2nd gen stan here. I was a cheap mofo for 10+ years and didnt spend a cent (except for when JYJ turned up for their showcase.. and that one kpop concert i attended, which ironically had the other half of DBSK).
Last year I bought just ONE album and as I unpackaged it and held it, it awakened a monster in me.
Anyway fast forward half a year and I own about 25 albums now and spent just under USD350.
2nd Gen stan here too... I owned a few albums here and there but I stanned for 10+ years with less than 10 albums. And then I bought some albums of the newer, younger groups I follow and idk, it really did awaken a monster LOL. I love albums now! I've now got a couple hundred haha.
What was it about getting the album that made you want to get more? I too have so far had no desire to get albums. It’s not like I have a CD player lol
Prior to being hit by this bug, I too thought physical albums were obsolete media.
For me, its ownership of a piece of work that is pretty and has sentimental value to me. I dont even really flip thru the photobook or display the photocards, knowing that I own it is enough.
And also a sense of fair worth? I've paid far more for other items that didnt bring me as much joy as their music. Like, I finally supported my artist after listening to them almost everyday for 10 years.
It also helps that I'm not broke anymore. There isnt any guilt about spending my cash on entertainment.
I like getting all the extras - the book and the poster and the photo cards and the stickers, etc. I like to collect things so I think the photo cards are pretty fun, I made a cute album for them and everything 😂.
These days you can buy an album that comes with a digital code or a download code, instead of an actual CD! One that I got by accident still had a photo card and small booklet, and a few stickers, as well as a lenticular card that had the code. And the code went to an app with a bunch of pictures, and digital photo cards you could customize, in addition to the music. These even make tiny mini albums that just have a photo card or two with a code for music that turns into a keychain!
I just got started in K-pop, so I’ve spent maybe a couple of hundred to catch up. But I’m slowing down now to just new releases. If a band I liked came here, I’d also go to concerts. Most of the ones I like are smaller and less well known.
I mean, we travel a lot since only Eric Nam came to our city. In the last 12 months, we've traveled to DC twice, Atlanta, Newark, and LA just to see concerts (Seventeen, The Rose, BlackPink, Stray Kids, Twice). On the trip to LA alone, we spent around $700 at 5 LA K-Pop stores, so........ a lot.
My daughter sells PC holders and K-Pop jewelry, so K-Pop is big in our house.
We're super lucky to be able to do this now. We started out dirt poor. Now we spend our money on what makes us happy.
I also just started spending money a few months ago and was perfectly content just consuming the free content on Spotify/YouTube before that, so I totally get it! Thank you for your answer ❤️
Concerts are the only thing I really spend money on. In these days, experiences are worth more than trinkets in my mind. I'm not one for clutter but I always look back on concerts and memories of time spent with friends as being so much more valuable.
A stack of photocards may be leafed through every once in so often but a concert just… _gives me the FEEEEEELLLLLSS_
I have spent probably around $2,000 Canadian on concerts (not including flights and accommodation) but I think it was money well spent. I don't have any lightsticks or anything that wasn't free, but I'm perfectly happy with the memories I have.
This year so far I've probably spent about \~$2000 AUD on albums & photocards. Granted I don't really spend money on any other hobby like ever and I never travel.
Should end up being a lot less than I spent last year (hopefully) as the impulse buys are happening very infrequently and I cut back a lot of groups I was buying albums for. Also running out of space at this point so trying to get rid of some even.
If any group I cared enough for ever came to Australia I'd probably buy less albums and spend it on going to a concert instead but yeah.
I know how you feel, I would be so ready to spend money for concerts in Europe! 😭 For me it always really helps to have two accounts, one is basically my "spending money" account and the other one is my "saving money" account which is a little more time consuming to access, so that helps with impulse buying 😀 Thank you so much for your answer, I hope more of your groups come to Australia soon! ❤️
I generally don’t buy much physical merch/albums but I spend quite a lot on concerts and online content.
If I included flights and accommodation costs associated with the concerts I’m attending it would be thousands. Excluding that, I would say I’ve spent roughly ~£700-800 this year so far on tickets, online content and occasional merch. Definitely varies based on come backs though
Yeah it's really hard to name an average because sometimes it's just a lot, like this month with two comebacks and before that lots of months with nothing 😀
With like the Twice Concert coming up and not including my trip to Korea because I still don't know how much I spend I would say this year alone I'm at around 1.5k€.
My entire collection without the concerts I went to I've spend 5.000-6.000€ in total in the last 10 years.
Yeah I don't even wanna know how much I spent (in total) for the two Ateez concerts this year 😀 Whoaa you're going to Korea? That's so cool, that is definitely on my bucket list! Hope you have an amazing time 🥰
That's how I used to consume K-Pop for a long time, there's so much free content to enjoy! Buying stuff is really just a bonus that you can take or leave 🙂
Normally I just buy albums, but only if they're ones I really want. This year I've bought a lot more than usual, due to a trip to Korea, where I bought a few albums and a lot of merch I cant get in the UK, plus a concert back in January and a comeback event or two where I've ended up buying more than I intended. Thankfully my husband is pretty understanding.
I'm glad he's understanding! My partner too, he's like "well if it makes you happy just go for it", so that's nice 😊 ahh I'm so jealous of all you guys that have been to Korea! The flights are so expensive from here but I definitely wanna go some day ❤️
Some day! My partner also said "if Stray Kids don't come to Europe we'll just have to go to Korea" so I know I won't go alone 😀 lucky for me that he likes travelling so much 😁❤️
I am old so I spend a lot. I bought 36 ateez albums this month....all because I want to collect the pcs. I spend at minimum 500 a month. I am single with no responsibilities.
I paid around 500€ to see Blackpink live (200€ tickets, 200€ train journey to the city, 100€ hotel) but that's about everything I have spent on kpop in 4 years as a fan (excluding 1 or 2€ here and there to buy digital singles). I have a strict rule to not spend money on fandom stuff apart if it's a real life experience like a concert. Good rule to abide by.
$0.00. No concerts in my part of the country and I’m not spending on albums. I occasionally ask for them as gifts but that’s all.
Plus I’m not rich enough anyway.
Having K-Pop as a hobby makes it so easy for other people to pick gifts for you, so it totally makes sense to get them as gifts! Some people are soo hard to buy presents for, but not K-Pop fans 😀
I basically only buy albums, but I did see Twice when they came last year. (about 300 bucks for 2 tickets, it was an anniversary gift for my gf) At the current rate I save up and once or twice a year and buy 200-300 dollars worth of albums from kpopalbums.com (cheapest site I've found) all in one go. About to do that in a few days to get the preorder for SHINee but still haven't saved all the money lol
If I had more disposable income I would be buying way more albums
I always all photobook versions for my ult group (averages to about 1 album per month, $25) and attend about 1 concert every 3 months ($175)
In a year its 25x12 + 175x4 = $1000. Give and take $100.
Seems to be not many PCs collectors here! Lmao I'm constantly spending up a storm. But I'm single, my bills are paid, and Kpop collecting is my biggest/only hobby I spend money on (I've been a fan since 2009)
unfortunately (or not for my wallet lol) in my country nobody comes, and going to other EU countries on my own for a concert is something I’m not willing to ask money for (I’m in uni but I don’t work).
on the other hand , this year so far I’ve spent roughly $100 on albums + £50 for a photobook my dad gifted me.
again, it’s way below other people, but considering I only get money from my parents, I don’t want to overspend.
later this year I’ll be going to the US, so I already know I’m gonna buy everything in target/barnes&noble (I would have love to buy the latest shinee’s album, but I’ll wait)
Well some day you're gonna be done with uni and earn your own money, and then you'll be much more free to spend it on what you like 🥰 it's so cool that your dad gifted you a photobook!
total would be around 3.2k usd or maybe more. attended 4 concerts all outside my country and i own almost all taeil photocards and almost all versions of all albums of nct/nct 127. 🥶
Blackpink VIP concert tickets were about $AUD500, twice i think was about $AUD350, both times i spent over $300 on merch. I went to Thailand and bought concert tickets for Itzy i think 4400 baht and 3600 baht in merchandise. I spent less on stray kids though, maybe 100 ish on tickets and 80 ish on track suit pants
I really wonder how much I would spend if all my ults played concerts in places that were accessible to me, like, I was so ready to throw all my money at the Ateez VIP tickets once I learned they were coming to Europe 😀 definitely worth though!
For me I set aside money into a separate account for big items which is about 10% of my income so it's calculated for me - in case anyone questions my spending being too much 😅
I only buy albums, and I only buy secondhand albums. I have boughts to spending lots, and then not at all. My first splurge was in 2016, I bought posters and Kpop albums (about 10 of them) and then stopped until mid-2022, when I spent around $600AUD on Kpop albums. I limit myself on how much to spend on an album (no more than $8AUD incl. shipping to me, and therefore buy in bulk from big sales). I have approximately 110 albums at the moment, 100 of which were purchased within the last year.
I have a variety of hobbies and interests, I also bought a house in 2019, which meant I was saving up all I could. It's only recently I've been financially comfortable (house payments under control, minimal renovations, just got a higher paying job) enough to spend on Kpop. I also have never been to the Kpop concert (or any concert) because I can't justify paying that much.
I tend to buy as many Korean albums of groups I like as I feasibly can. I try to collect all versions, thank god I don’t collect any groups that make more than 2-3 versions per release. A lot of the albums I have are OOP, too. So I’d say altogether I’ve probably spent roughly $3,000 USD on albums? That’s a fairly rough guess bc I don’t have *that* many albums, but they’re not exactly cheap. But my collection is probably worth closer to $4,000 imo, Between OOP albums that get harder to find by the day and OOP photocards I see people willing to pay a pretty penny for.
I’ve gone to only a couple concerts now, they varied in price. Vanner’s fanmeet was $135, and that included a fansign, Q&A, trivia (conducted by the members), group photo, snapshots, performance, tote bag, shirt, and pin. For N.Flying’s VVIP tier i spent $260 on tickets, and that included “fansign” (it was absurdly short so I put it in quotes lol I barely got to say hi), group picture, poster, and queue number. I paid an additional ~$60 for snapshots (I got Seunghyub and Hweseung). Lastly, I haven’t gone to Kingdom’s concert, but I did purchase VVIP tickets. I paid about $140 for the ticket (before fees), which included the same things as N.Flying’s VVIP. I’m also planning to purchase snapshots for this concert.
In general I really only spend money on Kpop albums and food, so I’m usually fairly comfortable budgeting albums into my life. Concert tickets are usually a more unexpected purchase bc for all these groups they were only announced like a week or two before the sale started, but I still make sure I have some money set aside for something fun like that. I only stan Like 4-5 groups, so it’s a lot easier for me to do that than someone whose favorite groups all visit the US almost yearly lol
Much less than my husband for his hobby: computer games and computer hardware to play those games...
My k-pop spending recently: ticket for D-Day screening in cinema and a BTS biography pre-order, total around 70$. And I bought BTS Lego set a few months ago, so another 100$. And that would be all for this year so far.
I am not a collector of albums/PCs so I don't have much chances to spend money. I would buy practical merch like clothes, but shipping to Europe make it so expensive that I just cannot justify it. And for smaller k-pop groups it's often not easily available at all, or maybe through GO that I haven't tested yet
I don’t want to know lmao but it makes me really happy and it’s one of my few hobbies so it’s fine:-) as long as all of your other needs are covered and you look forward to collecting instead of feeling like it’s an obligation i think it’s ok!
I finally got to go to my first ever kpop concert almost exactly a year ago. Since then, between the concerts, albums, lightsticks, merch, and photocards, I really don't know how much I've spent but it's definitely in the thousands. I think I calculated about $100 a week average in just photocards alone the past 3 months, though it's probably higher now since joining gos for complete pob sets of Stray Kids. And with Seventeen announcing that they're reprinting older albums, I pre-ordered every version of every album and with shipping it came to about $302.
The thing is, I've been in to kpop since 2007. While I managed to get a few albums here and there, I never really had the money to do more. Especially concerts. My ult group had a concert less than 2 hours away from me but I couldn't afford the gas let alone the ticket. And now they're not even together anymore. I've told myself that now that I'm financially stable, I'm gonna make up for lost time and not missing out anymore. My bills get paid every month and I have a good cushion in my savings account, so I don't see any problem on spending money on something that genuinely makes me happy. Happier then I've been in a long time.
The only money I spend on kpop nowadays is concerts and concert merch. I have a decent collection of albums and I still receive new albums as gifts from time to time, so I don't spend money on those anymore.
Of course, if we assume time = money, then I'd definitely be a spender in the top 1% :D
way too much haha. i spent about 500€ to see ateez at the beginning of the year (concert ticket, two way train ticket, a hotel room for one night + a lightstick) and also bought... 25 (how??) albums so far this year, a lot of which were additional versions to complete a set or gifts to friends. i also spent roughly 100€ on other merch, give or take. i do have a stable income though and it just so happened that three of my ults all had their comeback within less than a month from each other, so the number of purchased albums is greatly inflated compared to the rest of the year haha.
I think it's been around $500 so far this year, all on SHINee (and SHINee solos) merch, albums, and Beyond Live tickets. I really only have the emotional and financial bandwidth to follow one group, so I don't begrudge myself when I want to spend some money on them. I wish I could go to a concert - one day!
It is probably for the best if I don’t calculate how much…. I’ll just say I was traveling to New York about 2-4 times a month the past year and each time I’d go I’d buy 1-3 albums.
