Our regular readers are probably thinking this post is Emma’s. You would be wrong. Niamh is leading on this one! As I am still a relatively new K Pop Fan, I’ve been busy working on all aspects of this post to inspire even one other K Pop Fan to challenge themselves in 2026! This post has been in the making since the beginning of January to track the Bubble Savings Challenge (the bane of our existence since January 1st, more information later in the post). While those of you who have stumbled across the Our Muchness Guide section of the Internet are focusing on what K Pop Challenges are being focused on? Three Challenges have been identified. Or, maybe you would like to know some options on where to buy merchandise to grow your collection? We got you!
To those of you who may not know me, Hi! My name is Niamh, my Mbti is ENFP (trust me, it explains my logic and personal goals of what I want to achieve in all aspects of this post). My Ult Groups are Seventeen and Stray Kids. Other favourite Groups: Big Ocean, Ateez, Cortis and KickFlip. My Biases in group order are:
Seventeen Bias Line: Woozi, Mingyu, Joshua and S Coups.
Stray Kids: Seungmin. (Editor’s Note: This realisation took her waaaaay too long. Just sayin’.)
Big Ocean: All.
ATEEZ: Yeosang.
CORTIS: James
KICKFLIP: Kyehoon
Ult Bias (making himself known to me since he came in like a wrecking ball in 2025): Seungmin (Stray Kids)
Soul Twin (aka the artist who’s character I am most like & see myself in a lot of their public actions): Han (Stray Kids)(Editor’s Note: Falls over flat surfaces? Check!!)
So, without further ado let’s dive into it!
Firstly, Niamh, where do you buy your K Pop albums and merchandise from? Excellent question! The best value for money is always at the forefront of a collector’s mind. Our Muchness Guide was fortunate to travel to Seoul, South Korea in September where, between the two of us, 43 albums were bought; paired with one Ateez Pop Up and one debut album drop – Cortis. However, as we all know trips to and from Seoul are expensive and cannot be our first preference on how to build our collections!
So, I unlocked a challenge last year on finding the best options for myself and our dear readers! After buying from a total of ten different stores in 2025 to assess version/ pob options, delivery, customs and stock choices the following was decided for 2026.
ALBUMS AND MERCH
Our number one choice for local store support. Reepop is an Irish owned online K Pop Store. Preorder additional items paired with the groups extensive list of versions can be found here. Examples include Seventeen Weverse Exclusives and Stray Kids Fans Store Exclusives all while stock lasts. They also have an extensive collection of albums from a wide variety of artists. Their stock of magazines is also pretty substantial too and they also stock select groups’ official merchandise. Reepop also organise a fantastic K Pop Convention that takes place once a year, we highly recommend keeping an eye out for their next convention in 2026! Our positive points here are that all prices are in Euro, free delivery within Ireland for orders over 80 euro paired with a wide variety of options. Rhi’s notes, that she includes in the order box, also always make me smile! Lastly, like many specialised smaller stores, they get to know their customers and include your preorder items to match your biases where possible!
A UK based online store who go live on TikTok every day to pack orders and interact with their customers. Their attention to detail to create a community among their customers is what drew me in paired with their infectious bubbly and friendly personalities. Their variety of POB preorder options is the best for any hardcore collector or, if you know a certain group’s POB option is always your favourite. They also have an extensive collection of Pop up merch drops and aim to work with their customers to fill in the gaps in their collections where possible. For European customers the delivery can be a little expensive (I order to Ireland) however, when you weigh up the availability of the items and the delivery and customs cost. It works out in your favour if you really want an item!
JYPFans
Emma’s the go-to for our Stray Kids Pop Up purchases in 2025. I swear, she deserves shares in JYP Entertainment at this rate! We have bought albums and Pop up items from JYP, what I recommend is to do your research to see if this works out in your favour. For example, my KickFlip collection (arriving later this week from Fans) contains versions of albums that could only be bought via Fans. For Pop Up Stores, sometimes the merchandise is cheaper to buy via Fans – this includes the delivery and customs. Or, like our Do It Pop Up Order, 5 of us ordered all together so, it should ensure we all get at least 1 PC, or possibly 2 PCs, paired with our chosen merch.
Honorable mention for events HMV Henry Street, last year we paired with HMV for ‘Hype Vibes’ CXM Listener Party and ‘Do It’ Stray Kids Listener Party. I bought one album per event, stock permitting – which wasn’t always the case. Moving forward whichever events we pair with HMV for, I will continue to buy one album at or after the event from them.
PHOTOCARDS
For PCs, we have two recommendations here:
UK based store that has a number of options per group. A mixture of older and newer PCs. Postage costs were the most affordable via the UK to Ireland route however, we only bought PCs from them.
Vinted
My addiction from October- January was to fill in the gaps in my collection. Especially harder to find albums. For example, I finished my Seventeen Japanese Albums collection for less than €35 including all postage charges for 8 versions of different albums. Mostly, an option for EU, UK and USA readers only. Please note, Vinted is region locked unless you are a member of Vinted Pro. Example for Irish Users we currently can primarily only buy from French and Irish sellers.
