My K-Pop Collection Two Years In!

Been over a year since I last took inventory of my K-Pop Collection, and as I hit two solid years of  Hallyu fandom, I thought it was time to check in again! Comparing it to my old list, there certainly have been a LOT of new artists I've gotten into, most notably Apink and Dal Shabet, groups that I've come to love as much as KARA and Girls Generation!

Well, this collection has certainly grown since it was just a handful of CDs in a wine crate!

The odd sixes of the albums made it impossible to store on my regular CD shelves so I eventually built custom sized shelving for the K-pop stuff, one year ago it took up three rows. now it's filled up all five shelves and I've GOT to expand more!!! As you can see, it's getting kind of crowded!

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Awesome Ace of Angels Arrival!

AOA albums Angels Story, Wannabe and Red Motion, with Bonus Poster

My growing love for FNC Entertainment Idol Group AOA (Ace Of Angels) reached the point where I knew I needed to get their earlier three mini-albums, and today my shipment of AOA releases Angels Story, Wannabe and Red Motion has come in!
  All three albums look really nice, and I’m particularly impressed with Angels Story- such an extravagant CD case- a hardcover photobook with die-cutout windows etc, so nice, and all for basically a single release! As far as bonus goodies go, you can't beat the RED MOTION CD- this one came with a beautiful poster of the girls lounging about sexily (basically the cover, but in color), and the album even came with a trading card featuring Yuna, very cool since she’s pretty much my second favorite member after ChoA!

Autographed AOA "Miniskirt" and :Moya" mini albums

As you may recall, I've already gotten their 3rd Mini Album MOYA(as the rock unit AOA BLACK) and their 5th Mini Album "Miniskirt, both whch I got as part of autographed specials, now with Angels Story (1st Mini), Wannabe (2nd mini) and Red Motion (4th Mini), I have them all!!!
Man, these singles are so great, I can’t WAIT til these girls finally get their own full-length album!

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My Favorite K-Pop Girl Group Rankings, Two Years In...

From an appreciation that started with KARA which blossomed out to a multitude of other acts, these are my top fifteen favorite groups right now… Though these acts may go up and down on my radar depending on comebacks and showcases, all fifteen of these artists are ones I follow religiously and get every release I can from them!

1. Girls' Generation

 2 f(x)

 3. APink

 4. Dal Shabet

 5. 4Minute

 6. Afterschool

 7. 2NE1

 8.Kara

 9. T-ara

 10. Rainbow

 11. Sistar

 12. Secret

 13. Nine Muses

 14. AOA

 15. Brown Eyed Girls

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An Unexpected Arrival- Autographed Rainbow BLAXX

  I'd avoided ordering any of my K-Pop goods from the MWave shop because the registration and instructions seemed so confusing to me, but when it was brought o my attention that they were having the girls from Rainbow BLAXX come in to autograph their latest album, I decided to blunder my way through the paperwork so I could get my hands of a copy!
 I've already got an autographed album by the entire Rainbow group, (their awesome album SUNSHINE) but their signatures seemed so rushed as to be almost illegible to my eyes (spent quite few hours trying to figure out whose signature was whose! I got Jisook, No Eul and maybe YoonHye, but the rest were only guesses, haha) so I was pretty keen on getting this CD, since it included my Rainbow bias Woori as well as Jaekyung, SeugAh and Hyunyoung. Maybe THIS time I'd get clearer autographs from them!

My Autographed Rainbow "Sunshine" Album

Well, I registered and put in that order, but the whole time I was worried that I'd filled in the MWave order form incorrectly, and as the days stretched into weeks without confirmation from Mwave, my doubts seeme dot be confirmed! I checked my Paypal account, however, and it indicated that my charge DID go through... but NO WORD AT ALL on the order itself.
 Weeks stretched into months, and by the 8th week, I gave up ever seeing the order. I figured I MUST have filled the order form out wrong somehow. I chalked it up to a learning experience (vowing NEVER to order from a site I didn't know much about again!) and made peace that it was a lost cause.
 Well, just yesterday morning, i got a note from the mailman telling me a package was waiting fro me via registered mail. I assumed it was my latest K-pop order, a big AOA catalog shipment, and I hurried down to the Post, dying to get my hands on those discs!
 When I GOT there, the clerk handed me a small envelope containing ONE CD album, and I GOTTA TELL YOU, I had so long ago given up on ever seeing that Rainbow BLAXX album, my first thought before opening it was "What the HELL could THIS be?" Disappointed that my AOA order hadn't come in yet, I tore open the package and had to blink TWICE when what I saw staring back at me was THE AUTOGRAPHED RAINBOW BLAXX CD!!! Well, WHADDAYA KNOW!!!