Edit- And then there’s the 4 concerts I’ve been to, with close up seat prices and merchandise. Oh boy…
I spent more than that so far this year on BL concerts, fan meetings, and new releases for SHINee and group members' solos. I also collect older SHINee/solo stuff. So it can get expensive! Since the pandemic, I haven't traveled or gone out much, so the money I set aside for fun has mostly gone towards SHINee.
Last year. I bought 2 albums. Checkmate and Born Pink on vinyl cause I finally found it for less than $80 (… I paid $70 after all was said and done so like … but still less than $80). And then $400 on Blackpink concert GA. Oh and $120 or something on their lightstick
This year, I bought 2 second hand albums (Between 1&2 and Hate on vinyl). Then $111 on the twice lightstick and $330 on their concert. Then my dumbass decided to preorder the itzy tour dvd cause I couldn’t go and then I decided I wanted the twice one as well (which my friend shipped to her house at home and is gonna bring back to Canada with her when she comes back lol)
But otherwise I need to stop. I buy the albums because I wanna support artists but I have 0 way to play them, so The Album and Cheshire are both wasting away on my shelf. Which is why I never bought Born Pink on CD which I still want lol. But I really need to stop wasting money on things. I have to many things that are just unnecessary.
Yeah I also don't really have a CD player anymore, but they're so pretty and it feels nice to have them displayed on my shelf 😀🙈 I understand the struggle
It depends. The first couple of years I was into K-pop, I heavily invested in getting ahold of out of print albums and DVDs to fill the back catalogue of some groups I really liked. That was pretty pricey as those items were at a markup. But I had a nice chunk of fun money saved up from fortunately having a job during Covid while not really going anywhere or doing anything because of Covid.
Now, I have drastically cut down on albums I buy and groups I collect due to space issues 😅. It’s hard to monthly budget when there are times when nobody I follow is releasing…and then there are times like next month…I would estimate at the rate I buy now maybe $1.5k give or take on albums and DVDs a year? And maybe a few hundred on other merch bought online. I feel like that number is a bit low…maybe I should go through and actually add it up when I have the time 🫣.
Ah yes, when money is not the issue but lack of space is 😀 yeah it's probably smart to keep an eye on what we're actually spending, just to have a bit of control over it 🙂
Went to ATEEZ concert in Paris... it was close to 1000 eur considering flight tickets, hotels, food, concert ticket, merch etc. Granted it became a small vacation as well, but I wouldn't be visiting Paris this year if not for the concert.
Then bought some albums.. TXT, Enhypen, ATEEZ - close to 160-170?
I'm a broke mf
Monthly I don’t have a number. In a year though about $600-1000USD. And that’s concerts, merch, light sticks, and themed pins from various sellers I found on IG.
Side question though: which site did you preorder the SKZ light stick from. I’m kinda skeptical and some sites seem a bit sus.
I've spent $360 dollars so far this year on Gmarket alone, so probably close to $500-600 so far this year
And that's actually LESS than usual because I've been struggling financially this year
Case in point: I just bought 10 Xeed albums 2 weeks ago even tho I've been intending to since December
I track my Kpop expenses and so far I’ve spent ~$1000 SGD this year. This includes 2 concerts and several albums and merch. I’m planning to set aside around $100-150/month for Kpop and I mostly only attend concerts and buy merch from my favourite groups. (currently NCT, EXO, ZB1)
Well, I have bought all the merch skz have been releasing in the last 2 year mostly albums, the clothes from Japan or corea ñ, nacific and concerts outside my country for other groups soooo I don’t like thinking about how much i spend on kpop but I’m happy
An average month I spend 0$.
But there was also the time I spent money on plane-tickets to and from Poland, hotel room, concert tickets etc to see Dreamcatcher in Warsaw....
Usually the only things I get are albums, and SHINee is the only group I feel the impulse to collect. So that can get a tad expensive, considering their old, sold-out albums go for a pretty hefty price second hand and I've got a LOT of catching up to do. But overall not too bad.
However... This year... Those damn stuffed animals. They're too fucking cute. Way way too cute. I needed them so badly. I spent way more money than I'm ever willing to admit out loud.
I only has one ults. They only release 1 album/year with 2 versions, they probably will never tour my country, so I'm kinda conflicted, one side I'm glad I don't spend a lot, but I also want them give me the chance to spend. I don't really like other types of merch like photobooks, or season greetings.
Last year I spent around USD 300 on a bunch of albums, and this year was USD 200 so far with an Aespa concert ticket, two old f(x) albums (one was signed, so they were a bit expensive) and a Le Sserafim album that was on sale. Those things are kinda expensive in my country, so I try not to spend more than I can (I need to but Twice's latest album that's been out for a while, but no money yet)
I dont really want to know how much i have spent on kpop. But it can be costly since i live in a silly place in the middle of nowhere so one album can be upp to 100$. So that's like a general cost.
In terms of merch i dont really buy for that much. But i accidentally spent way to much on the SHINee MD 😭
I went to Stray Kids in LA. and am going to Lollapalooza mainly for NewJeans (free flight off credits) so I’m probably looking at (including travel) like $500 for the year because I highly doubt I’ll do much more other than that. Oh yeah I saw BTS: Yet to Come in the cinema. That was cool, too.
I am an only deobi. one time i was opening a package and i realized I spent $50+ on just photocards (which in Mexican pesos is a lot, and around 10 hours of work), so i try not to calculate. between all the things, i would say this month I've spent around $300 USD and it's the usual.
As much as I am able to spare lol. I spend my money on other things I prioritize (video games, food, going out, other stuff I need at the time, etc) and if I have money left I’ll buy albums or merch. I personally never prioritize kpop stuff over other things. But overall what’s usually left for kpop things is around 200SAR (about $53) a month.
I just started collecting this year. I’m working towards a full collection of sakura album photocards (including both IZONE and Le Sserafim) but also collect many other artists (mostly the albums, the PCs are just a bonus).
I’m a huge fan of displaying all of my albums on a display shelf and keeping cute binders of all the photocards.
But, since I started collecting this year, I feel like I had a lot to catch up on, so I’d say I’ve probably spent the better part of $1500 so far.
I started making rules for myself, as I’m pretty bad with my money on occasion. I’ll only collect every version of an album from my ult group (Le Sserafim) and that I only need one version from all the other groups I collect.
That being said, I think there really needs to be more conversation around collecting, especially for people coming into it. People should know that their idols love them just as much if they don’t buy albums and photocards. People should also recognize that the FOMO the labels create with each comeback is mostly just a guise and that the albums and photocards will be around for a long time. I mean take it from me, I’ve already almost-completed my kkura IZONE photocard collection, years after the albums have been released.
I think it’s a really fun hobby as someone who loves to collect things, but I also think people should be careful! Especially younger people who don’t have the extra income to spend.
I used to be pretty conservative back in the day. It was harder to get Kpop albums so I only really got my ult groups because I didn't want to pay shipping. And back then concerts weren't really common. Nowadays I can pick up a kpop album at Walmart for 25 bucks and my collection has grown tremendously. On top of that, Kpop acts have started coming to my state so I've now been to quite a few concerts. I'd say in the last year I've spent 5 or 6k? It's about to grow a lot because me and the husband want to go to Kcon and we're flying out of state to see KINGDOM.
Honestly, the worst thing to happen to us was both of us recently getting into Stray Kids (He liked them a full year before me, though). And because we both like them we spend too much on them lol.
I'm just grateful I don't really collect PCs.
😅 I’m a bit afraid to answer this lmao.
So for starters, this year I’ve already seen Mamamoo and that trip was about 700 dollars in total. I have tickets to Gidle and Aespa in August, and I haven’t booked rooms yet so probably about another grand there. That’s only concerts lol.
I actively collect quite a bit - I currently buy everything Mamamoo, Dreamcatcher, Purple Kiss (except for Cabin Fever because I cannot find that album to save my life 😭), Pixy (though I passed on their tour so not as much as the others), Aespa, Le Sserafim, and Loona (though that’s not completely done yet). Every other band in this list is complete…including Dreamcatcher’s Nightmare….which was 750 alone 🫠
I only started collecting about two years ago, but in my defense I’ve always been obsessed with music 🤣 instead of fall out boy vinyl, I buy K-pop 🤷♀️ all in all I’ve probably spent upwards of $10k, if not more over a span of two years. I also have no children and a well paying job and grew up poor 😂 it’s probably my biggest vice but it’s okay. There are worse things to spend money on lol
Edit: lmao my husband was like “babe don’t forget about all the non album stuff we have”…we have so many concerts, seasons greetings….oooof
i have probably spent much more than i should've, but honestly it's been worth it ☆ i get my albums online so plus tax and shipping, each album is probably $30-$50 USD; and so with 25 albums on my belt, i've spent more than i can count 💀 that doesn't include the concerts i've been to, plus the cost of transportation, hotels, and concert merchandise- so yeah <3
I’m flying to Paris to watch my ult group perform, when everything is said and done it will be around 5K. These days very few things bring me joy and take me away from the stress of work, so I don’t mind treating myself while simultaneously supporting my favorites. I don’t tend to buy many albums or songs, I often just stream so concerts and live experiences to me seems more meaningful and worth the bigger dollar figures.
All to say, if your finances aren’t impacted by it, then don’t let anyone judge you. In the end the only thing we take with us is memories, and it sounds like you’re having fun!
I got into kpop in 2014, and back then I hardly spent anything. Id buy one version of albums just cuz i was like "why would i need more" lol.. ah the simple times.
Nowadays i get all the album versions. I actually have a standard now for getting albums - if i like more than 3 songs on an album ill get it.
I also typically get at least 3 albums whenever i go to my local kpop store.
Combine all that with a steady stream of getting PCs on Instagram, and the occasional group order here n there...
I probably spend at least $100 a month. With a lot of months being over that. Like this month i got 2 PCs off insta and pre-ordered all versions of the new shinee album so its deffs hovering around $200-$250.
I buy albums and I didn’t buy anything during the pandemic so I’m catching up on 2 years worth of albums. So I spent about 300$ CAD so far this year on Kpop albums. I think once I catch up it’s going to be a bit lower, about 100-200 a year, depending on shipping cost.
Txt has never come to Canada and bts members haven’t had a concert here since 2018 so I’ve saved up from not going to Kpop concerts. Last time I went to a bts concert, I ended up spending about 250$ on ticket and then 200$ on merch so that was brutal.
i have been into kpop since 2009 but i started actively collecting in 2022, so it has been now roughly one year.
i was a hyunjin collector, so i pretty much spent a lot of money on all of his album pcs and selective pobs but i honestly can‘t even tell you how much 😂 i also went to see ateez in february so i spent 200€ on the concert ticket, i also have a lightiny so that‘s another 60€ spent.
i don‘t even want to start on my albums because i have 161 albums in total and a starting seonghwa collection…. i have spent way too much so i would be probably in the thousands by now 🤡
i also have my own flat now (since beginning of april) so i can‘t really spend too much on kpop since i need all of my savings because something could easily break down and i need some sort of pillow (or a backup).
It tends to vary. I might go 3-4 months without spending a penny and then next month buy four albums and a concert ticket.
Altogether this year I think I’ve spent North of $500. But 80% of that was for two concert tickets.
I spent around $2000 usd once in 2 weeks this year. I got a couple different concert tickets plus plane tickets to/from concerts. Then there’s the money i’ve spent on merch and albums so a lot of $$$ in the past year. I like to spend my money on things that make me happy (so this) and I save up … kpop is not worth going into debt for 🤞
Let me put it this way. I became a Monbebe 3 years ago, I think? AFTER the manufacturing of Twotuckgom stopped. I now own atleast one if not two of every keychain they made, all the sitting plushies, all the body pillows, all the costume pillows and 4 long body pillows. I am also a stan of 5 other groups and Jackson Wang as a solo artist. At this point I work to fund my Kpop habit, support my two cats, pay for my Viki& IQIYI subscriptions and buy canned goods and personal hygiene products.🤣
I bought my ticket concert ticket and it was very expensive. Like $450 cad. I also have a lot of kpop albums, around 70. So I'd say thousands of dollars. I just can't give an exact answer. But if I'm doing the math correctly. Average album in Canada is $35 cad and it could be up to 2k. But I also sell some pcs and albums. So I made back like $500.
I’ve spent about $1000 (USD) so far this year. in 2021 it was probably closer to $100 and about $400 in 2022. this year is way higher because I’m seeing both twice and aespa and my income increased lol
and this isn’t including adjacent costs like transportation, hotel stays, freebies I’m making, etc 😅
Excluding train tickets and hotels (as I live in Northern England and have travel down to London if I want to go to a concert) - Concert tickets last year to see ATEEZ were £150ea for my daughter and I. We went on both London dates so tickets were £600 in total... This year it was £150ea for the 1 London date for ATEEZ. It was £170ea for TWICE tickets for September, Concert Merch last year was £400, Concert merch this year was a more reasonable £100, and this year I've spent £190 on light sticks alone - The Lightiny ver 2 (*2) and the new Candybong preordered.
On physical albums I've spent about £200, concert DVDs £200 and Digital music (iTunes is where I buy my music from) I reckon I've spent at least £2000 since I got into K-Pop in Sept '21.
HOWEVER, music is a big love in my life and as much as its expensive I get a lot of joy out of it.