New Year? Assess how you would like to move forward in 2025 with your K Pop Collection. For me this was 5 steps.
Step 1: Identifying your groups…
It sounds simple, right? These are the groups you stepped into 2026 with. Maybe they were in your corner throughout 2025 but has anything changed? Have a long hard look at yourself and your music listening history and identify who is your Ult group or groups followed by a max number of groups you would like you to buy their items in 2026. Our Muchness Guide urges everyone to find new music with this in mind we would urge you to discover at least one new act in the genre of K Pop for 2026.
Like many K Pop fans, I listen to a lot more than my chosen four who I have listed below. Off the top of my head, at least eleven different acts make up my Spotify playlist. However, identifying which artists you are going to buy physical copies of in 2026 is the focus of this step! If your collection is getting cluttered with acts you no longer listen to maybe, consider selling or gifting those albums to fans who would appreciate them! (Editor’s Note: Try selling them on vinted then you can buy more PCs ‘for free’)
For 2026, my main collecting focus is currently on six groups with room for one more. Seventeen, Stray Kids, Big Ocean, Ateez, KickFlip and Cortis.
Step 2: Be a smart collector
An example of this can be given from what I learned during the Stray Kids ‘Do It’ drop… When your bias is looking AMAZING in all of their PCs do you…
A. Buy multiple copies of the same album in all of the forms to get ALL of Seungmin’s PCs
or,
B. Buy one copy of each version you would like and buy the rest of the PCs on Vinted and K Pop store website?
Option A sounds fun right? Especially when you have four friends looking for PCs also? My friend group is made up of the following Biases Bang Chan (x3), Felix bias and Seungmin (me). The group chat was on fire trying to figure out who needs what card especially, for the Units cards this comeback! However, when Hyunjin decides to haunt your pulls, I was reminded that it truly is the luck of the draw and to be glad of whoever turns up. Having said this, I did get rather lucky this time round and got four of Seungmin’s cards instead of primarily Bang Chan so, I got to keep my PCs this time round! (Editor’s Note: Or you can be like me, a Bang Chan bias, pulling Bang Chan in every album version except one.)
If you go for option B, especially our European Readers, please note to wait a little while as PCs are more readily available after the first month, this lines up when albums begin to arrive in Europe! Your decision really comes down to budget and what you can afford. 2026, I am hoping to do option B. The main reason is 3 versions of each box is taking up so much room on my shelf!
Step 3. Official and Unofficial Events
2026 is starting off slow for us here at Our Muchness Guide with holiday plans being non-existent as we wait on tour and festival announcements. With this in mind we have two official events to look forward to. Being a European Carat can be hard at times but I am grateful for Seventeen and Weverse offering selected concerts as live stream options! Sunday 25th January I have bought an online concert ticket for CXM tour – will I be bopping to Hype Vibes at 9am in the morning? Yes, yes I will! With no Seventeen or subunit concert in sight for Europe, this is the closest we’ll be getting to an in person concert that we know of in 2026 so I will take as many 9/10am concerts as I can!
The second is Stray Kids Dominate Experience in Irish Cinemas! Yes, you heard that right, Ireland made the list (full disclosure after the Do It listener Party Events, we knew Ireland would make the list!). I have contacted all Irish Cinema chains to get the full list for Irish Stay however, I am still waiting on some responses. To date – Cineworld, IMC, IMAX, VUE, Omniplex and ODEON have selected cinemas showing across Friday 6th to Sunday 8th February. Please note from experience the likes of Cineworld usually list the films one week in advance so, they may add additional screenings closer to the date. For now, you have a minimum of three counties per province of Ireland showing the DominATE Experience. Freebies at the ready!
For Unofficial Events, these are events run by fans, Music Stores or K Pop Store Pop Ups to enhance the K Pop experience and create opportunities for fans to meet and buy items for the group/act in question. For 2026, our aim is to liaison again with HMV Henry Street, Dublin for a number of events (see more in New K Pop Challenges) however, the first event I am hoping to attend in 2026 will be in the UK for TOKKIPOP Pop Up for Ateez new album Golden Hour part 4!
Step 4: Tour Time
There’s not much to say on Step 4 Tour Time for 2026 just yet! Mine and Emma’s focus for 2026 is to either attend another Stray Kids concert or our first Seventeen or Big Ocean concert. As we sit and wait patiently while saving, we have started a 2027 Korea Holiday fund again (Editor’s Note: And a very healthy Carat Crash Out Fund for the moment when Seventeen decides Europe exists). In the hopes of visiting the historical sites we didn’t see last year and hopefully linking up with a concert or album drop!
Step 5. How to fund your love of K Pop
As an older K-Pop fan, the biggest challenge is having the funds to afford exactly what you want from every comeback drop or exclusive Pop up merch. However, as a responsible adult it is important to have a plan in place to spread out the costs!
