앨범
Buying K-pop albums from overseas so they count toward the charts
해외 앨범 구매 — 차트 반영되는 곳
Where you buy decides whether your purchase is counted, what you pay in shipping, and whether you get the pre-order inclusions. Here is how to choose.
Real values, and a real warning: the name does not match the fan club record. That is the failure these guides exist to prevent.
Scope 적용 범위
Covers buying official physical albums and goods for delivery outside Korea. Does not cover resale marketplaces or unofficial merchandise.
Not yet walked end to end 직접 검증 전
Compiled from official announcements, platform help pages and press reporting, all linked below. Nobody has yet created an account and gone through this flow personally. Until that happens it stays a draft — the point of this site is being more accurate than the guides that currently rank, and claiming a verification we have not done would make us one of them.
Check the official announcement for your specific show before acting on any step.
This is the question that keeps running all year, unlike tickets — which is why it belongs next to them. And unlike tickets, it has a wrong answer that costs you nothing visible: your album arrives, it just was not counted.
Three things vary by where you buy: whether the sale is reported to the Korean charts, whether the pre-order inclusions come with it, and the real landed cost once shipping and customs are in. They do not move together, so the cheapest option is frequently the one that counts for nothing.
Step by step
단계별 절차
ㄱ Step 01
Decide what you actually want from the purchase
5 minutesChart contribution, the physical album, the pre-order inclusions, or the lowest price. These pull in different directions. Pick the priority before you pick the shop, because the shop is downstream of it.
Where this breaks
Buying on a general marketplace to save money and then discovering it did not count is the standard version of this mistake.
ㄴ Step 02
Check whether the seller reports to the Korean charts
15 minutesSales reported to the Korean album charts come from specific retailers and official stores. A listing being an official album does not mean the sale was reported. If chart contribution is why you are buying, verify the retailer is a reporting one before you order.
Where this breaks
Third-party marketplace listings of genuine albums commonly do not count. The album is real; the contribution is not there.
ㄷ Step 03
Order inside the pre-order window for the inclusions
10 minutesPre-order benefits — posters, extra photocards, event entries — are tied to ordering within a window, and often to that specific retailer. The window closes before release day, not on it.
Where this breaks
Retailer-exclusive inclusions are not interchangeable. Ordering the same album elsewhere gets you a different set or none.
ㄹ Step 04
Price the shipping and the customs exposure, not the album
20 minutesShipping from Korea can exceed the album price, and your own country's duty-free threshold decides whether you pay import charges on top. Group orders reduce per-item shipping. Work out the landed cost before you commit, and know your threshold.
Where this breaks
Combining several albums into one parcel can push the declared value over your threshold and cost more than shipping them separately. Run both numbers.
ㅁ Step 05
Keep the order record until it arrives
5 minutesSave the confirmation, the tracking number and the declared value. For anything that goes wrong — a damaged parcel, a customs query, a missing inclusion — these are what the retailer will ask you for.
Where this breaks
Korean retailers' support often works on order numbers rather than email lookups. Without the number the conversation is slow.
Questions people ask
자주 나오는 질문
Do albums bought outside Korea count toward the Korean charts?
Sales reported by participating retailers count, and that depends on the retailer rather than on your location. Buying a genuine album from a shop that does not report means the album is real but the sale is not counted. Check the retailer before ordering if chart contribution is the point.
Is a group order worth it?
Usually yes for shipping, because the per-item cost drops sharply. Weigh it against your country's duty-free threshold — a single high-value parcel can attract import charges that separate smaller ones would not.
Why are pre-order benefits different between shops?
Retailers negotiate their own exclusive inclusions, so the same album carries different extras depending on where it was pre-ordered. If a specific inclusion is what you want, you have to order from the shop offering it, within its window.
Sources 출처 · last checked 2026-10-14
If one of these has moved on since, the official announcement for your show is the authority — not this page.