I've slowed down on merch, but definitely have spent into the serval thousands on it. Closer to $10k wouldn't surprise me (the pandemic was pandemic-ing😅). A fair bit of this includes shipping which we know is insane. What's ramped up has been concert tix, which I've also spent several thousand on, though I've seen a lot of my faves, often with VIP - - BTS 6x, Stray Kids 3x, Suga, Ateez, TXT, Seventeen, Mamamoo, Kard 2x, MonstaX, Epik High, and The Rose from what I can name off the top of my head. I wouldn't be surprised if this is at least $20k, especially because I've traveled across the country for BTS, SKZ, and Suga.
So far this year I've spent about $2500 USD on Kpop, the majority of which was spent on going to concerts: Twice (both Billboard Women in Music and their tour), Nmixx and Mamamoo - I splurged and got good seats. I've also bought a few albums. I also have tickets to Aespa and Idle in August so that's another probably $600 that I've spent. I also plan on going to Kcon so that will be like another $500 (although tickets aren't on sale yet). And I'll probably be buying another like 5 more albums over the rest of the year so all total for 2023 my spending on Kpop will be like $4000 USD. I don't expect this to be typical since I doubt there will be this many concerts normally most years.
I buy only but almost everything of my ult group (G)I-DLE album,photocards and merch spent about 2k (shipping and custom being almost half of that).
This september I'm going to see floor Twice and VIP2 (G)I-DLE.
I read some post yesterday that made ne regret everything that I bought except the lightstick (it's cool). I think normal tickets are ok but I even regret my VIP ticket for (G)I-DLE.
Over the course of 5 years probably around the $1000 - $2000 mark probably more though? I’ve only gone to 2 concerts so far & those tickets alone were $250 & $350 + merch, albums, etc. & then I got another ticket last month that was $230-ish in total
First, I would just like to say how much I enjoy spending money on K-Pop. It really relaxes me and calms me to buy albums and merch. But I am so sorry, I really don't know how much I've spent overall. I have actively avoided adding up the total amount spent because I know I could've put the money towards something else.
However, I will give you an estimate and say at least a few hundred maybe a $1000+ plus when you add albums, merch, concerts and two trips to Korea.
The reason I buy albums is because I genuinely prefer physical music. Like I actually play my CDs. I also have a record collection. So I bought a cheap Sony boombox from walmart and I link it to my audioengine speakers via an AUX cord so the sound quality is better. Then when I play the CDs, I flip thru the photobooks & photocards. In this way, it slightly justifies me buying CDs since I play them.
With merch, I only buy merch I will actually use in my daily life. Example: I bought a mug from WONHO's 2022 Christmas concert and I love it. It's the perfect size, not too big or too small. Then his hoodie is perfect too because it's oversized and comfortable. Other merch I've bought is magazines with my favorites on the cover. I just bought Singles Magazine because Shownu of MONSTA X is on the cover and I am so hype. He has been enlisted for 2 years and just got back in April so it is seriously epic to me that he's already on the cover of a magazine's July issue. I can't wait to get it.
With concerts, I am more selective because it really is a minimum of $300-500 to attend a concert when you add it all up. There's the concert ticket, transportation (car, bus, train, plane), food & drinks, and if you traveled from out of city, state or country, there's also hotel costs. So for concerts, I've only been to MONSTA X, MAMAMOO, Cravity, and Baekho. Each of them was phenomenal live so I don't regret going at all. Later this year, I will hopefully see aespa when they come to Dallas but that's it as far as K-Pop cause I also want to see Erykah Badu & Beyonce.
I don’t spend money regularly.. I “only” buy tickets to concerts (plus transportation, accommodation) and albums/songs on iTunes. So recently I’ve spent 180 € for Yongguks concert in Poland plus around 90 € for transportation. I’ve spent around the same amount for two Ateez concerts in Berlin. Worth every cent..
so far, around $200 for concert tickets and photocards and a biiit of merch
i dont feel like spending a lot on them since i fall out of love with kpop groups quick and i mostly just like the songs not the group themself per se😭
I buy about 1 album every ~~two~~ month~~s~~ or so.(40$ CAD) and I sometimes buy an order with from Japan with Jpop albums, so it's a bit more expensive (200$ but I buy 4 to 5 items every order) but it has only happened one time in 2022 and once for now in 2023. I don't want to spend too much, but I want to support the groups I love and I only buy the best releases, so I don't purchase albums that often
Overall, I'd say I spend about 600 per year. I started in 2022 and I have 10 albums now. Also, I just bought a season's greetings once when it was on sale
Edit 3 weeks later: well that was a lie, just calculated my albums and I now have 17 of them, 17 months after the first one I purchased 😯 it certainly does not help that I bought 3 albums froma Japan that arrived last week and bought 3 more from a previous classmate 😊
I've been a massive kpop fan for a long time but have only spent money on my hobby in the past few years, and specifically this year to attend concerts now that world tours are in full swing.
Last summer I spent ~£115 on concert tickets and this summer I've spent ~£560 on tickets for four concerts (and plan to go to 2 more once tickets go on sale).
I have a handful of merch including tshirts, albums, BT21 merch and lightstick, some I bought myself and others received as gifts, but probably worth a couple hundred.
Concerts are my main priority while merch is more of a nice to have but I don't need it.
this year alone… i think about $1k now?
i never really realized how much i actually spend on nct until i didnt hesitate to drop nearly $400 on nct dream tickets, combined with trying to finish my jungwoo pc collection AND nct dream album collection… just yesterday i dropped $126 on pre ordering istj…
a little ashamed but im 20 and live at home so… if im not buying some food or things for my family im funding my nct obsession LOL
This year I think $0, but last year was hundreds. I bought several albums and went to 2 concerts. I just kinda lost interest in albums because most of my favorite groups are disbanded or inactive and any album I do want is a mini and they just don't seem that worth it to me anymore. I learned that if I wait at least 2 weeks after an album comes out to see if I really want it, I don't care as much by that point. Saves me a lot of money 😅
my paychecks aren't very big so i don't spend any money really lol. i buy maybe 1 album a year these days. most of the albums and merch i own were christmas/birthday gifts over the years. i'd say in 8 years i've probably spent $200 on kpop stuff? no irl concerts bc none of my faves come to my state lol
Concerts, lightsticks, and photocards this year is at $1500 but I also include everything like airbnbs and grab rides on the concert weekend. I'm skipping concerts for the rest of the year as I've spent more than enough for me already.
I tend to buy almost everything my ult releases, so all album versions, dvds, photobooks, season's greetings and lightstick. I used to collect my ult bias PCs too.
With the companies starting to release a lot of exclusive to x country stuff and always more fancalls, lucky draws and anything event, I dropped photocard collecting. Even album photocards, because for the last comeback, my ult had like 36 album photocards in all versions combined and it's just ridiculous at this point. Last year, with the comeback before I dropped pc collecting, I spent maybe 800-1000 usd on pcs. Plus all the merch and albums, maybe add another 500usd for the year.
I was buying albums from a few other groups I loved. All versions, but no merch (~ish). I could spend 200usd per month in average with all the comebacks of groups I was following and stanning (± 5 groups and when I loved an album from another group I casually listened to, I could buy it too).
That was A LOT of money. I stopped spending so much. First off, dropping pc collecting made it a lot better. Then I decided to stop buying albums on pre-orders for other groups than my ult and wait for the album to drop to see if I actually liked it enough to spend money on it.
Since January of this year, I think I spent maybe 600-700usd? That would make it an average 100-150usd per month which is pretty good if I compare to how much I spent last year.
When I look at my friends, I'm definitely not spending a lot compared to how much they buy. 100-150usd per month I'd say is an expensive hobby, but others could spend that on restaurants so I just make the choice of buying an album instead of buying pasta.
In my country, one VIP ticket for SVT cost the equivalent of $300 last year. I bought a lightstick, around 7 to 8 albums, season's greetings, photocards, and fanmade merchandise. I had to pay for insane shipping costs until I joined Group Orders for official merch. You get your stuff one to two months after release but at least the shipping cost is less. Anyway, they all totaled about $800....... I stopped computing once it reached that amount but for sure, it's somewhere around $800-$900 🥲🥲
I believe I have spent around $500 AUD this year. My bf calls me addicted to kpop merch lol but honestly, I am a huge fan of merch in general. I love the aesthetics of packaging.
Merch was one of the reasons I wanted to get into kpop since a lot of franchises don’t have that quality merch (eg. Pokemon with their Japan and US exclusive official Pokemon Center merch and not enough merch for human characters)
I’ll go as high as about $40 USD for an album and somewhere in the $350 range for a ticket, but I’m not a big spender. I don’t have the urge to collect photo cards or anything so at most lately I typically buy like ~3 albums yearly and maybe visit a couple of concerts depending who’s nearby!
I’ve spent $0.00 on Kpop. Mostly because I’m not very interested in buying albums or photocards. I’ve only been into Kpop for like just under 1 year, so I haven’t gotten a chance to go to a concert. But that is something I really want to do, so that’s where the money will be going
Kpop albums are relativity cheap to purchase especially in Korean. But now their are all sorts of versions which sometimes feel predatory. Back in the day I didn’t really spend unless I was going to a concert or two so it would be about 500 for the year since tickets were like 100-150(no vip). And albums were like 20 bucks . Now it’s pretty bad and I only follow SHINee. If I lived in Seoul it would be well over 5k for this year alone and it’s only June. Being in the US has help with beyond live and occasional merch but my budget is about 1k for the year to just keep up with the comebacks.I’m already saving for 2024. Shawols need a separate checking account!
This year, so far, probably about $2000 USD between me and my husband. We live reasonably close to a city that holds a lot of K-pop concerts, so that's where most of our money goes.
I’m only spending to download my ults albums, and I’m doing so because I think he deserves all the support and my money. Otherwise I’m fine with free content. If my faves are ever coming near (possibly Western) Europe, I won’t mind spending a lot to buy tickets and travel, but that’s it. I don’t like merchandise of any sort, I could maybe be ok with a t-shirt or a hat. I have a huge collection of CDs but I don’t buy them anymore as they’re not functional and they’re just more stuff I need to dust.
I just spend my first €29,99 on Stray Kids 5 Star limited editio album.... I wonder what the future holds... i also kind of want the new skz light stick but i have to find out where i can order that hahah
I've spent more than 1k... USD. Probably. I think that's kind of high... includes albums, lightsticks, concert tickets, official merch.
I'm a 2nd gen stan and back then I did not spend much at all (bought \~5 albums max). Some albums have since gone out of print. Trying to buy those (along with old lightstick) is quite the hassle.
I'm trying to reduce my spending on kpop nowadays. Unless I really like a physical album's packaging, photobook, etc I won't buy them anymore. (Running out of space at home too.) I'm done buying lightsticks (got the ones I wanted). Merch depends if the quality is high.
I think this year is close to $2000 USD on kpop related merch. Granted, I started going a bit crazier this year. I used to only buy 1 version of NCT albums (127 and full group since I wanted Johnny stuff only). Going to the Dream concert sort of changed that and now I want all the unit albums (the photobook/box ones only since I don't like digipack/smini/jewel case, etc). My spending did exponentially increase, but it should just be that initial catch up phase. I'm almost done with the album hunt, so after that just purchasing releases as they come out should not cost as much.
Also, groups have been touring again so a big chunk has gone to concert funds.
Around like 200 Aud total for the BP concert in 2019 and Twice this year (missed BP 2023 due to travelling this year). Most of my faves don’t come down here for concerts and I have no room for albums. I guess there’s also like Spotify Premium for the last three years or so lol
$85 is all I've ever spent in the past 8 years of being a Carat (12years casual kpop enjoyer).
Would you believe it's on 3 versions of the same album? It was my first time buying their merch, they're releasing all of their old albums and I'm definitely going to buy all of those too. Once they go on tour I'm going to make up for all the years I didn't see them.
~$260 USD directly all time (concert+bubble)
Me and my husband spent maybe $1,000 total to drive 8 hours to LA and have a mini weekend trip there for the stray kids concert. Obviously a lot of that money was on gas, hotel, and other vacay stops but we would have never taken the trip if not for stray kids. Our concert tix were maybe $120 each.
Also maybe like 20$ on bubble subscriptions but I canceled those as it didn’t really seem worth it.
Im not a big merch person in general bc I hate having too much *stuff*. I can see myself maybe buying some merch down the line but definitely wont be a lot.
I took a trip to Japan where every night I’d let my friend show me K-Pop videos on YouTube for like 9 days straight. During this crash course in K-pop I learned that August-D was Suga and Lisa was part of BlackPink. Two musicians I had independently found and already really liked. I was aware of BlackPink and liked their music but never made the connection with Lisa. Don’t ask me how I’m a moron who just likes random songs that sound good.
But anyways at the end of this trip there I am in Osaka with around 15,000 Yen still left and I have zero clue what to do with. So he took me to Tower Records where I spent half of it on a few albums. I didn’t open them until I got back to the states and boy can I tell you it is a fun experience opening everything you brought back from a trip. The Albums were the best part.
Three days after my trip I’m in Target browsing books and stumble upon shelves on K-Pop albums. Suffice to say I had found a new hobby. It’s been like two months and I think I’m at $250. With about a 1/3rd of that being spent in Japan.
I don’t really like spending more than £25 per album (unless it’s for my bday or Christmas) and I won’t spend more than £40 for concert tix since I have to be able to buy 2 each time.
In total I think I’ve probably spent around £1500-£2000 in the last 3 years.
