Have you ever wondered who was responsible for starting the photocard craze within K-pop? Discover its origin!
The famous photocards, which are small cards with photos of the artists, are one of the most popular trends within k-pop today. Typically, these items can be found in different places, such as inside albums, accompanying lightsticks, at seasons greetings, or even at official events being distributed as gifts.
As a result, photocards have become highly sought after items among fans, who tend to collect photos of their favorite idols and groups. To make the collection complete, admirers generally buy cards from other fans over the internet, or at in-person events — but anyone who thinks the values are low is mistaken.
Due to their wide variety and difference in production numbers, many cards become rare items, increasing their market value, reaching impressive values.
A great example is the photocard of Jungkookof BTS, for the Butterful Night Lucky Draw fan event, which is considered one of the most expensive ever sold. This is because, as reported by Koreaboo, an official card has already been sold for 3,213 dollars, a value equivalent to 16 thousand reais.
The high values can impress even the idols themselves, such as Yuqi, from (G)I-DLE, who, last week, saw a video of him reacting to the values of his photocards in a call with a fan go viral on social media. Look!
But, have you ever wondered how this huge fever came about? RECREIO tells you!
First photocards
Contrary to what many might imagine, photocards haven’t existed since the beginning of K-pop. In fact, these items only appeared in 2010, thanks to a memorable second generation girl group: Girls’ Generation.
At the time, the group was preparing to release their album “Oh!”, and they had the brilliant idea of including individual cards with images of the nine members accompanied by autographs and small messages, to try to attract more public attention and make people for them to buy physical media. Today, the items are also considered rarities.
The idea couldn’t have worked better, being responsible for the start of a huge craze in K-pop. Today, photocards have become mandatory items in every album. During an interview on the program “Hey, come here” Donghae It is Eunhyukby Super Junior, Taeyeonleader of Girls’ Generation, acknowledged that they were the pioneers of the photocard, and also revealed that, nowadays, the items are the most difficult part of preparing an album.
“There are many varieties of photocards nowadays. I opened an album and things were dropping. […] But we have to put our soul into them too. We really want to give good photos [aos fãs]”.
Check out the moment from minute 20:17!
Source: Recreio
