Fans find ATEEZ’s signed sold-out albums on resale at exorbitant prices

With much disappointment, ATEEZ's fans found the group's personally signed albums of ZERO: FEVER EPILOGUE being sold at shocking prices nearing $175. The prices were allegedly set by someone who mass-bought the albums and put them up for resale.

ATINYs took to Twitter to vent their frustration at the prevailing struggle of being unable to buy limited items due to scalpers’ mass-buying them. A constant chain of thought remains that these sellers only look to profit off the fans’ emotions by selling the same merchandise or album at multiple times the original amount.

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ATEEZ’s fan signed album put up for resale at 7x the original price: Fans discuss the mass-purchase guidelines

Recently, another case of mass-purchasing and exorbitant resale prices arose in the K-pop fandom. This time, it was ATEEZ’s fandom, ATINY who were on the receiving end of the crisis. Hello82 ran an exclusive, limited edition sale of signed albums of ATEEZ’s ZERO: FEVER EPILOGUE. As is with any famous group, especially with an exclusive signed album, it was sold out in minutes.

As some lucky ATINYs got their hands on them, some albums fell into the hands of resellers. A fan discovered a user claiming to be a fan themselves, reselling multiple albums at $175, excluding the $7.99 shipping. On the other hand, the original signed album from Hello82 cost only $23.95, which might have been around $50 with shipping.

ATEEZ 'ZERO: FEVER EPILOGUE' Limited Sign Album (Screenshot via Hello82 website)

The horrendous pricing had ATINYs lashing out at the user, who mass-bought the albums only to profit off of fans' love for the group. Some fans commented that the only way to break the circle is not to buy from them. However, a few of the albums were already bought by some people.

Moreover, the ATEEZ albums are being sold at unimaginable prices without the most significant inclusion, a photocard. Unlike Western or any other physical album, K-pop albums come with an array of inclusions which include a mini poster, stickers, photobook, standee, postcards, and many more things. Out of all, photocards are the most highly-valued collectible.

ATINYs found the added information even more baffling that the price was $175 without a photocard, which they figured the user would go on to sell for a high price too. On their website, a rare fansign POB (pre-order benefit) photocard of ATEEZ's leader Hongjoong was listed for $170.

These photocards can sell anywhere from $20 up to thousands of dollars. The most expensive K-pop photocard is BTS Jungkook’s Butter ButterFUL Fan event lucky draw photocard that sold for a whopping $3,213.

While upsetting, profiting off of K-pop fans is nothing new. Most recently, the same situation caused an uproar in the ARMY fandom when scammers purchased concert tickets and sold them at exorbitant amounts on the same website, Ticketmaster.

Additionally, people in the K-pop industry are aware of the value of their products and the high prices one is willing to pay to get their hands on limited or exclusive albums, especially photocards.

Though photocards are different from a signed album where fans had equal chances of buying them, many demanded websites put in proper laws and thoroughly monitor such events to avoid anyone from mass-buying limited edition items.

In other news, KQ Entertainment announced the cancelation of ATEEZ's tour due to the rise in COVID-19 cases.