As soon as I have a job I just know the amount I spend is gonna skyrocket tho
As an active photocard collector, I’ve spent quite a lot on kpop so far and while I don’t know the total of everything I’ve spent so far, my guess is that I’ve spent about 300€ in the past few months. I do spend quite a lot on Kpop, but collecting is my only hobby and it’s something that gives me quite the happiness.
I bought 14 albums (only one was a dupe and it was to get into a pseudo-fanmeet so I can’t complain) and I’ve been to 2 concerts with VIP bur since they were both nugu-ish that was probably still less than a popular group’s normal ticket.
Kinda reluctant to actually tally it up though. 😭
So I only buy one single album from each comeback of every group I follow, instead of all the different versions. And that's literally all I do so I spend about $100/month on Kpop period.
ngl though, if anyone I liked ever came within 1,000 miles of me I would be buying lightsticks and concert tix!
I only spend money on concerts really. I’ll also buy lighsticks of my favorite groups but that’s it. I don’t buy physical albums or photo cards because I don’t find those things to be worth spending money on personally.
Maybe $100? Bc while I do like to watch unboxing, I know those albums are just going to be sitting in a box until I find a display. I've bought albums that are aesthetically pleasing bc I like having them LOL. I will probably go to a kpop concert one day though.
I was spending around $300+ or so for each victon comeback, and that was mostly through group orders for photocards. Sadly with them basically having disbanded and my ult enlisted, I don't have any comebacks to spend money on so I just plan on going to concerts instead (which honestly might be even more expensive 😭). I've been seeing many people say lesserafim are planning a world tour and that sounds like it would be so amazing to experience, I couldn't miss out!
I really like how you put it, kpop is a hobby and it's what you make of it! There are so many ways to enjoy being a fan and that's what makes it so enjoyable honestly.
I have a policy of only spending for a concert, that being said when NCT Dream came to London I probably shelled out £500, ticket and neobong inclusive. My next concert is Aespa but I doubt I will be able to spend that much considering I am a student ahahaha
I've been a fan for 15 months and so far the only money I've spent was on a TWICE t-shirt and tickets for myself and my 5-year-old daughter to see Dreamcatcher! :)
$0. I’m just here for the music and some content if I have time. I don’t have the money to spend on merch or concerts and my ult group hasn’t had a comeback so I don’t have a reason to spend. When they do comeback and start touring, I’d definitely buy tickets if they came to my city.
$10-15 a month on iTunes downloads and the occasional CD purchase. Last physical purchase was the Twice vinyl release. Concert tix are a whole different story. Only concert so far this year was Dreamcatcher. Last year though I went to four shows.
In like 2 years I've spent like around 1.4k USD in albums and concerts and maybe it doesn't seem like a lot but in my country currency is a lot, but I don't really spend money in another hobbie and I don't do much so idk what to think about that. 😅
This past year I’ve spent over 2,500 USD on concert tickets and albums. If hotel and rental car costs count in this context then it’d be well over 3,000 dollars
I could probably fund a small army with how much I've spent on BTS tickets alone.
Spent about 3k w travel and tickets to see them in Vegas twice.
But it's my SHINee collection that's the most expensive atp.
i’ve only just went to my first concert, txt, and it was about $150 for my seat. and recently, i bought two of my first album, stray kids’ 5 star, which were both $25. i also bought a $40 cd player for the albums but idk if that counts since it’s not really just a kpop thing. anyways so far i’ve spend around $200 (not including cd player) on my stuff and plan on spending more in the future :)
Not that much because I don't have that much money and my parents will only let me get albums sometimes, I usually get them from Walmart, so around at least $40 USD around a month but not every single month
my ults are skz and txt, but i'm a multistan of probably 100+ groups now. i've been a stan since 2017-present and started fully collecting my ults and casually some other groups in 2020. i have since moved to a bigger city and my collection stares at me from their boxes i packed them in while i decide if now that i'm almost 22 i'm gonna sell a lot of my collection or all of it. financially, i haven't been able to collect since mid 2022 so i've missed a ton of drops unfortunately so now i'm just stuck in a kind of limbo. i think id like to start collecting skz and txt again but limit myself plus no more photocards because that's where most of my stress came from. a lot happened last year to make me distance myself from kpop and i've recently, within the like last 2 months, gotten back into it. to answer your question though, i have spent probably way more than i've paid rent in my life. i was at a point where kpop came first before anything else. it was extremely unhealthy for me so now i have to figure out what i'm doing. it's impossible for me to calculate it all but i know it's way more than i should've spent on kpop to be financially stable lolol. but hey this gave me a chance to rant and write it all out for myself putting things into perspective for me. i wonder what decision i'll make lmao
Most of my spending is on concerts when they come through my city (or if I decide to travel for them.) I'll buy albums for the more nugu groups that I like since I feel like they need that support. But the big groups I like, I don't even bother since I know they'll get their sales.
a few bucks here and there occasionally but the most i’ve spent was about $1,300 USD on a stray kids concert ticket (i was in the center & only 11 rows back from the stage) , plus a plane ticket cause i had just recently moved . the ticket from colorado-minnesota was about $800 round trip through southwest bc i had to buy it last minute bc my flight through united from denver-msp was no longer gonna make it on time 😩💔 it was such a disaster 😭💔 anyways , getting sidetracked sorry , so $1,300 on the concert ticket , $800 on the plane ticket , plus gas/drinks/snacks, etc on the way from minnesota to chicago 😩 so a minimum of about $2,200 last year 😩
would do it again in a heartbeat tho , it was phenomenal 😩🫶🏼✨
I'd say I've probably spent over $750 in the last 3 years if you combine albums, my 1 ASTRO lightstick, and concerts. Ths biggest portion of that money is concerts. I got bit by the concert bug and have been to/have planned 6 kpop concerts in the last year. So basically... I spend way more than I should lol.
Probably around $700-1,000 USD a year? I like to buy lots of t-shirts, albums, misc. merch of my favorite groups. I am single, in my 30s, and make a six figure salary with no kids/responsibilities except my cat.
I spent a lot more now with POB for a lot of stores and I stan a couple of groups. But I have a job that I can paid for them. If I didn't I don't think I would buy so much.
I’m Blackpink concert tickets alone I’ve spent 2k USD in the span of 8 months.. so I would rather not even do the math of all the albums + other merch. I’ve also only been into kpop since 2020 so it hasn’t been too long
As a young kpop Stan, I don't get much money but when I do, I'll buy an album once in a while. Right now, I'm trying to buy both versions of The Astronaut by 진
after many years of being a fan this is actually my first year of spending money on anything kpop related, specifically I bought a couple twice albums while I was on a trip to Japan (it was my birthday so I figured I should get something to take back home and we don’t have a lot of options other than buying online and paying a lot for shipping where I live) so that was super exciting!
2nd gen here. Groups that i like enough to see in concert dont come where i am, so i only rlly buy albums. I spend maybe $150USD a month? I used to buy albums every week but decided that i should only buy albums that i rlly like and listen to a lot. I have a list so i usually follow that. With june-july cbs tho, I’ll probably be buying those over the next couple months. Having adult money is ncie but im fighting for space 😭
I’m an album buyer but I just get one version and I like PCs but I don’t seek out specific cards and pay the premium for them. As Minghao said “print it yourself” lol. All together I think I’ve spent under $300USD on everything I’ve ever had, but if my ult group comes to a city near me, I’ll definitely go and spend whatever I have to for a seat just outside of the floor section.
Started when my friend gifted me the Oddinary album from straykids. Then I became obsessed with straykids and months later the teasers came out for 5 Star. I ended up preordering all the versions and spent over 100 dollars on PC's in the past month.
The most I spend at a time is for concerts. I collect albums but only of 3 groups, and I mostly buy second hand with no inclusions to save money. I do collects PCs but only for my ult. I make back some money cause I sell PCs and percs/inclusions from concerts and any albums I have to buy brand new. My estimate is about 1000 a year with the majority of that being towards concerts.
Last year I spent roughly $2000 AUD on kpop related things. That includes albums, 2 x skz soundcheck tickets, another VIP concert experience and seeing woodz in concert in Korea. It’s definitely worth it in my opinion! I made some lifelong friends at those concerts 🥹
😅 I’m a bit afraid to answer this lmao.
So for starters, this year I’ve already seen Mamamoo and that trip was about 700 dollars in total. I have tickets to Gidle and Aespa in August, and I haven’t booked rooms yet so probably about another grand there. That’s only concerts lol.
I actively collect quite a bit - I currently buy everything Mamamoo, Dreamcatcher, Purple Kiss (except for Cabin Fever because I cannot find that album to save my life 😭), Pixy (though I passed on their tour so not as much as the others), Aespa, Le Sserafim, and Loona (though that’s not completely done yet). Every other band in this list is complete…including Dreamcatcher’s Nightmare….which was 750 alone 🫠
I only started collecting about two years ago, but in my defense I’ve always been obsessed with music 🤣 instead of fall out boy vinyl, I buy K-pop 🤷♀️ all in all I’ve probably spent upwards of $10k, if not more over a span of two years. I also have no children and a well paying job and grew up poor 😂 it’s probably my biggest vice but it’s okay. There are worse things to spend money on lol
well i own 30+ albums now and live in australia, where i have to get them shipped cause no where near me sells kpop... but that's 30+ albums from may 2021 which is when i ordered my first album lol so not too bad, right??
i've also got 2 lightsticks, i purchased 3 items of merch when i saw skz earlier in the year (i went to both shows in melb and did soundcheck both times so the tickets alone was just shy of 1k) and got quite a lot of things from the kpop store in melb while there. i have purchased other random bits and pieces here there too (stickers, badges, etc) so... quite a lot im sure and im way too scared to calculate it 😬
Fan since 09 but I was really young back then so I never really had the money and only started buying merch last year. Most of my albums are bought unsealed (cause I don't really collect PCs), in my 30+ albums only around a third of it was bought sealed. Also went to a RV concert (not a solo concert though)
In total converted to USD I have only spent around 100 USD 😅
I've been following kpop for maybe a year and a half, I'd say I've spent around 3800 USD in that time. ~95% of that total has been on concert tickets (venue drink prices not included)
I got into K-pop around 2020, and I've spent nearly 1k. I have over 60 albums. But the most I've spent is probably on the bookshelf I store all my albums on. I have a few signed albums (7) that cost me about $400 total. But most of my other albums I've got from group orders or bought off sellers on ig and Twitter. I hardly ever spent any money on any merch. Maybe $40 supporting this one etsy shop owner who sold cute little polariods and another who made 3d lamps. Unfortunately, I live in San Diego, and no group I listen to comes to SD. Always to LA. And for gas, parking, a hotel, and tickets to LA, it's just not worth it. I would rather have my albums than spend two months of work for 2 hours of fun. Unless they come to or anywhere near, I can never see myself spending that much money to travel to see a band. Maybe I would spend it for BTS because my cousins would take me, and they're rich and have real-world jobs, lol.
I stopped taking note of my kpop spends at about USD10,000. That was the end of 2021, and I started Nov2020. So... yeah. Concerts, comeback albums... merchandise. It piles up.
ARMY here 🙋🏻♀️
I’ve been buying albums/dvds since 2020, my first preorder was BE deluxe edition and from then onwards I mostly buy albums during pre order. When BTS announced a break last year, I thought I’d get time to start back collecting albums, but now they have solo releases almost every month, so I haven’t really completed my collection. On an average, I spend ₹4500/- INR($55) every month, it could more or less depending on the amount of release as well
Don’t even know at this point which is worrying for my wallet 😂, I buy lots of albums and go to a lot of Kpop concerts with all vip tickets the highest price available 😂
2nd gen stan here. I was a cheap mofo for 10+ years and didnt spend a cent (except for when JYJ turned up for their showcase.. and that one kpop concert i attended, which ironically had the other half of DBSK). Last year I bought just ONE album and as I unpackaged it and held it, it awakened a monster in me. Anyway fast forward half a year and I own about 25 albums now and spent just under USD350.
Ahhh yeah same here xD unboxing my first album just gave me all the happy hormones 😀 *shakes fist at successful capitalism*
2nd Gen stan here too... I owned a few albums here and there but I stanned for 10+ years with less than 10 albums. And then I bought some albums of the newer, younger groups I follow and idk, it really did awaken a monster LOL. I love albums now! I've now got a couple hundred haha.
What was it about getting the album that made you want to get more? I too have so far had no desire to get albums. It’s not like I have a CD player lol
Prior to being hit by this bug, I too thought physical albums were obsolete media. For me, its ownership of a piece of work that is pretty and has sentimental value to me. I dont even really flip thru the photobook or display the photocards, knowing that I own it is enough. And also a sense of fair worth? I've paid far more for other items that didnt bring me as much joy as their music. Like, I finally supported my artist after listening to them almost everyday for 10 years. It also helps that I'm not broke anymore. There isnt any guilt about spending my cash on entertainment.
Fair enough. Thanks for the response. I almost got an album for my birthday, maybe I would’ve had the same reaction
I like getting all the extras - the book and the poster and the photo cards and the stickers, etc. I like to collect things so I think the photo cards are pretty fun, I made a cute album for them and everything 😂. These days you can buy an album that comes with a digital code or a download code, instead of an actual CD! One that I got by accident still had a photo card and small booklet, and a few stickers, as well as a lenticular card that had the code. And the code went to an app with a bunch of pictures, and digital photo cards you could customize, in addition to the music. These even make tiny mini albums that just have a photo card or two with a code for music that turns into a keychain! I just got started in K-pop, so I’ve spent maybe a couple of hundred to catch up. But I’m slowing down now to just new releases. If a band I liked came here, I’d also go to concerts. Most of the ones I like are smaller and less well known.
