I’ve discovered over time that one of my criteria for K-Pop Albums when deciding which albums get a high ranking on The K-Pop Hero is based on the number of goodies that they have, and how unique those goodies are. Today, I am going to go through 8 albums in my collection of 449 albums* that have a high number of “goodies” or extras that make the album extra special.
Something that I would like to mention before we get into the albums is that you will notice that many of these albums are more recent. This is because albums being packaged with a bunch of extra items is a more recent trend in the K-Pop industry. Back when I started listening to K-Pop, the albums were far more simple, and more on par with the Red Velvet Bad Boy Album. Since most people don’t purchase CDs anymore, these albums have now shifted into being more like collector’s items than albums.
If when you are picking out albums, you are looking for the most “bang for your buck”, keep reading to find out which albums could get you the most out of your money.
*Author’s note: This number of albums is constantly increasing, and is definitely higher now than what is written here. I have to try very hard to keep track of all of my albums to the point I have an aggressively organized spreadsheet.
EXO Obsession
I feel like I talk about this album in a number of posts like these. I know I talked about it in my 10 K-Pop Albums that are Worth the Money | 2021 Edition. It is too good of an album to not talk about all the time. This album comes with all of these things:
- CD
- 6 Member Photobook (about 30 pages each)
- Lyric book (about 30 pages)
- Smaller Folded Poster (1 of 6 versions)
- Larger Folder Poster (1 of 7)
- Photo slide (1 of 6)
- Photocard (1 of 12)
- Box holding everything
I love that the album has photo books for every single member. It gives all 6 of the men who were present for this comeback (Xiumin, D.O., and Lay were not present) their moment to shine. Plus, it comes with 2 posters of different sizes, which is very uncommon. Most of the time, you have to order the posters separately or pay extra to get them. If there are extra posters, I don’t order them because I don’t have wall space. I only have a small poster of Jonghyun from SHINee up on my walls. You will never see him in videos because the poster is behind the camera, watching me as I film.
You can see in more detail what comes with this album here. If you are interested in picking up a copy already, you can get one here.
BTS Be Deluxe Edition
Out of all of the BTS albums I own, The BTS BE Deluxe Edition is probably the one with the highest number of goodies. This is another album that I talked about in my 10 K-Pop Albums that are Worth the Money | 2021 Edition. Yet again, this is an album that doesn’t skimp out on the goodies and has a lot of exciting things in it.
These are all the things in the album:
- CD
- Photobook (2 included concepts, 192 pages total)
- Making Book (32 pages)
- Lyric Poster
- Photo Card (8 total)
- Polaroid Photocard
- Postcard (7 total)
- Poster
The only downside to this album is the cost of it. It isn’t the cheapest album, but there is a lot with it. If you want a glimpse of the album before “biting the bullet” and purchasing a copy, you can see everything that comes with it here. If you have already picked up that bullet, put it in your mouth, and are ready to swallow it, you can pick up a copy here.
NCT NEOZONE
When it comes to packaging and having extras for the fans, NCT really does a lot. They consistently have extra photocards and stickers. The NCT Neo Zone album is a perfect example of this. Although I do have the T Version as well (not included in the post), the N&C Versions comes with the following:
- CD
- Photobook (60 pages)
- Lyric Book (20 pages)
- Postcard Pages (36 pages)
- Sticker sheet
- Folded Poster
- Photocard (1 of 9)
- Circle card (1 of 9), or as I call them baby coasters
- A sleeve that holds all of it together
Although it isn’t currently posted, because it was released after N&C and the post for the album went up, the T version of the album includes even more extra things, including more stickers, a larger photo book, Although I have to store the 3 versions separately at the moment due to space and the T version being twice the height of the N&C versions, they are all amazing and worth the money.
If you want to see more photos from the album, you can do so here. If you are already thinking you need a copy, you can pick a copy up here.
TWICE Eyes Wide Open: The Second Full Album
When TWICE comes out with a new album, they always include lots of extras with their albums to entice fans to get the album to collect photo cards, and like Pokémon, Try and Catch ‘Em All. TWICE has actually been incredibly consistent with their packaging since some of their first albums. Although the album photo books vary in physical size, they usually include similar extra content (including pre-order benefits). This is a quick list of what came with this album:
- Things that come with the album:
- CD (1 of 10)
- Photobook (88 Pages)
- Message Card (1 of 9)
- Lyric Folded Poster (1 of 9)
- DIY Sticker
- Photo card (random 5 of 100)
- Only 90 albums: Polariod
- Pre-order Only:
- The Most Card (shiny card)
- Photocard (1 of 3)
The extra content that comes with TWICE albums is always quite good, so you would be fine picking up any of their albums.
If you want to take a closer look at this album, you can see what is with it here. If you already know you want a copy, you can pick one up here.