Currently, on TikTok there has been a negative vibe going around about 30 year old+ K Pop fans. I would like to remind everyone that people of all age groups are welcome in the space of K Pop and to those of our younger fans who think this… Remember your elders who have the money to create hundreds of freebies for you to enjoy at concerts and buy a number of albums per group to aid the numbers that Management Companies look at to plan tours! You’re welcome *winks* (Editor’s Note: Plus, those of us with the money who decide to spend it on stupid amounts of albums and merch, encourage companies to make more products available for purchase because sales numbers go up. And if sales numbers go up in a region, it means tour dates, or extra dates, are more likely to be added as well. And that’s a good thing for everyone involved.)
For 2026, after a lot of reflection the Bubble Fund Challenge was born….
New K Pop Challenges
Challenge 1: The Bubble Fund Challenge
(Editor’s Note: Essentially Niamh and I in a nutshell. If I could have used a Lee Know/Bang Chan gif I would have. Niamh is Bang Chan in case you can’t guess. Niamh is always Bang Chan.)
First, can we just appreciate the gif above. I honestly think if either Seungmin or Bang Chan (Editor’s Note: Please don’t speak that into existance) came across his post and found out about the Bubble Fund Challenge, I feel like this gif would be their reaction before dropping content left, right and center to force us to put more money into the fund! What is the Bubble Fund I hear you ask? It is a K Pop Savings Challenge inspired by bennetts.bias on Instagram. The idea of this challenge is to save a certain amount of money weekly that can be used for K Pop related expenses only. Bubble is used by JYP Entertainment Groups, for me I have Seungmin from Stray Kids Bubble Subscription while Emma has Bang Chan’s Subscription. *please take a moment to giggle at the fact Bang Chan decided to do his 2025 photo drop on January 6th, where Emma had to put €5 per photo into her Bubble Saving Fund* (Editor’s Note: and €10 per gym related photo. There were sixty nine – 69, Christopher! – photos and one gym photo as well. It was an expensive saving day for me.)
The aim of the challenge for me is the savings must cover the monthly subscription cost first with all additional savings going towards K Pop purchases. Thanks to the Bubble Savings this month, I was able to buy Ateez Golden Hour Part 4, DominATE Celebrate Merchandise and some additional Vinted purchases free from guilt!
Breakdown on how much to save per item: (as a Seungmin bias)
Daily Message/Message Thread: 2 euro
Mentions the Weather: 2 euro
Bubble Pic/Video: 3 euro
Hair Change: 3 euro
Mentions Spoilers Event/Album: 5 euro
Tells Stay what to Eat/Eat Well: 5 euro
Appears in member’s content: 5 euro
Instagram Post: 5 euro
Song by/ Cover: 10 euro
Seungmin voice only/Lo-Fi Live: 10 euro
Challenge 2: Unofficial Events and Supporting Official Events
Making the most of events this year is going to be a big challenge. Ireland is an incredibly small country when stacked up against the rest of the world for comparison. However, we are fiercely loyal. We get wind of a cinema or in person event for one of our favourite groups (or one we recognise), we turn up! The rule of thumb amongst many of us is if we turn up and create space opportunities will arise! Hoping to travel to Northern Ireland at some point this year for one of their K Pop Club Nights or Pop Up events (Editor’s Note: and GONG CHA!) this year is high on my list of challenges. Paired with thinking outside the box on how to run Pop up events with HMV this year!
Other opportunities for travelling may arise with the likes of TOKKIPOP Pop Up Event for Ateez and London based birthday event Pop ups. With flights staying relatively affordable between Ireland – UK and Ireland – Amsterdam it may be an option to tie into holidays for this year!
With the ethos of supporting K Pop events in Ireland, my friend Hannah and I are also attending the Unofficial K Pop Demon Hunters and other acts concert in May of this year. Are we 100% sure we are going to be surrounded by children and teenagers? Yes, yes we are, however, we are going to make the event fun for ourselves and ensure the next generation of fans get to enjoy the freebie culture. Who knows my Stray Kids and Seventeen light sticks might get a night out for once too!
Challenge 3: Dance Challenge
Last year I decided to go back to dance classes, I’ve been loving it! I would argue it was the best decision I made in 2025! Many K Pop fans know each music video that an act drops, there is a new cool dance routine attached!
This year I am challenging myself to learn at least one new K Pop Dance Routine! For January, this challenge sees ‘Worth It’ CxM being perfected along with ‘Do It’ Stray Kids new dance performance from the Golden Disc Awards. Hopefully I will stick to this challenge and have at least twelve new dance routines under my belt by the end of the year!
That’s it for my New Year K Pop Challenges in 2026, I hope this post has inspired you to sit down and make your own fun plan for K Pop in 2026! Let us know which comeback or concert you are looking forward to this year!
Our Muchness Guide 
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