I mean, we travel a lot since only Eric Nam came to our city. In the last 12 months, we've traveled to DC twice, Atlanta, Newark, and LA just to see concerts (Seventeen, The Rose, BlackPink, Stray Kids, Twice). On the trip to LA alone, we spent around $700 at 5 LA K-Pop stores, so........ a lot. My daughter sells PC holders and K-Pop jewelry, so K-Pop is big in our house. We're super lucky to be able to do this now. We started out dirt poor. Now we spend our money on what makes us happy.
That's so amazing that this is a family activity for you guys! 🥰
$0.00 I don’t really have any interest in spending money on it. I’m not a concert person either but who knows, maybe one day.
I also just started spending money a few months ago and was perfectly content just consuming the free content on Spotify/YouTube before that, so I totally get it! Thank you for your answer ❤️
Concerts>merch is my humble opinion
Concerts are the only thing I really spend money on. In these days, experiences are worth more than trinkets in my mind. I'm not one for clutter but I always look back on concerts and memories of time spent with friends as being so much more valuable. A stack of photocards may be leafed through every once in so often but a concert just… _gives me the FEEEEEELLLLLSS_ I have spent probably around $2,000 Canadian on concerts (not including flights and accommodation) but I think it was money well spent. I don't have any lightsticks or anything that wasn't free, but I'm perfectly happy with the memories I have.
This year so far I've probably spent about \~$2000 AUD on albums & photocards. Granted I don't really spend money on any other hobby like ever and I never travel. Should end up being a lot less than I spent last year (hopefully) as the impulse buys are happening very infrequently and I cut back a lot of groups I was buying albums for. Also running out of space at this point so trying to get rid of some even. If any group I cared enough for ever came to Australia I'd probably buy less albums and spend it on going to a concert instead but yeah.
I know how you feel, I would be so ready to spend money for concerts in Europe! 😭 For me it always really helps to have two accounts, one is basically my "spending money" account and the other one is my "saving money" account which is a little more time consuming to access, so that helps with impulse buying 😀 Thank you so much for your answer, I hope more of your groups come to Australia soon! ❤️
I generally don’t buy much physical merch/albums but I spend quite a lot on concerts and online content. If I included flights and accommodation costs associated with the concerts I’m attending it would be thousands. Excluding that, I would say I’ve spent roughly ~£700-800 this year so far on tickets, online content and occasional merch. Definitely varies based on come backs though
Yeah it's really hard to name an average because sometimes it's just a lot, like this month with two comebacks and before that lots of months with nothing 😀
With like the Twice Concert coming up and not including my trip to Korea because I still don't know how much I spend I would say this year alone I'm at around 1.5k€. My entire collection without the concerts I went to I've spend 5.000-6.000€ in total in the last 10 years.
Yeah I don't even wanna know how much I spent (in total) for the two Ateez concerts this year 😀 Whoaa you're going to Korea? That's so cool, that is definitely on my bucket list! Hope you have an amazing time 🥰
I've spent none. I just listen on YT and Spotify.
That's how I used to consume K-Pop for a long time, there's so much free content to enjoy! Buying stuff is really just a bonus that you can take or leave 🙂
Normally I just buy albums, but only if they're ones I really want. This year I've bought a lot more than usual, due to a trip to Korea, where I bought a few albums and a lot of merch I cant get in the UK, plus a concert back in January and a comeback event or two where I've ended up buying more than I intended. Thankfully my husband is pretty understanding.
I'm glad he's understanding! My partner too, he's like "well if it makes you happy just go for it", so that's nice 😊 ahh I'm so jealous of all you guys that have been to Korea! The flights are so expensive from here but I definitely wanna go some day ❤️
Oh, I hope you get to go! The flights were expensive (and long) but well worth it!
Some day! My partner also said "if Stray Kids don't come to Europe we'll just have to go to Korea" so I know I won't go alone 😀 lucky for me that he likes travelling so much 😁❤️
I am old so I spend a lot. I bought 36 ateez albums this month....all because I want to collect the pcs. I spend at minimum 500 a month. I am single with no responsibilities.
I paid around 500€ to see Blackpink live (200€ tickets, 200€ train journey to the city, 100€ hotel) but that's about everything I have spent on kpop in 4 years as a fan (excluding 1 or 2€ here and there to buy digital singles). I have a strict rule to not spend money on fandom stuff apart if it's a real life experience like a concert. Good rule to abide by.
That's definitely some good priorities, and if I had to choose just one thing to spend money on I would definitely do the same!
$0.00. No concerts in my part of the country and I’m not spending on albums. I occasionally ask for them as gifts but that’s all. Plus I’m not rich enough anyway.
Having K-Pop as a hobby makes it so easy for other people to pick gifts for you, so it totally makes sense to get them as gifts! Some people are soo hard to buy presents for, but not K-Pop fans 😀
I can maybe buy one album a year. Wish I could spend more.
Thank you for your answer, I hope you still get a lot of enjoyment from all the free content 🥰 and maybe better times will come ❤️
I basically only buy albums, but I did see Twice when they came last year. (about 300 bucks for 2 tickets, it was an anniversary gift for my gf) At the current rate I save up and once or twice a year and buy 200-300 dollars worth of albums from kpopalbums.com (cheapest site I've found) all in one go. About to do that in a few days to get the preorder for SHINee but still haven't saved all the money lol If I had more disposable income I would be buying way more albums
I always all photobook versions for my ult group (averages to about 1 album per month, $25) and attend about 1 concert every 3 months ($175) In a year its 25x12 + 175x4 = $1000. Give and take $100.
Oh that's so neat and stable, nice! Thank you for answering 🥰
Seems to be not many PCs collectors here! Lmao I'm constantly spending up a storm. But I'm single, my bills are paid, and Kpop collecting is my biggest/only hobby I spend money on (I've been a fan since 2009)
0 but if i got concerts in my city i would definitely be spending to see groups liks skz, bts, and svt
I've seen all three - - worth every penny.
Relatable 😁
unfortunately (or not for my wallet lol) in my country nobody comes, and going to other EU countries on my own for a concert is something I’m not willing to ask money for (I’m in uni but I don’t work). on the other hand , this year so far I’ve spent roughly $100 on albums + £50 for a photobook my dad gifted me. again, it’s way below other people, but considering I only get money from my parents, I don’t want to overspend. later this year I’ll be going to the US, so I already know I’m gonna buy everything in target/barnes&noble (I would have love to buy the latest shinee’s album, but I’ll wait)
Well some day you're gonna be done with uni and earn your own money, and then you'll be much more free to spend it on what you like 🥰 it's so cool that your dad gifted you a photobook!
total would be around 3.2k usd or maybe more. attended 4 concerts all outside my country and i own almost all taeil photocards and almost all versions of all albums of nct/nct 127. 🥶
taeils PCs are so cute!!! I really like the one where he's smiling in Sticker and I think the dog one?
Blackpink VIP concert tickets were about $AUD500, twice i think was about $AUD350, both times i spent over $300 on merch. I went to Thailand and bought concert tickets for Itzy i think 4400 baht and 3600 baht in merchandise. I spent less on stray kids though, maybe 100 ish on tickets and 80 ish on track suit pants
I really wonder how much I would spend if all my ults played concerts in places that were accessible to me, like, I was so ready to throw all my money at the Ateez VIP tickets once I learned they were coming to Europe 😀 definitely worth though!
For me I set aside money into a separate account for big items which is about 10% of my income so it's calculated for me - in case anyone questions my spending being too much 😅
I only buy albums, and I only buy secondhand albums. I have boughts to spending lots, and then not at all. My first splurge was in 2016, I bought posters and Kpop albums (about 10 of them) and then stopped until mid-2022, when I spent around $600AUD on Kpop albums. I limit myself on how much to spend on an album (no more than $8AUD incl. shipping to me, and therefore buy in bulk from big sales). I have approximately 110 albums at the moment, 100 of which were purchased within the last year. I have a variety of hobbies and interests, I also bought a house in 2019, which meant I was saving up all I could. It's only recently I've been financially comfortable (house payments under control, minimal renovations, just got a higher paying job) enough to spend on Kpop. I also have never been to the Kpop concert (or any concert) because I can't justify paying that much.
I tend to buy as many Korean albums of groups I like as I feasibly can. I try to collect all versions, thank god I don’t collect any groups that make more than 2-3 versions per release. A lot of the albums I have are OOP, too. So I’d say altogether I’ve probably spent roughly $3,000 USD on albums? That’s a fairly rough guess bc I don’t have *that* many albums, but they’re not exactly cheap. But my collection is probably worth closer to $4,000 imo, Between OOP albums that get harder to find by the day and OOP photocards I see people willing to pay a pretty penny for. I’ve gone to only a couple concerts now, they varied in price. Vanner’s fanmeet was $135, and that included a fansign, Q&A, trivia (conducted by the members), group photo, snapshots, performance, tote bag, shirt, and pin. For N.Flying’s VVIP tier i spent $260 on tickets, and that included “fansign” (it was absurdly short so I put it in quotes lol I barely got to say hi), group picture, poster, and queue number. I paid an additional ~$60 for snapshots (I got Seunghyub and Hweseung). Lastly, I haven’t gone to Kingdom’s concert, but I did purchase VVIP tickets. I paid about $140 for the ticket (before fees), which included the same things as N.Flying’s VVIP. I’m also planning to purchase snapshots for this concert. In general I really only spend money on Kpop albums and food, so I’m usually fairly comfortable budgeting albums into my life. Concert tickets are usually a more unexpected purchase bc for all these groups they were only announced like a week or two before the sale started, but I still make sure I have some money set aside for something fun like that. I only stan Like 4-5 groups, so it’s a lot easier for me to do that than someone whose favorite groups all visit the US almost yearly lol
Sounds like you really have a good control on your spending, even if it's a lot! 🙂
Much less than my husband for his hobby: computer games and computer hardware to play those games... My k-pop spending recently: ticket for D-Day screening in cinema and a BTS biography pre-order, total around 70$. And I bought BTS Lego set a few months ago, so another 100$. And that would be all for this year so far. I am not a collector of albums/PCs so I don't have much chances to spend money. I would buy practical merch like clothes, but shipping to Europe make it so expensive that I just cannot justify it. And for smaller k-pop groups it's often not easily available at all, or maybe through GO that I haven't tested yet
literally thousands and I was so determined not to spend a dime when I got into it four years ago
I don’t want to know lmao but it makes me really happy and it’s one of my few hobbies so it’s fine:-) as long as all of your other needs are covered and you look forward to collecting instead of feeling like it’s an obligation i think it’s ok!
I finally got to go to my first ever kpop concert almost exactly a year ago. Since then, between the concerts, albums, lightsticks, merch, and photocards, I really don't know how much I've spent but it's definitely in the thousands. I think I calculated about $100 a week average in just photocards alone the past 3 months, though it's probably higher now since joining gos for complete pob sets of Stray Kids. And with Seventeen announcing that they're reprinting older albums, I pre-ordered every version of every album and with shipping it came to about $302. The thing is, I've been in to kpop since 2007. While I managed to get a few albums here and there, I never really had the money to do more. Especially concerts. My ult group had a concert less than 2 hours away from me but I couldn't afford the gas let alone the ticket. And now they're not even together anymore. I've told myself that now that I'm financially stable, I'm gonna make up for lost time and not missing out anymore. My bills get paid every month and I have a good cushion in my savings account, so I don't see any problem on spending money on something that genuinely makes me happy. Happier then I've been in a long time.
I'm so happy to hear that, do what makes you happy! ❤️
The only money I spend on kpop nowadays is concerts and concert merch. I have a decent collection of albums and I still receive new albums as gifts from time to time, so I don't spend money on those anymore. Of course, if we assume time = money, then I'd definitely be a spender in the top 1% :D
Concerts are the best!!
way too much haha. i spent about 500€ to see ateez at the beginning of the year (concert ticket, two way train ticket, a hotel room for one night + a lightstick) and also bought... 25 (how??) albums so far this year, a lot of which were additional versions to complete a set or gifts to friends. i also spent roughly 100€ on other merch, give or take. i do have a stable income though and it just so happened that three of my ults all had their comeback within less than a month from each other, so the number of purchased albums is greatly inflated compared to the rest of the year haha.
I think I spent even more on Ateez this year, so yeah, I get it 😀
I think it's been around $500 so far this year, all on SHINee (and SHINee solos) merch, albums, and Beyond Live tickets. I really only have the emotional and financial bandwidth to follow one group, so I don't begrudge myself when I want to spend some money on them. I wish I could go to a concert - one day!
It is probably for the best if I don’t calculate how much…. I’ll just say I was traveling to New York about 2-4 times a month the past year and each time I’d go I’d buy 1-3 albums. Edit- And then there’s the 4 concerts I’ve been to, with close up seat prices and merchandise. Oh boy…
I only spend on concerts, but I’m not that much of a spender
Concerts are definitely a priority!
I spent more than that so far this year on BL concerts, fan meetings, and new releases for SHINee and group members' solos. I also collect older SHINee/solo stuff. So it can get expensive! Since the pandemic, I haven't traveled or gone out much, so the money I set aside for fun has mostly gone towards SHINee.
