What you should consider when buying K-Pop Albums

by Janina SauerJul 22, 2021

When buying the increasingly popular K-Pop albums as well as the associated merch items, there are a few things you should pay attention to in order to avoid disappointment. After all, where can you get your dream album at a fair price, undamaged and fast?

For veteran K-Pop fans, this is probably nothing new, but for newcomers to the world of K-Pop, it's often a challenge.

What are Hanteo and Gaon charts? What's the difference and what role do they play? Where can you find the biggest selection of albums and where can you order safely and duty-free? You can find out all this here.

The most important in brief

Aspects When buying, you should pay attention to the following points: Selection, customs fees, shipping costs, customer communication and shipping.
OptionsWhen purchasing, one has the following options: Music stores, stores in Korea, Amazon & eBay, and online stores for the European market.
NolaeNolae ist ein deutscher Online-Shop, der einen unkomplizierten Kauf und eine große Auswahl von K-Pop Artikeln, mit guter Kudenkommunikation verspricht.
ChartsThe so-called Hanteo as well as the Gaon Chart play a major role in the K-Pop world. Both album charts take into account shipped units of physical recordings, but look at them from different angles.

Where to get K-Pop products and what to look for?

When looking for K-Pop products, there are several options to get your dream album. We show you what you should consider when buying and what advantages and disadvantages the different options have.

Music stores

K-Pop albums are usually not that easy to find - they are usually not available in regular music stores and even in specialty stores it is hard to find your dream album at a fair price. Moreover, there is only a small selection in Germany, which is why fans tend more and more to other options.

Shops in Korea

An alternative to regular music stores would be to order from a Korean store. Here, the selection is much larger, but unfortunately there are a few pitfalls. shipping costs are relatively high - sometimes almost higher than the actual product costs. Another hurdle is the toll fees When importing from Korea to Germany, there are no customs fees for a purchase price including shipping costs of 22 €. From 22 €, however, you will be charged 19% import sales tax. From 150 €, depending on the type of goods, further customs duties will be added. In addition, customer communication is usually a bit more complicated. Also shipping shipping takes a little longer and there is a risk that the package could get lost.

Amazon & eBay

Of course there is also the possibility to order via Amazon or eBay. On eBay you can find mainly older albums and special editions. However, used albums from private sellers might lack the popular photo cards or similar. Another shortcoming is that products often arrive damaged to the customer when purchased through Amazon. Again, customer communication is not always ideal.

Online stores for the European market

Due to some of the difficulties that the other options present, there are more and more online stores for the European market that specialize in importing and distributing K-Pop products.

This is where Nolae comes in!

Advantages of Nolae

We have noticed how hard it is to get K-Pop products in Europe. Therefore, our mission is to provide all K-Pop fans with a straightforward purchase so that no stan will be disappointed.

We import directly from Korea and can therefore offer you a large
selection
Our Korean partners are all Hanteo Family members, so your purchase will be
purchase will be taken into account in the evaluation.
At Nolae we also try to cater to individual product requests and offer various K-Drama OST
CDs that are not available in other stores, for example.
You don't have to worry about hidden costs or dubious service providers - you only pay the
price you find on our site

Our packages are always shipped well protected so that your products arrive undamaged
Nolae offers customer service that is accessible via both email and social media - no
question goes unanswered!

But what exactly are the different charts all about? And what role do they play in the purchase of K-Pop products.

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The relevance of the charts

The so-called Hanteo as well as the Gaon Chart play a major role in the K-pop world and it is extremely important to fans that their order is included in the evaluation. Both album charts take into account shipped units of physical recordings, but look at them from different angles. But where exactly is the difference?

Hanteo Chart

In contrast to the Gaon Chart, the Hanteo Chart is a "Real-time Chart". The count is done in real time and not cumulatively over a period of time. The chart gets its data from Hanteo certified stores, which report their actual sales to the end customer. This data is also used in the scoring of the weekly music shows.

However, the results are not available to everyone, as full results are not published. To access the full results, you need a "Korean Social Security Number" and a paid membership to Hanteo. However, you can find a general overview even without a membership here.

Gaon Chart

The Gaon Chart was initiated in 2010 and provides an insight into the weekly best-selling songs and music albums in South Korea, which are included in the year-end evaluation - in the calculations of the award shows.

The Korea Music Content Industry Association obtains the data used from the largest online stores and stores in South Korea. The chart refers to sales figures from distributors worldwide, but these are often adjusted downward due to returns from resellers if they were unable to sell the singles or albums.

The Gaon Chart is similar to the US billboards. The Gaon Chart also has its own award show, the "Gaon Chart Music Awards".

You can find the results here.

Now some things should be a bit clearer for newcomers!

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