{"id":34737,"date":"2025-10-10T03:21:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T03:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/my-wallet-and-i-took-a-trip-into-the-heart-of-the-k-pop-photocard-business-machine-we-barely-survived\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T03:21:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T03:21:28","slug":"my-wallet-and-i-took-a-trip-into-the-heart-of-the-k-pop-photocard-business-machine-we-barely-survived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/my-wallet-and-i-took-a-trip-into-the-heart-of-the-k-pop-photocard-business-machine-we-barely-survived\/","title":{"rendered":"My wallet and I took a trip into the heart of the K-pop photocard business machine. We barely survived."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68e72bc6cc993f9955cfd891?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A street photo of Pocaspot Myeongdong.\"\/><figcaption>I looked up guides on where to go to get photocards, and Pocaspot Myeongdong kept coming up on TikTok. I had to go there immediately.<\/p>\n<p>Cheryl Teh<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>I first reported on the K-pop photo card business in June.<\/li>\n<li>Last month, I took a trip to Seoul, where I visited a chain of stores that sells photocards.<\/li>\n<li>A woman beside me splashed out $300 for one card. I spent a third less on a bigger haul.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I must ask you not to judge me.<\/p>\n<p>In June, I reported on the &quot;boy paper&quot; phenomenon, the booming business of K-pop photo card trading. At the time, I was a casual collector of photo cards of Joshua Hong, a member of the boy band Seventeen. My collection was small, and I maintained it by organizing swaps with other fans.<\/p>\n<p>I said at the time, with great gusto and bravery, that I&#039;d never become a person who&#039;d spend more than $10 on a photocard.<\/p>\n<p>Three months on, after a jam-packed Seoul shopping trip, I can&#039;t say that anymore.<\/p>\n<p>What on earth is a K-pop photocard?<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68e72bbe1c1f80efbec53c5c?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A view of Mediheal toner pads on the shelf at Olive Young.\"\/><figcaption>Mediheal&#039;s multi-colored toner pads were flying off the shelves. I had to estimate how much luggage space I had left before loading up on six boxes of the stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Cheryl Teh<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>K-pop photocards are an integral part of fan merchandise, and a boost for the industry&#039;s bottom line.<\/p>\n<p>K-pop fans typically get cards free with the purchase of albums. A Seventeen album, for instance, can come with two to four random photocards per pack.<\/p>\n<p>The sprawling variety aside, the fact that a K-pop band sometimes has over 10 people in it means that the chances of pulling your favorite boy could be slim.<\/p>\n<p>The randomness of card distribution creates a serious business for collectors and sellers alike. Much like the Pok\u00e9mon trading card game, where limited-edition cards can go for hundreds, if not tens of thousands of dollars, fans clamor for K-pop cards.<\/p>\n<p>That&#039;s where the secondary resale market comes in. Pocaspot, a TikTok-famous business, is a chain of stores in Seoul that functions like a seamless, fangirl-facilitating machine.<\/p>\n<p>Happy scrolling, fangirl.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68e72bc51c1f80efbec53c5e?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A photo showing a buying screen at Pocaspot Myeongdong.\"\/><figcaption>The screen was easy to navigate, with cards sorted by band and band member. You could also filter cards by release category.<\/p>\n<p>Cheryl Teh<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Pocaspot has two outlets in Seoul&#039;s hottest tourist districts, Hongdae and Myeongdong. Each outlet has around a dozen tablets through which orders are placed.<\/p>\n<p>Women with K-pop boyband paraphernalia hanging from their bags gathered around each tablet in twos and threes, shopping their way through the catalog with laser focus.<\/p>\n<p>I joined their ranks and scrolled through a seemingly endless array of photocards. You can sort cards by band and band member for easy access. Customers who are looking for cards from lucky draws and limited-release runs can filter the selection via a dropdown menu.<\/p>\n<p>On my first visit, I stood there for over an hour scrolling through the menus for the boy bands Seventeen, Stray Kids, and BTS, cross-referencing them with snaps of my personal collection.<\/p>\n<p>Photocards can get very, very pricey.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68e72bc55dbc4fd10daa7fa6?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A shot of the screen at Pocaspot Myeongdong.\"\/><figcaption>Some of these photocards were very pricey. I couldn&#039;t justify shelling out well over $500 for a photocard of Felix Lee, but did end up buying a cheaper one.<\/p>\n<p>Cheryl Teh<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Some photocards of Felix Lee, the Stray Kids member and LVMH muse, were very expensive. I couldn&#039;t justify spending over 500,000 South Korean won, or $350, on one photocard.<\/p>\n<p>Beside me, a woman \u2014 seemingly unfazed by what I considered an eye-watering sum to spend on a piece of paper \u2014 splashed out $300 for a photocard of Seventeen&#039;s leader, S.Coups.<\/p>\n<p>I watched in awe and fear as she marched up to the cashier with her credit card, and resolved to shop within my income bracket.<\/p>\n<p>I did snap up a selection of cards in the $5 to $15 range.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68e72bbe1c1f80efbec53c5b?format=jpeg\" alt=\"An image of a hand holding a box of products from Pocaspot.\"\/><figcaption>I collected my loot a day later. The cards had been placed in plastic protective sleeves, and packed in a cute box.<\/p>\n<p>Cheryl Teh<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Pocaspot says on its website that it has over a million K-pop photocards in stock.<\/p>\n<p>That means it&#039;ll take time for staff to locate your card of choice. I was shopping at the Myeongdong outlet after the day&#039;s order cut-off time of 4 p.m., so I picked my cart up the next day.<\/p>\n<p>I opted to collect my photocard haul at Pocaspot&#039;s Hongdae branch. I spent just over $45 for seven photocards of Seventeen&#039;s Hong.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#039;re lucky, you&#039;ll get a card in an in-store giveaway.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68e72bc55dbc4fd10daa7fa7?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A shot of a randomly distributed photocard of Seventeen Mingyu, from Pocaspot.\"\/><figcaption>As a reward for indulging in Seventeen photocards, I was also gifted a random photocard in-store.<\/p>\n<p>Cheryl Teh<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I had traveled to Seoul in the first place to attend the opening leg of Seventeen&#039;s world tour. I found out on Instagram that Pocaspot had organized a giveaway of random Seventeen photocards, and I managed to snag one at the Hongdae store.<\/p>\n<p>I caved to temptation once more while picking up my first order, buying another stack of seven photocards for $70. This time, I was shopping in the morning, so I managed to pick up my order after 7 p.m., the same day.<\/p>\n<p>Photocard collecting is not for the faint of heart.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68e72bc61c1f80efbec53c5f?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A shot of K-pop photocards fanned out in a person&#039;s hand.\"\/><figcaption>Unboxing some of these buys was a true joy.<\/p>\n<p>Cheryl Teh<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Collecting cards is an addictive and costly habit \u2014 I spent over $100 in Seoul. The desire to catch &#039;em all is budget-breaking. However, if you&#039;re attempting to flip limited edition K-pop cards for profit, you can get them graded and put in slabs for maximum preservation.<\/p>\n<p>For now, I&#039;ll stick to my cute binders of boy paper and try to keep my card budget as low as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Check back with me in a few months.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I looked up guides on where to go to get photocards, and Pocaspot Myeongdong kept coming up on TikTok. I had to go there immediately. Cheryl Teh I first reported on the K-pop photo card business in June. Last month, I took a trip to Seoul, where I visited a chain of stores that sells [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}