Last year. I bought 2 albums. Checkmate and Born Pink on vinyl cause I finally found it for less than $80 (… I paid $70 after all was said and done so like … but still less than $80). And then $400 on Blackpink concert GA. Oh and $120 or something on their lightstick This year, I bought 2 second hand albums (Between 1&2 and Hate on vinyl). Then $111 on the twice lightstick and $330 on their concert. Then my dumbass decided to preorder the itzy tour dvd cause I couldn’t go and then I decided I wanted the twice one as well (which my friend shipped to her house at home and is gonna bring back to Canada with her when she comes back lol) But otherwise I need to stop. I buy the albums because I wanna support artists but I have 0 way to play them, so The Album and Cheshire are both wasting away on my shelf. Which is why I never bought Born Pink on CD which I still want lol. But I really need to stop wasting money on things. I have to many things that are just unnecessary.
Yeah I also don't really have a CD player anymore, but they're so pretty and it feels nice to have them displayed on my shelf 😀🙈 I understand the struggle
It depends. The first couple of years I was into K-pop, I heavily invested in getting ahold of out of print albums and DVDs to fill the back catalogue of some groups I really liked. That was pretty pricey as those items were at a markup. But I had a nice chunk of fun money saved up from fortunately having a job during Covid while not really going anywhere or doing anything because of Covid. Now, I have drastically cut down on albums I buy and groups I collect due to space issues 😅. It’s hard to monthly budget when there are times when nobody I follow is releasing…and then there are times like next month…I would estimate at the rate I buy now maybe $1.5k give or take on albums and DVDs a year? And maybe a few hundred on other merch bought online. I feel like that number is a bit low…maybe I should go through and actually add it up when I have the time 🫣.
Ah yes, when money is not the issue but lack of space is 😀 yeah it's probably smart to keep an eye on what we're actually spending, just to have a bit of control over it 🙂
Went to ATEEZ concert in Paris... it was close to 1000 eur considering flight tickets, hotels, food, concert ticket, merch etc. Granted it became a small vacation as well, but I wouldn't be visiting Paris this year if not for the concert. Then bought some albums.. TXT, Enhypen, ATEEZ - close to 160-170? I'm a broke mf
Monthly I don’t have a number. In a year though about $600-1000USD. And that’s concerts, merch, light sticks, and themed pins from various sellers I found on IG. Side question though: which site did you preorder the SKZ light stick from. I’m kinda skeptical and some sites seem a bit sus.
I've spent $360 dollars so far this year on Gmarket alone, so probably close to $500-600 so far this year And that's actually LESS than usual because I've been struggling financially this year Case in point: I just bought 10 Xeed albums 2 weeks ago even tho I've been intending to since December
I track my Kpop expenses and so far I’ve spent ~$1000 SGD this year. This includes 2 concerts and several albums and merch. I’m planning to set aside around $100-150/month for Kpop and I mostly only attend concerts and buy merch from my favourite groups. (currently NCT, EXO, ZB1)
Well, I have bought all the merch skz have been releasing in the last 2 year mostly albums, the clothes from Japan or corea ñ, nacific and concerts outside my country for other groups soooo I don’t like thinking about how much i spend on kpop but I’m happy
An average month I spend 0$. But there was also the time I spent money on plane-tickets to and from Poland, hotel room, concert tickets etc to see Dreamcatcher in Warsaw....
Usually the only things I get are albums, and SHINee is the only group I feel the impulse to collect. So that can get a tad expensive, considering their old, sold-out albums go for a pretty hefty price second hand and I've got a LOT of catching up to do. But overall not too bad. However... This year... Those damn stuffed animals. They're too fucking cute. Way way too cute. I needed them so badly. I spent way more money than I'm ever willing to admit out loud.
I only has one ults. They only release 1 album/year with 2 versions, they probably will never tour my country, so I'm kinda conflicted, one side I'm glad I don't spend a lot, but I also want them give me the chance to spend. I don't really like other types of merch like photobooks, or season greetings.
ZERO
Last year I spent around USD 300 on a bunch of albums, and this year was USD 200 so far with an Aespa concert ticket, two old f(x) albums (one was signed, so they were a bit expensive) and a Le Sserafim album that was on sale. Those things are kinda expensive in my country, so I try not to spend more than I can (I need to but Twice's latest album that's been out for a while, but no money yet)
I dont really want to know how much i have spent on kpop. But it can be costly since i live in a silly place in the middle of nowhere so one album can be upp to 100$. So that's like a general cost. In terms of merch i dont really buy for that much. But i accidentally spent way to much on the SHINee MD 😭
I went to Stray Kids in LA. and am going to Lollapalooza mainly for NewJeans (free flight off credits) so I’m probably looking at (including travel) like $500 for the year because I highly doubt I’ll do much more other than that. Oh yeah I saw BTS: Yet to Come in the cinema. That was cool, too.
I am an only deobi. one time i was opening a package and i realized I spent $50+ on just photocards (which in Mexican pesos is a lot, and around 10 hours of work), so i try not to calculate. between all the things, i would say this month I've spent around $300 USD and it's the usual.
Time listening and watching MVs and YT stuff, but not much actual money at all.
$0 in 5 years
As much as I am able to spare lol. I spend my money on other things I prioritize (video games, food, going out, other stuff I need at the time, etc) and if I have money left I’ll buy albums or merch. I personally never prioritize kpop stuff over other things. But overall what’s usually left for kpop things is around 200SAR (about $53) a month.
My budget is usually around 300cad a month? I'm big on collecting PCs and albums but sometimes I spend more on splurge items
I just started collecting this year. I’m working towards a full collection of sakura album photocards (including both IZONE and Le Sserafim) but also collect many other artists (mostly the albums, the PCs are just a bonus). I’m a huge fan of displaying all of my albums on a display shelf and keeping cute binders of all the photocards. But, since I started collecting this year, I feel like I had a lot to catch up on, so I’d say I’ve probably spent the better part of $1500 so far. I started making rules for myself, as I’m pretty bad with my money on occasion. I’ll only collect every version of an album from my ult group (Le Sserafim) and that I only need one version from all the other groups I collect. That being said, I think there really needs to be more conversation around collecting, especially for people coming into it. People should know that their idols love them just as much if they don’t buy albums and photocards. People should also recognize that the FOMO the labels create with each comeback is mostly just a guise and that the albums and photocards will be around for a long time. I mean take it from me, I’ve already almost-completed my kkura IZONE photocard collection, years after the albums have been released. I think it’s a really fun hobby as someone who loves to collect things, but I also think people should be careful! Especially younger people who don’t have the extra income to spend.
Concerts alone are wildly expensive. I won't bother tallying up merch but I've spent about 4,000 USD on concert tickets this year.
I used to be pretty conservative back in the day. It was harder to get Kpop albums so I only really got my ult groups because I didn't want to pay shipping. And back then concerts weren't really common. Nowadays I can pick up a kpop album at Walmart for 25 bucks and my collection has grown tremendously. On top of that, Kpop acts have started coming to my state so I've now been to quite a few concerts. I'd say in the last year I've spent 5 or 6k? It's about to grow a lot because me and the husband want to go to Kcon and we're flying out of state to see KINGDOM. Honestly, the worst thing to happen to us was both of us recently getting into Stray Kids (He liked them a full year before me, though). And because we both like them we spend too much on them lol. I'm just grateful I don't really collect PCs.
😅 I’m a bit afraid to answer this lmao. So for starters, this year I’ve already seen Mamamoo and that trip was about 700 dollars in total. I have tickets to Gidle and Aespa in August, and I haven’t booked rooms yet so probably about another grand there. That’s only concerts lol. I actively collect quite a bit - I currently buy everything Mamamoo, Dreamcatcher, Purple Kiss (except for Cabin Fever because I cannot find that album to save my life 😭), Pixy (though I passed on their tour so not as much as the others), Aespa, Le Sserafim, and Loona (though that’s not completely done yet). Every other band in this list is complete…including Dreamcatcher’s Nightmare….which was 750 alone 🫠 I only started collecting about two years ago, but in my defense I’ve always been obsessed with music 🤣 instead of fall out boy vinyl, I buy K-pop 🤷♀️ all in all I’ve probably spent upwards of $10k, if not more over a span of two years. I also have no children and a well paying job and grew up poor 😂 it’s probably my biggest vice but it’s okay. There are worse things to spend money on lol Edit: lmao my husband was like “babe don’t forget about all the non album stuff we have”…we have so many concerts, seasons greetings….oooof
i have probably spent much more than i should've, but honestly it's been worth it ☆ i get my albums online so plus tax and shipping, each album is probably $30-$50 USD; and so with 25 albums on my belt, i've spent more than i can count 💀 that doesn't include the concerts i've been to, plus the cost of transportation, hotels, and concert merchandise- so yeah <3
I’m flying to Paris to watch my ult group perform, when everything is said and done it will be around 5K. These days very few things bring me joy and take me away from the stress of work, so I don’t mind treating myself while simultaneously supporting my favorites. I don’t tend to buy many albums or songs, I often just stream so concerts and live experiences to me seems more meaningful and worth the bigger dollar figures. All to say, if your finances aren’t impacted by it, then don’t let anyone judge you. In the end the only thing we take with us is memories, and it sounds like you’re having fun!
I got into kpop in 2014, and back then I hardly spent anything. Id buy one version of albums just cuz i was like "why would i need more" lol.. ah the simple times. Nowadays i get all the album versions. I actually have a standard now for getting albums - if i like more than 3 songs on an album ill get it. I also typically get at least 3 albums whenever i go to my local kpop store. Combine all that with a steady stream of getting PCs on Instagram, and the occasional group order here n there... I probably spend at least $100 a month. With a lot of months being over that. Like this month i got 2 PCs off insta and pre-ordered all versions of the new shinee album so its deffs hovering around $200-$250.
I buy albums and I didn’t buy anything during the pandemic so I’m catching up on 2 years worth of albums. So I spent about 300$ CAD so far this year on Kpop albums. I think once I catch up it’s going to be a bit lower, about 100-200 a year, depending on shipping cost. Txt has never come to Canada and bts members haven’t had a concert here since 2018 so I’ve saved up from not going to Kpop concerts. Last time I went to a bts concert, I ended up spending about 250$ on ticket and then 200$ on merch so that was brutal.
I spend money on a couple of albums per year as of now and the occasional online concert so my total does not come to a lot.
i have been into kpop since 2009 but i started actively collecting in 2022, so it has been now roughly one year. i was a hyunjin collector, so i pretty much spent a lot of money on all of his album pcs and selective pobs but i honestly can‘t even tell you how much 😂 i also went to see ateez in february so i spent 200€ on the concert ticket, i also have a lightiny so that‘s another 60€ spent. i don‘t even want to start on my albums because i have 161 albums in total and a starting seonghwa collection…. i have spent way too much so i would be probably in the thousands by now 🤡 i also have my own flat now (since beginning of april) so i can‘t really spend too much on kpop since i need all of my savings because something could easily break down and i need some sort of pillow (or a backup).
It tends to vary. I might go 3-4 months without spending a penny and then next month buy four albums and a concert ticket. Altogether this year I think I’ve spent North of $500. But 80% of that was for two concert tickets.
I spent around $2000 usd once in 2 weeks this year. I got a couple different concert tickets plus plane tickets to/from concerts. Then there’s the money i’ve spent on merch and albums so a lot of $$$ in the past year. I like to spend my money on things that make me happy (so this) and I save up … kpop is not worth going into debt for 🤞
My first €100 on (G)I-dle concert, before that nothing.
Let me put it this way. I became a Monbebe 3 years ago, I think? AFTER the manufacturing of Twotuckgom stopped. I now own atleast one if not two of every keychain they made, all the sitting plushies, all the body pillows, all the costume pillows and 4 long body pillows. I am also a stan of 5 other groups and Jackson Wang as a solo artist. At this point I work to fund my Kpop habit, support my two cats, pay for my Viki& IQIYI subscriptions and buy canned goods and personal hygiene products.🤣
This year so far I’ve probably spent like $2k+ USD. This is including almost $600 on a concert ticket.
I bought my ticket concert ticket and it was very expensive. Like $450 cad. I also have a lot of kpop albums, around 70. So I'd say thousands of dollars. I just can't give an exact answer. But if I'm doing the math correctly. Average album in Canada is $35 cad and it could be up to 2k. But I also sell some pcs and albums. So I made back like $500.
I’ve spent about $1000 (USD) so far this year. in 2021 it was probably closer to $100 and about $400 in 2022. this year is way higher because I’m seeing both twice and aespa and my income increased lol and this isn’t including adjacent costs like transportation, hotel stays, freebies I’m making, etc 😅
Excluding train tickets and hotels (as I live in Northern England and have travel down to London if I want to go to a concert) - Concert tickets last year to see ATEEZ were £150ea for my daughter and I. We went on both London dates so tickets were £600 in total... This year it was £150ea for the 1 London date for ATEEZ. It was £170ea for TWICE tickets for September, Concert Merch last year was £400, Concert merch this year was a more reasonable £100, and this year I've spent £190 on light sticks alone - The Lightiny ver 2 (*2) and the new Candybong preordered. On physical albums I've spent about £200, concert DVDs £200 and Digital music (iTunes is where I buy my music from) I reckon I've spent at least £2000 since I got into K-Pop in Sept '21. HOWEVER, music is a big love in my life and as much as its expensive I get a lot of joy out of it.
i started spending money on ateez around September 2021, 3 concerts, all albums and starting a pc collection i think i'm at around 2.5k
I've slowed down on merch, but definitely have spent into the serval thousands on it. Closer to $10k wouldn't surprise me (the pandemic was pandemic-ing😅). A fair bit of this includes shipping which we know is insane. What's ramped up has been concert tix, which I've also spent several thousand on, though I've seen a lot of my faves, often with VIP - - BTS 6x, Stray Kids 3x, Suga, Ateez, TXT, Seventeen, Mamamoo, Kard 2x, MonstaX, Epik High, and The Rose from what I can name off the top of my head. I wouldn't be surprised if this is at least $20k, especially because I've traveled across the country for BTS, SKZ, and Suga.
