomly those that win special items (like badges, all signed albums....). Sometimes, they will also read at the end of the broadcast some messages fans write live, this is actually how I got noticed by B1A4 and UP10TION! I have the worst luck ever, so my only chances to be noticed was to spam the fan board with my messages, and B1A4 did do my request when I asked them whether they could roll their tongues (yes this is a very stupid request), and UP10TIOn answered my question when I asked them which hair color they wanted to do next. They pick the messages they want to read, I can't tell you how frustrating it is to see your message pop up and THEY JUST DON'T READ IT. So the thing is, mwave doesn't offer the album you might be interested in. For instance, you might be searching for an older signed album or mwave never sells their signed albums, such as SM artists or YG artists. They only currently sell albums from recent comebacks, and the artists are rarely extremely popular ones. You wouldn't find INFINITE, or BEAST at this point. Usually companies allow their artists to do meet&greet or signed albums sales just to boost their sales. At this point you'd know that Infinite doesn't really need any boosting? But for instance, recently, the latest album by VIXX chained up was available for a few days, and it was one random member signed! Well not too bad right? knowing how popular VIXX is.

YesAsia also offers signed albums, but they have pretty much the same choices are mwave, if not less, and more expensive. They are a great alternative in case the album you wanted to purchase was sold out. The GOT7 "Mad" signed album on mwave was sold out so quickly, good think there was still YesAsia offering it, it was just a bit pricier, of a few dollars. Otherwise YesAsia offers the same signed albums as Mwave, if not less, and they only offer it one random member signed if for instance mWave proposes it one random member signed BUT with the chance to be picked randomly for all member signed, which yesasia doesn't offer.

EBAY

Some people that sell their signed albums on eBay often buy them from broadcasting channels. When idols come to broadcasting channels, they have to sign their albums in order to.... Promote their album! So some signed promo albums come with a "TO: XXX" and a long message on the cover, because it is often destined to a PD.... who doesn't always seem to want to keep that album. They receive so many promo albums that I doubt they'd wish to keep them all, too much! So the people with links to the broadcast channels manage to get them for free orrrrr for a cheap price! And they resell them on ebay. Not all the people on eBay who claim those come from broadcasting channels are legit. Please read my other article about how to spot a fake signed album. The good thing with those sellers is they will offer you a wider range of albums, older or newer, and more artists! Such as SNSD, exo, SHINee... etc. But this comes with a price, usually those albums are more costly, nearing the 100$ including the shipping price. But this of course depends on the artist, and Exo album will cost more than a SHINee one, since Exo is much more popular nowadays.

Otherwise other types of sellers would resell albums they've bought from the places mentioned above. You also have to be careful because some sellers might "steal" other people's pictures and claiming them as theirs. So you believe you are purchasing a legit signed copy of an album but in fact the seller might send you something totally different from the picture. Hence even checking previous feedback is important and doing your own research. I would say NEVER impulsively buy from eBay or other less safe platforms like the ones below. 

OTHER PLATFORMS: TUMBLR, FACEBOOK, TWITTER...

And as for other platforms such as Facebook, Tumblr, .... those people tend to resell things they've bought on Soompi, YesAsia, eBay. Beware, not as trustworthy, you'd have to be really careful. Not everyone is fake, but you'd need to work on spotting whether it's fake or not what they sell, even if they have an amazing feedback, always look out. Basically they tend to resell albums that come from the places written above.

Basically what I can remember where you can buy signed Kpop albums.

Thank you for reading this!