GOT7 Breath of Love: Last Piece
GOT7’s last album before they left JYP Entertainment, although a bit sad since it was their last release, was full of goodies. GOT7 is another one of those groups that always adds lots of extras, especially if you get the pre-order. With Breath of Love: Last Piece, you get the following things:
- CD
- Photobook (72 pages)
- Photo Card (2 of 49)
- Mini Folding Poster (1 of 7)
- Moment Film (1 of 7)
- Pre-Order Only:
- Message Ring (1 of 7)
- Postcard Set (2 versions 7 photocards)
- Color Polaroid (1 of 7)
- Poster (1 of 5 – I opted out)
If you can find a copy of any GOT7 album, I highly recommend you get them, as I don’t anticipate that they will be reprinted any time soon, since the group departed their agency.
If you want to take a closer look at the album, you can do so here. If you know that you want a copy, you can pick it up here.
ATEEZ Zero Fever: Part 1
I cannot have a list of groups that have lots of goodies in their albums without including ATEEZ. This is a group that their packaging setup makes you keep saying “Wow! There’s more in here?” The packaging will take you a minute to get through and find the CD at the bottom. Although most ATEEZ albums offer something similar, I picked this one because this is the first album where ATEEZ switched from square to rectangular packaging. These are the things that come with this particular album:
- CD
- Photobook (112 Pages)
- Box
- Sleeve
- Sticker Sheet
- Postcard Set (9 Each version)
- AR Photocard (1 of 16)
- Limited:
- Poster (I opted out)
- Polaroid (Seems like there was a limited number)
Yet again, you would get this amount of stuff with all of the ATEEZ albums that came out up to when this was published.
If you want to see more of what comes with this album, you can see it here. If you are interested in picking up a copy, you can do so here.
NCT 127 Limitless
Out of all of my K-Pop albums, The NCT 127 Limitless mini-album is the one that borders on the most excessive. SM Entertainment went above and beyond on this one. This album comes with the following:
- CD
- 116 page word/lyric book
- Folding poster, with the members seperated
- Folded poster (9 versions, one for each member)
- Crap ton of stickers:
- 3 red black and white silhouettes (17 versions)
- 1 outline sticker (1 version)
- 1 full group photo sticker (3 versions)
- 3 colorful member outline stickers (9 versions)
- 1 head sketch of a member sticker (9 versions)
- 9 stickers of the members heads
- 1 big full photo sticker of a member (9 versions)
- 1 sticker sheet of photos drawn by members (9 versions)
- 9 small full photo member stickers
- 1 sheet of letter stickers
- 1 limitless postcard (14 versions)
- 10 Photo set (3 versions)
Honestly, this is probably one of the most excessive albums in my collection because when you open it up, you wonder how SM was able to fit this much in the envelope.
If you want to look into what comes with the album, you can see more here. If you want to pick up a copy, you can get one here.
iKON i Decide
iKON is another one of those groups that has upped their packaging game recently. Over time, their packaging has gotten more and more extravagant.Their i Decide release, has the most extravagant packaging to date. It includes the following:
- CD Photobook (96 pages)
- Folding Pack
- Accordion postcard (14 pages)
- Flipbook (60 pages)
- Selfie photo card (1 of 6)
- Random 4 cut photo card (1 of 6)
- Graphic Sticker
- Reversible Poster (I opted out)
On top of being more extravagant packaging, this album also has a really neat, artistic feel to it.
If you want to take a closer look, you can do so here. If you would like to get a copy, you can do so here.
Conclusion
All 8 of these albums are excellent, and I can guarantee you there will be a part 2! I have so many albums, and so many more that still have yet to be posted on my blog, many of which have lots of goodies!Also, I know that this post only has 1 female K-Pop group in it and that is for a couple of reasons:
- It seems like male artists expanded what they were offering with their albums later than male groups. I cannot say why for sure, but part of it could definitely be due to fan group buying habits. If a group is guaranteed to have more album sales because of the fandom’s buying habits, they may be more willing to add extras, and add a few dollars to the album to increase profits.
- The female artists that did have packaging with lots of goodies, such as HEIZE Wish & Wind and Red Velvet Summer Magic were special editions and cannot easily be found anymore. I purposefully am not including albums that could be hundreds of dollars in this list.
- Other artists that I wanted to include in here were included in my 10 K-Pop albums That Are Worth The Money | 2021 Edition that was posted a few weeks ago. I know I repeated one in this list, but that’s it.
- There are a few albums that I would have included in this list, but are not up on the site yet, and I didn’t want to delay Part 1 any longer, so I worked with what is already published.
What albums do you think are over the top and extravagant, K-Nuggets? Let me know in the comments below!
사랑합니다!
–Rachel