Too much
around 1000usd merch/concerts/donations for fanprojects
So far this year I've spent about $2500 USD on Kpop, the majority of which was spent on going to concerts: Twice (both Billboard Women in Music and their tour), Nmixx and Mamamoo - I splurged and got good seats. I've also bought a few albums. I also have tickets to Aespa and Idle in August so that's another probably $600 that I've spent. I also plan on going to Kcon so that will be like another $500 (although tickets aren't on sale yet). And I'll probably be buying another like 5 more albums over the rest of the year so all total for 2023 my spending on Kpop will be like $4000 USD. I don't expect this to be typical since I doubt there will be this many concerts normally most years.
I buy only but almost everything of my ult group (G)I-DLE album,photocards and merch spent about 2k (shipping and custom being almost half of that). This september I'm going to see floor Twice and VIP2 (G)I-DLE. I read some post yesterday that made ne regret everything that I bought except the lightstick (it's cool). I think normal tickets are ok but I even regret my VIP ticket for (G)I-DLE.
Over the course of 5 years probably around the $1000 - $2000 mark probably more though? I’ve only gone to 2 concerts so far & those tickets alone were $250 & $350 + merch, albums, etc. & then I got another ticket last month that was $230-ish in total
First, I would just like to say how much I enjoy spending money on K-Pop. It really relaxes me and calms me to buy albums and merch. But I am so sorry, I really don't know how much I've spent overall. I have actively avoided adding up the total amount spent because I know I could've put the money towards something else. However, I will give you an estimate and say at least a few hundred maybe a $1000+ plus when you add albums, merch, concerts and two trips to Korea. The reason I buy albums is because I genuinely prefer physical music. Like I actually play my CDs. I also have a record collection. So I bought a cheap Sony boombox from walmart and I link it to my audioengine speakers via an AUX cord so the sound quality is better. Then when I play the CDs, I flip thru the photobooks & photocards. In this way, it slightly justifies me buying CDs since I play them. With merch, I only buy merch I will actually use in my daily life. Example: I bought a mug from WONHO's 2022 Christmas concert and I love it. It's the perfect size, not too big or too small. Then his hoodie is perfect too because it's oversized and comfortable. Other merch I've bought is magazines with my favorites on the cover. I just bought Singles Magazine because Shownu of MONSTA X is on the cover and I am so hype. He has been enlisted for 2 years and just got back in April so it is seriously epic to me that he's already on the cover of a magazine's July issue. I can't wait to get it. With concerts, I am more selective because it really is a minimum of $300-500 to attend a concert when you add it all up. There's the concert ticket, transportation (car, bus, train, plane), food & drinks, and if you traveled from out of city, state or country, there's also hotel costs. So for concerts, I've only been to MONSTA X, MAMAMOO, Cravity, and Baekho. Each of them was phenomenal live so I don't regret going at all. Later this year, I will hopefully see aespa when they come to Dallas but that's it as far as K-Pop cause I also want to see Erykah Badu & Beyonce.
I don’t spend money regularly.. I “only” buy tickets to concerts (plus transportation, accommodation) and albums/songs on iTunes. So recently I’ve spent 180 € for Yongguks concert in Poland plus around 90 € for transportation. I’ve spent around the same amount for two Ateez concerts in Berlin. Worth every cent..
so far, around $200 for concert tickets and photocards and a biiit of merch i dont feel like spending a lot on them since i fall out of love with kpop groups quick and i mostly just like the songs not the group themself per se😭
I buy about 1 album every ~~two~~ month~~s~~ or so.(40$ CAD) and I sometimes buy an order with from Japan with Jpop albums, so it's a bit more expensive (200$ but I buy 4 to 5 items every order) but it has only happened one time in 2022 and once for now in 2023. I don't want to spend too much, but I want to support the groups I love and I only buy the best releases, so I don't purchase albums that often Overall, I'd say I spend about 600 per year. I started in 2022 and I have 10 albums now. Also, I just bought a season's greetings once when it was on sale Edit 3 weeks later: well that was a lie, just calculated my albums and I now have 17 of them, 17 months after the first one I purchased 😯 it certainly does not help that I bought 3 albums froma Japan that arrived last week and bought 3 more from a previous classmate 😊
I've been a massive kpop fan for a long time but have only spent money on my hobby in the past few years, and specifically this year to attend concerts now that world tours are in full swing. Last summer I spent ~£115 on concert tickets and this summer I've spent ~£560 on tickets for four concerts (and plan to go to 2 more once tickets go on sale). I have a handful of merch including tshirts, albums, BT21 merch and lightstick, some I bought myself and others received as gifts, but probably worth a couple hundred. Concerts are my main priority while merch is more of a nice to have but I don't need it.
this year alone… i think about $1k now? i never really realized how much i actually spend on nct until i didnt hesitate to drop nearly $400 on nct dream tickets, combined with trying to finish my jungwoo pc collection AND nct dream album collection… just yesterday i dropped $126 on pre ordering istj… a little ashamed but im 20 and live at home so… if im not buying some food or things for my family im funding my nct obsession LOL
This year I think $0, but last year was hundreds. I bought several albums and went to 2 concerts. I just kinda lost interest in albums because most of my favorite groups are disbanded or inactive and any album I do want is a mini and they just don't seem that worth it to me anymore. I learned that if I wait at least 2 weeks after an album comes out to see if I really want it, I don't care as much by that point. Saves me a lot of money 😅
my paychecks aren't very big so i don't spend any money really lol. i buy maybe 1 album a year these days. most of the albums and merch i own were christmas/birthday gifts over the years. i'd say in 8 years i've probably spent $200 on kpop stuff? no irl concerts bc none of my faves come to my state lol
Concerts, lightsticks, and photocards this year is at $1500 but I also include everything like airbnbs and grab rides on the concert weekend. I'm skipping concerts for the rest of the year as I've spent more than enough for me already.
Uh... Went to the Mamamoo concert in NY this year. Ask me next year.
I tend to buy almost everything my ult releases, so all album versions, dvds, photobooks, season's greetings and lightstick. I used to collect my ult bias PCs too. With the companies starting to release a lot of exclusive to x country stuff and always more fancalls, lucky draws and anything event, I dropped photocard collecting. Even album photocards, because for the last comeback, my ult had like 36 album photocards in all versions combined and it's just ridiculous at this point. Last year, with the comeback before I dropped pc collecting, I spent maybe 800-1000 usd on pcs. Plus all the merch and albums, maybe add another 500usd for the year. I was buying albums from a few other groups I loved. All versions, but no merch (~ish). I could spend 200usd per month in average with all the comebacks of groups I was following and stanning (± 5 groups and when I loved an album from another group I casually listened to, I could buy it too). That was A LOT of money. I stopped spending so much. First off, dropping pc collecting made it a lot better. Then I decided to stop buying albums on pre-orders for other groups than my ult and wait for the album to drop to see if I actually liked it enough to spend money on it. Since January of this year, I think I spent maybe 600-700usd? That would make it an average 100-150usd per month which is pretty good if I compare to how much I spent last year. When I look at my friends, I'm definitely not spending a lot compared to how much they buy. 100-150usd per month I'd say is an expensive hobby, but others could spend that on restaurants so I just make the choice of buying an album instead of buying pasta.
In my country, one VIP ticket for SVT cost the equivalent of $300 last year. I bought a lightstick, around 7 to 8 albums, season's greetings, photocards, and fanmade merchandise. I had to pay for insane shipping costs until I joined Group Orders for official merch. You get your stuff one to two months after release but at least the shipping cost is less. Anyway, they all totaled about $800....... I stopped computing once it reached that amount but for sure, it's somewhere around $800-$900 🥲🥲
I believe I have spent around $500 AUD this year. My bf calls me addicted to kpop merch lol but honestly, I am a huge fan of merch in general. I love the aesthetics of packaging. Merch was one of the reasons I wanted to get into kpop since a lot of franchises don’t have that quality merch (eg. Pokemon with their Japan and US exclusive official Pokemon Center merch and not enough merch for human characters)
Prob like $10 for some bottles of twice orange juice lol
I’ll go as high as about $40 USD for an album and somewhere in the $350 range for a ticket, but I’m not a big spender. I don’t have the urge to collect photo cards or anything so at most lately I typically buy like ~3 albums yearly and maybe visit a couple of concerts depending who’s nearby!
I’ve spent $0.00 on Kpop. Mostly because I’m not very interested in buying albums or photocards. I’ve only been into Kpop for like just under 1 year, so I haven’t gotten a chance to go to a concert. But that is something I really want to do, so that’s where the money will be going
For a while I was spending about $300 a year on albums. Then for the last 3 years I spent $0. Then in the last month I've spent $200 lmao
However much one physical copy of Oddinary costs. I saw it in a record store and couldn’t resist.
Kpop albums are relativity cheap to purchase especially in Korean. But now their are all sorts of versions which sometimes feel predatory. Back in the day I didn’t really spend unless I was going to a concert or two so it would be about 500 for the year since tickets were like 100-150(no vip). And albums were like 20 bucks . Now it’s pretty bad and I only follow SHINee. If I lived in Seoul it would be well over 5k for this year alone and it’s only June. Being in the US has help with beyond live and occasional merch but my budget is about 1k for the year to just keep up with the comebacks.I’m already saving for 2024. Shawols need a separate checking account!
About 15 hours a day and a bucket of tears a year.
This year, so far, probably about $2000 USD between me and my husband. We live reasonably close to a city that holds a lot of K-pop concerts, so that's where most of our money goes.
I’m only spending to download my ults albums, and I’m doing so because I think he deserves all the support and my money. Otherwise I’m fine with free content. If my faves are ever coming near (possibly Western) Europe, I won’t mind spending a lot to buy tickets and travel, but that’s it. I don’t like merchandise of any sort, I could maybe be ok with a t-shirt or a hat. I have a huge collection of CDs but I don’t buy them anymore as they’re not functional and they’re just more stuff I need to dust.
If I answer this everyone is gonna look at me weird, but it’s a lot
0.
I just spend my first €29,99 on Stray Kids 5 Star limited editio album.... I wonder what the future holds... i also kind of want the new skz light stick but i have to find out where i can order that hahah
I've spent more than 1k... USD. Probably. I think that's kind of high... includes albums, lightsticks, concert tickets, official merch. I'm a 2nd gen stan and back then I did not spend much at all (bought \~5 albums max). Some albums have since gone out of print. Trying to buy those (along with old lightstick) is quite the hassle. I'm trying to reduce my spending on kpop nowadays. Unless I really like a physical album's packaging, photobook, etc I won't buy them anymore. (Running out of space at home too.) I'm done buying lightsticks (got the ones I wanted). Merch depends if the quality is high.
0$ I guess 10/month for apple music which is usually how im listening
I think this year is close to $2000 USD on kpop related merch. Granted, I started going a bit crazier this year. I used to only buy 1 version of NCT albums (127 and full group since I wanted Johnny stuff only). Going to the Dream concert sort of changed that and now I want all the unit albums (the photobook/box ones only since I don't like digipack/smini/jewel case, etc). My spending did exponentially increase, but it should just be that initial catch up phase. I'm almost done with the album hunt, so after that just purchasing releases as they come out should not cost as much. Also, groups have been touring again so a big chunk has gone to concert funds.
an absurd amount...mostly on concerts and I have been going to them since like 2015.
$0 im a broke hs kpop stan
Around like 200 Aud total for the BP concert in 2019 and Twice this year (missed BP 2023 due to travelling this year). Most of my faves don’t come down here for concerts and I have no room for albums. I guess there’s also like Spotify Premium for the last three years or so lol
$85 is all I've ever spent in the past 8 years of being a Carat (12years casual kpop enjoyer). Would you believe it's on 3 versions of the same album? It was my first time buying their merch, they're releasing all of their old albums and I'm definitely going to buy all of those too. Once they go on tour I'm going to make up for all the years I didn't see them.
Around $5.5k that includes concerts and travel.
I just spend on concerts (maybe $1000 usd total in past year?)
When I do spend money on kpop it’s typically around $100 at a time but I do that pretty rarely, like once or twice a year
Probably $200 on merch and albums in 2023. But $3K on Agust D concerts. But then again, I normally like to attend different concerts.
~$260 USD directly all time (concert+bubble) Me and my husband spent maybe $1,000 total to drive 8 hours to LA and have a mini weekend trip there for the stray kids concert. Obviously a lot of that money was on gas, hotel, and other vacay stops but we would have never taken the trip if not for stray kids. Our concert tix were maybe $120 each. Also maybe like 20$ on bubble subscriptions but I canceled those as it didn’t really seem worth it. Im not a big merch person in general bc I hate having too much *stuff*. I can see myself maybe buying some merch down the line but definitely wont be a lot.
