Inside the big business of boy paper, a booming sub-industry of the K-pop machine

K-pop photo card trading is a blood sport that's equal parts lottery and enterprise, and there's money to be made for record companies and fans.

• Seventeen's new album has been fueling a K-pop photo card trading frenzy.
• The variety of photo cards has spawned a booming market for trading and collecting.
• The cards' popularity come as K-pop companies' stock soars.

"I have your man," I typed at 1 a.m., my hands trembling with excitement. "Do you have Joshua on hand to trade?"

Joshua Hong's K-pop band Seventeen released a new album on May 26. That album comes with serious math for trading card aficionados: There are seven versions of the record, each containing four photo cards — that's 336 unique cards, or "boy paper," to collect. I wanted him badly enough to wheel and deal my way through a maelstrom of trading card listings.

My late-night obsession is a small sliver of the sprawling business of K-pop photo card trading, a blood sport that's equal parts lottery and enterprise.

Supply and demand

The pieces of boy paper I'm attempting to secure are highly desirable collectibles in the fandom, said Kay Koo, an expert in marketing and K-pop from Korea University. Fans buy copies of the same album, hoping to find their favorite card.

"They serve as tangible indicators of fan loyalty," Koo told BI.

"Some fans even purchase over 100 copies of the same album to collect every photo card produced for that release, humorously calling this practice 'collecting Dragon Balls,' referencing the Japanese manga where collecting all seven Dragon Balls summons a dragon capable of granting any wish," Koo added.

Jackie Ko, a proud Carat — the name Seventeen fans go by, à la Swifties — has amassed 3,300 cards since she started collecting in 2021. She buys albums, keeps most of the cards she pulls, then tries to trade duplicates.

Ko, who's based in the US, also looks for fresh pieces from online sites like Mercari Japan, Neokyo, and PocaMarket — or from her local K-pop store's photo card trading nights.

"The chase and journey of finding certain photo cards is thrilling in itself as well, and there comes a sense of achievement when said card is found, or when a certain collection is finally complete," she said.

Ko estimates she's spent around $25,000 on photo cards and albums. Some of the more expensive cards she owns are rare cards of Seventeen's leader, S.Coups — she's seen them being resold for around $400 a piece.

Kia Pastoral, who became a Carat in October 2022, has a growing collection of 368 photo cards. She goes on X to look for new pieces and relies on her friends in the Philippines for more local trades. Pastoral estimates she's spent around $600 on cards.

"I buy the albums not just for the photo cards, but also for the album itself and other inclusions," Pastoral said. "I definitely love the feeling of unboxing new albums and getting excited to see which member I pull."

Ko described the adrenaline rush from buying albums as "addictive."

"I don't think I would be buying this many albums if not for the photo cards," she said.

The high

I can relate to Ko and Pastoral's descriptions of the unboxing high. I bought five albums from a local K-pop store in Singapore for around $25 Singapore dollars, or $19.50, a piece.

Staff at two K-pop album stores in Singapore said new shipments of the Seventeen album came in just this week, and fans have been snapping it up.

Much like Pokémon card collectors, Carats like Ko and Pastoral keep their photo cards neatly protected in decorative card holders and a variety of A4 and A5 binders.

Both fans have brought their photo cards on trips. Ko, for one, says she doesn't leave the house for an outing without a photo card on her.

Fans and local stores can make money in the photo card resale market.

Listings on an online Singaporean marketplace range from $5 to $25 per photo card. K-pop shops in Singapore also sell exclusive photo cards for $15 to $20 a piece.

Merchandising is king

The photo card feeding frenzy is just one branch of the sprawling landscape of K-pop, with its seemingly infinite supply of boy and girl groups debuting every year. Seventeen has been around for 10 years, and their peers at parent company Hybe, BTS, are set to return this month in full force for the group's 12th anniversary.

Though K-pop stocks dipped in 2024, Goldman Sachs analysts projected in a June 5 report that "Mega IPs" — bands like BTS, that perform in stadium-sized venues — would continue to buoy the companies this year.

Concerts, albums, and merchandising are all part of the monetization mechanism for bands under Hybe.

In 2023, Seventeen, per statistics compiled by Goldman, notched an all-time high of 4.5 million albums sold in week one of release that broke the Grammy-nominated BTS's record of 3.3 million copies.

Photo cards aren't the only factor driving physical album sales.

"In the early years, fans used to buy more albums to collect additional photo cards. Nowadays, they often trade or sell them among themselves," said Stephanie Choi, an assistant professor in ethnomusicology at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

"There are so many different reasons for album purchase, and photo cards are one of the many reasons," Choi added. Fans may want to mass-buy albums to clinch spots at exclusive events or just to help their idols chart better.

Still, it's fair to say that Seventeen's fame isn't built on a house of cards.

"While photo cards are crucial for immediate sales, digital strategies and continuous online engagement are indispensable for long-term fan base growth and sustainable commercial success," Koo, the marketing expert from Korea University, added.

Hybe's stock is up 43% in the last year.