Autographed Rainbow BLAXX

 After hurrying home I took the hardcover Photobook out of its slipcase to gaze lovingly at its embellishments....and I gotta say for the record, I guess Rainbow just have bad penmanship when it come to celebrity signings...'cause these signs were just as scribbly and illegible as they looked on the Rainbow Album I had before! This time I can kind of make out Hyunyoung, but the rest...Hmmm. LOLOL!
  Ah well, it's still very pretty, and I can breathe a sigh of relief and call this CASE CLOSED!

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Orange Caramel and Apink Arrival!

Autographed Orange Caramel album "Catallena"

  Joining the ever-growing list of "K-pop Albums I already had but then an Autographed Special came up so I ended up buying another copy" comes the latest with Orange Caramel's "Catallena". This was even more frustrating at the time because the Autographed Special came out just hours after I'd ordered my "regular" copy, but as you can see, it was WELL worth it, because I now own an album signed by all three Orange Caramel Members, including Lizzy who's been one of my very favorite idols since the beginning!
Along with it came a very nice Orange Caramel drink coaster...  when the special said it would come with a coaster, I imagined a cardboard cutout thing, this coaster is of a higher wuality- almost like  mousepad material... Oh, and the trading card I got was Nana! Two copies of Catallena? NO PROBLEM!

APink "Pink Blossom" with Trading Cards

After weeks of watching my fellow APink fans (generally called “Pink Pandas”) all getting their PINK BLOSSOM orders in, MY package finally came, and though the CD itself is superb, with a hardcover photobook as usual, OH MY GOSH the POSTER that caem with the album is FREAKING BEAUTIFUL!!!!! Such high quality paper, too (seems to be some kind of photopaper?) WOW!

The official trading card I got was of Eunji, but they also included this double sided card with Naeun and Namjoo... So cool- even better is that since I ordered it during their pre-order special, the Poster came UNFOLDED and ABSOLUTELY FREE!! Hope they have MORE of these kind of specials, kekekeke 

APink Pink Blossom Poster.

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The AfterSchool Word Of The Day is "Mu-Mo"

 During interview promotions for their new Japanese album “Dress To Kill”, when asked what their favorite track off the release was, several members of Afterschool (including my bias, Lizzy) said they particularly liked the song “Lucky Girl” because it was a cheerful song, but added that it was only available on the “mu-mo” version. Mu-Mo??? What the HECK was mu-mo?
   Well after chatting with a few folks over at the Kayoforum Afterschool thread, I found out that this "mu-mo" referred to Japan-exclusive releases (mostly available through the Japan fanclubs) but some copies occasionally turned up on ebay and the like. As it was not only Lizzy and Nana’s favorite tune, but also a fun, bright, happy track, (and ya know I just LOVE pop!) I just HAD to have it!
   Luck was on my side as only a few days after I got my Deluxe Version of “Dress To Kill”, a dealer in Japan listed a few copies of the Mo-mu version of Dress To Kill! It was a bit pricey and I wasn’t too thrilled about buying a copy of an album I already HAD, but Dress to Kill was soooo, soooo good, having the Mo-mu version with Lucky Girl was going to be a cherry on the top! I ordered it, and in just a few DAYS, it arrived!

  Gotta say I was a bit disappointed by it only being a regular jewel-case CD (even though I already knew from looking at pictures of other mo-mu releases that they ALL come in regular jewel cases)…But upon OPENING the case, I saw which member version of the actual CD I got- and it was ONCE AGAIN none other than the Busan Girl herself, LIZZY!!!

Yes, Lizzy was also my random member trading card in the Deluxe Edition album, and when you consider even my Orange Caramel trading card was Lizzy, the Park Sooyoung Gods have truly been smiling down upon me these past few weeks, as ALL my random bonus goodies have been Lizzy!

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