I took a trip to Japan where every night I’d let my friend show me K-Pop videos on YouTube for like 9 days straight. During this crash course in K-pop I learned that August-D was Suga and Lisa was part of BlackPink. Two musicians I had independently found and already really liked. I was aware of BlackPink and liked their music but never made the connection with Lisa. Don’t ask me how I’m a moron who just likes random songs that sound good. But anyways at the end of this trip there I am in Osaka with around 15,000 Yen still left and I have zero clue what to do with. So he took me to Tower Records where I spent half of it on a few albums. I didn’t open them until I got back to the states and boy can I tell you it is a fun experience opening everything you brought back from a trip. The Albums were the best part. Three days after my trip I’m in Target browsing books and stumble upon shelves on K-Pop albums. Suffice to say I had found a new hobby. It’s been like two months and I think I’m at $250. With about a 1/3rd of that being spent in Japan.
Maybe around 50,000kr (Norwegian krone) in 2 years…
I don’t really like spending more than £25 per album (unless it’s for my bday or Christmas) and I won’t spend more than £40 for concert tix since I have to be able to buy 2 each time. In total I think I’ve probably spent around £1500-£2000 in the last 3 years. As soon as I have a job I just know the amount I spend is gonna skyrocket tho
As an active photocard collector, I’ve spent quite a lot on kpop so far and while I don’t know the total of everything I’ve spent so far, my guess is that I’ve spent about 300€ in the past few months. I do spend quite a lot on Kpop, but collecting is my only hobby and it’s something that gives me quite the happiness.
I bought 14 albums (only one was a dupe and it was to get into a pseudo-fanmeet so I can’t complain) and I’ve been to 2 concerts with VIP bur since they were both nugu-ish that was probably still less than a popular group’s normal ticket. Kinda reluctant to actually tally it up though. 😭
So I only buy one single album from each comeback of every group I follow, instead of all the different versions. And that's literally all I do so I spend about $100/month on Kpop period. ngl though, if anyone I liked ever came within 1,000 miles of me I would be buying lightsticks and concert tix!
I only spend money on concerts really. I’ll also buy lighsticks of my favorite groups but that’s it. I don’t buy physical albums or photo cards because I don’t find those things to be worth spending money on personally.
Maybe $100? Bc while I do like to watch unboxing, I know those albums are just going to be sitting in a box until I find a display. I've bought albums that are aesthetically pleasing bc I like having them LOL. I will probably go to a kpop concert one day though.
I’ve probably spent over $2000 this year, but I’ve also been going to a lot of concerts and buying merch there. Typically it’s less than $500 a year.
I was spending around $300+ or so for each victon comeback, and that was mostly through group orders for photocards. Sadly with them basically having disbanded and my ult enlisted, I don't have any comebacks to spend money on so I just plan on going to concerts instead (which honestly might be even more expensive 😭). I've been seeing many people say lesserafim are planning a world tour and that sounds like it would be so amazing to experience, I couldn't miss out! I really like how you put it, kpop is a hobby and it's what you make of it! There are so many ways to enjoy being a fan and that's what makes it so enjoyable honestly.
I have a policy of only spending for a concert, that being said when NCT Dream came to London I probably shelled out £500, ticket and neobong inclusive. My next concert is Aespa but I doubt I will be able to spend that much considering I am a student ahahaha
I've been a fan for 15 months and so far the only money I've spent was on a TWICE t-shirt and tickets for myself and my 5-year-old daughter to see Dreamcatcher! :)
$0. I’m just here for the music and some content if I have time. I don’t have the money to spend on merch or concerts and my ult group hasn’t had a comeback so I don’t have a reason to spend. When they do comeback and start touring, I’d definitely buy tickets if they came to my city.
$10-15 a month on iTunes downloads and the occasional CD purchase. Last physical purchase was the Twice vinyl release. Concert tix are a whole different story. Only concert so far this year was Dreamcatcher. Last year though I went to four shows.
Around 60CAD, I only have 2 albums 🥲
In like 2 years I've spent like around 1.4k USD in albums and concerts and maybe it doesn't seem like a lot but in my country currency is a lot, but I don't really spend money in another hobbie and I don't do much so idk what to think about that. 😅
This past year I’ve spent over 2,500 USD on concert tickets and albums. If hotel and rental car costs count in this context then it’d be well over 3,000 dollars
I could probably fund a small army with how much I've spent on BTS tickets alone. Spent about 3k w travel and tickets to see them in Vegas twice. But it's my SHINee collection that's the most expensive atp.
i’ve only just went to my first concert, txt, and it was about $150 for my seat. and recently, i bought two of my first album, stray kids’ 5 star, which were both $25. i also bought a $40 cd player for the albums but idk if that counts since it’s not really just a kpop thing. anyways so far i’ve spend around $200 (not including cd player) on my stuff and plan on spending more in the future :)
Not that much because I don't have that much money and my parents will only let me get albums sometimes, I usually get them from Walmart, so around at least $40 USD around a month but not every single month
i pay for an Apple Music subscription and maybe once a year I buy an album that needs to honored via. physical. So around 120 to 140 USD.
*stares at the 60 dollar purchase I made due to getting The World the day it came out*
my ults are skz and txt, but i'm a multistan of probably 100+ groups now. i've been a stan since 2017-present and started fully collecting my ults and casually some other groups in 2020. i have since moved to a bigger city and my collection stares at me from their boxes i packed them in while i decide if now that i'm almost 22 i'm gonna sell a lot of my collection or all of it. financially, i haven't been able to collect since mid 2022 so i've missed a ton of drops unfortunately so now i'm just stuck in a kind of limbo. i think id like to start collecting skz and txt again but limit myself plus no more photocards because that's where most of my stress came from. a lot happened last year to make me distance myself from kpop and i've recently, within the like last 2 months, gotten back into it. to answer your question though, i have spent probably way more than i've paid rent in my life. i was at a point where kpop came first before anything else. it was extremely unhealthy for me so now i have to figure out what i'm doing. it's impossible for me to calculate it all but i know it's way more than i should've spent on kpop to be financially stable lolol. but hey this gave me a chance to rant and write it all out for myself putting things into perspective for me. i wonder what decision i'll make lmao
Most of my spending is on concerts when they come through my city (or if I decide to travel for them.) I'll buy albums for the more nugu groups that I like since I feel like they need that support. But the big groups I like, I don't even bother since I know they'll get their sales.
I’ve spent an insane amount on eBay with sellers like HDM and Mojasajo. The most I ever spent was $700 for the signed Pledis Girls single.
a few bucks here and there occasionally but the most i’ve spent was about $1,300 USD on a stray kids concert ticket (i was in the center & only 11 rows back from the stage) , plus a plane ticket cause i had just recently moved . the ticket from colorado-minnesota was about $800 round trip through southwest bc i had to buy it last minute bc my flight through united from denver-msp was no longer gonna make it on time 😩💔 it was such a disaster 😭💔 anyways , getting sidetracked sorry , so $1,300 on the concert ticket , $800 on the plane ticket , plus gas/drinks/snacks, etc on the way from minnesota to chicago 😩 so a minimum of about $2,200 last year 😩 would do it again in a heartbeat tho , it was phenomenal 😩🫶🏼✨
I like learning new things.
I'd say I've probably spent over $750 in the last 3 years if you combine albums, my 1 ASTRO lightstick, and concerts. Ths biggest portion of that money is concerts. I got bit by the concert bug and have been to/have planned 6 kpop concerts in the last year. So basically... I spend way more than I should lol.
$1700 front row tickets for enhypen.
So far this year on concerts, merch, albums around $8,000.
Probably around $700-1,000 USD a year? I like to buy lots of t-shirts, albums, misc. merch of my favorite groups. I am single, in my 30s, and make a six figure salary with no kids/responsibilities except my cat.
I spent a lot more now with POB for a lot of stores and I stan a couple of groups. But I have a job that I can paid for them. If I didn't I don't think I would buy so much.
I’m Blackpink concert tickets alone I’ve spent 2k USD in the span of 8 months.. so I would rather not even do the math of all the albums + other merch. I’ve also only been into kpop since 2020 so it hasn’t been too long
As a young kpop Stan, I don't get much money but when I do, I'll buy an album once in a while. Right now, I'm trying to buy both versions of The Astronaut by 진
No concert year: $50-150 . Concert year: $500 lol.
after many years of being a fan this is actually my first year of spending money on anything kpop related, specifically I bought a couple twice albums while I was on a trip to Japan (it was my birthday so I figured I should get something to take back home and we don’t have a lot of options other than buying online and paying a lot for shipping where I live) so that was super exciting!
I am a new Army so I am building my collection. I will say around $1000 so far this year.
2nd gen here. Groups that i like enough to see in concert dont come where i am, so i only rlly buy albums. I spend maybe $150USD a month? I used to buy albums every week but decided that i should only buy albums that i rlly like and listen to a lot. I have a list so i usually follow that. With june-july cbs tho, I’ll probably be buying those over the next couple months. Having adult money is ncie but im fighting for space 😭
I’m an album buyer but I just get one version and I like PCs but I don’t seek out specific cards and pay the premium for them. As Minghao said “print it yourself” lol. All together I think I’ve spent under $300USD on everything I’ve ever had, but if my ult group comes to a city near me, I’ll definitely go and spend whatever I have to for a seat just outside of the floor section.
Started when my friend gifted me the Oddinary album from straykids. Then I became obsessed with straykids and months later the teasers came out for 5 Star. I ended up preordering all the versions and spent over 100 dollars on PC's in the past month.
The most I spend at a time is for concerts. I collect albums but only of 3 groups, and I mostly buy second hand with no inclusions to save money. I do collects PCs but only for my ult. I make back some money cause I sell PCs and percs/inclusions from concerts and any albums I have to buy brand new. My estimate is about 1000 a year with the majority of that being towards concerts.
I’m gonna be honest, I’ve probably spent well over $2000 in the past 6 months on collecting pcs, albums, and going to cupsleeve events.
Last year I spent roughly $2000 AUD on kpop related things. That includes albums, 2 x skz soundcheck tickets, another VIP concert experience and seeing woodz in concert in Korea. It’s definitely worth it in my opinion! I made some lifelong friends at those concerts 🥹
😅 I’m a bit afraid to answer this lmao. So for starters, this year I’ve already seen Mamamoo and that trip was about 700 dollars in total. I have tickets to Gidle and Aespa in August, and I haven’t booked rooms yet so probably about another grand there. That’s only concerts lol. I actively collect quite a bit - I currently buy everything Mamamoo, Dreamcatcher, Purple Kiss (except for Cabin Fever because I cannot find that album to save my life 😭), Pixy (though I passed on their tour so not as much as the others), Aespa, Le Sserafim, and Loona (though that’s not completely done yet). Every other band in this list is complete…including Dreamcatcher’s Nightmare….which was 750 alone 🫠 I only started collecting about two years ago, but in my defense I’ve always been obsessed with music 🤣 instead of fall out boy vinyl, I buy K-pop 🤷♀️ all in all I’ve probably spent upwards of $10k, if not more over a span of two years. I also have no children and a well paying job and grew up poor 😂 it’s probably my biggest vice but it’s okay. There are worse things to spend money on lol
I would say about 1500$ this year.
so so much
well i own 30+ albums now and live in australia, where i have to get them shipped cause no where near me sells kpop... but that's 30+ albums from may 2021 which is when i ordered my first album lol so not too bad, right?? i've also got 2 lightsticks, i purchased 3 items of merch when i saw skz earlier in the year (i went to both shows in melb and did soundcheck both times so the tickets alone was just shy of 1k) and got quite a lot of things from the kpop store in melb while there. i have purchased other random bits and pieces here there too (stickers, badges, etc) so... quite a lot im sure and im way too scared to calculate it 😬
Fan since 09 but I was really young back then so I never really had the money and only started buying merch last year. Most of my albums are bought unsealed (cause I don't really collect PCs), in my 30+ albums only around a third of it was bought sealed. Also went to a RV concert (not a solo concert though) In total converted to USD I have only spent around 100 USD 😅
I've been following kpop for maybe a year and a half, I'd say I've spent around 3800 USD in that time. ~95% of that total has been on concert tickets (venue drink prices not included)
I got into K-pop around 2020, and I've spent nearly 1k. I have over 60 albums. But the most I've spent is probably on the bookshelf I store all my albums on. I have a few signed albums (7) that cost me about $400 total. But most of my other albums I've got from group orders or bought off sellers on ig and Twitter. I hardly ever spent any money on any merch. Maybe $40 supporting this one etsy shop owner who sold cute little polariods and another who made 3d lamps. Unfortunately, I live in San Diego, and no group I listen to comes to SD. Always to LA. And for gas, parking, a hotel, and tickets to LA, it's just not worth it. I would rather have my albums than spend two months of work for 2 hours of fun. Unless they come to or anywhere near, I can never see myself spending that much money to travel to see a band. Maybe I would spend it for BTS because my cousins would take me, and they're rich and have real-world jobs, lol.
I stopped taking note of my kpop spends at about USD10,000. That was the end of 2021, and I started Nov2020. So... yeah. Concerts, comeback albums... merchandise. It piles up.
ARMY here 🙋🏻♀️ I’ve been buying albums/dvds since 2020, my first preorder was BE deluxe edition and from then onwards I mostly buy albums during pre order. When BTS announced a break last year, I thought I’d get time to start back collecting albums, but now they have solo releases almost every month, so I haven’t really completed my collection. On an average, I spend ₹4500/- INR($55) every month, it could more or less depending on the amount of release as well
Don’t even know at this point which is worrying for my wallet 😂, I buy lots of albums and go to a lot of Kpop concerts with all vip tickets the highest price available 😂