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Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Ordering My Golden Child AURA Albums from Kpoptown, Ktown4u, and Makestar

After almost a year of waiting and endless hints and reassurance from Golcha (with Jangjun's ment in Philly and again a spoiler on the Weekly Idol live), on July 27th, 2022 at 6PM KST Woollim finally released a comeback teaser along with new hashtags, a new Golden Child logo, and a comeback date of August 8th! Then on July 28th at 3:10PM KST Woollim posted album details, and soon after showcase details.

I was going to stop blogging about ordering albums, but of course I always have issues that I feel warrant a dedicated blog post >.<

For Golden Child's 6th mini album AURA, there is a limited version and a normal version. The normal version is the only one applicable for lottery events (showcase, fansign, video call, etc.). My plan was to buy a few copies of the limited version on Ktown4u, where I know I'll be guaranteed the preorder benefit posters, and then order the normal version through a video call event for that site's preorder benefit photocard. But I foolishly talked myself into ordering 4 copies of the limited version from Kpoptown, along with Bomin's Woollim Mall ID (because I am still not over my Bominitis). Just 30 minutes later I remembered that the Bomin ID is the same image as the random Bomin ticket from the Cinema Kit that I have >.< I had placed my order on August 1st KST and Kpoptown had a special where first press posters were free if folded, so I was happy at least that was guaranteed (as for the first press mini poster set...we'll see). Then on August 9th KST I received an email from Kpoptown stating that the ID was sold out and asked if I wanted my order shipped and refunded for the Id and remaining shipping fee where the refund will come shortly after shipment, or fully refunded. I chose to keep my order, which they acknowledged, and shipped out my order on August 10th yet I still haven't heard back on the refund despite messaging them via email and through their site. As an update: I received my refund and an email confirmation from Kpoptown on August 16th, a few hours after my package arrived.

And then with the announcement of Jaehyun and Bomin being on the next issue of First Look, of course I had to preorder it! So on August 7th KST, I ordered 2 limited versions of AURA along with a copy of the magazine from Ktown4u, but unfortunately by then all preorder benefits had run out.

As for the normal edition, I decided to preorder 9 copies from Makestar's first event (to anyone curious, I had wanted to apply for Bomin but figured my slim chance was slightly better if I chose Jaehyun).
All 3 of my packages were picked up by DHL on August 12th and delivered on August 16th. From left to right are Kpoptown, Ktown4u, and Makestar.
My Kpoptown package arrived with 4 copies of the limited version and 4 folded posters, and luckily 4 sets of the mini posters (though of course no Bomin ID). My Ktown4u arrived with 2 copies of the limited version. My Makestar arrived with the full set of preorder benefit photocards, 9 copies of the normal version, and 9 folded posters distributed almost evenly among the 2 versions; unfortunately it didn't come with any of the mini poster sets despite being included in the product detail image on the project page (and if you look at Makestar 2, both the mini poster set and posters are not included in the product detail image, so I don't know if Makestar just didn't remove the mini poster set from the image or forgot to send them out). Please go to the bottom of my post for an update!
Makestar has really improved their process! They put each pob photocard in its own sleeve, and then together into a clear resealable bag. They were also super generous in giving an entire set of all 9 members when purchasing 9 albums. It seems like they're aware many people would purchase 9 albums, so they bundled 9 albums together and then had the pob photocard set taped on top.
Here is the order my Makestar pob photocards came in.
Makestar is getting more creative with their pob photocards, this time being double-sided hand heart versions. Here is the front side.
And here is the backside, which are finger hearts.
The normal version comes with 1 random photocard out of 18 (2 per member). My normal version albums all had consecutive serial numbers except for the first (far left) one, so I wasn't sure how the randomization of my photocard pulls would be. Luckily it was pretty good, with only 2 duplicates of Bomin! And I was able to pull almost every member; it's like I could pretend that there was only 1 photocard per member and say my set is almost complete sans Y and Jaehyun...
Here is a closeup of my normal version photocards. I was so excited pulling Bomin's 3 times hehe~
The limited version comes with 1 random bookmark out of 9, and 1 random photocard out of 36 (4 per member). As for my limited version albums, 2 albums had consecutive serial numbers while the rest were quite different. I'm really pleasantly surprised that out of the 6 bookmarks I pulled, I only had 1 duplicate! I pulled Y, Seungmin, Donghyun x2, Joochan, and Bomin. As for the photocards, I pulled 3 of the same Donghyun >.<

I'll have an unboxing post on the AURA albums coming up, along with some magazine unboxings and more posts on the rest of Golden Child's US tour^^

Update: On August 22nd KST, I received a shipping notification from DHL that a Makestar package was on its way. My friend had contacted Makestar inquiring about the mini poster set, however that path fell short as Makestar wanted my friend to provide photo or video proof. I actually did have an unboxing video (a process I religiously follow ever since Summer Breeze with Eline...) but didn't want to use my limited luck on this, so I never contacted Makestar.
On August 23rd PT, I received my package! 
It was indeed Makestar sending out the preorder benefit mini poster set. They had made this mistake with Lee Sujeong's posters as well; it's really nice that both times Makestar still used DHL.
There was lots of room inside the box, but all mini poster sets arrived in perfect condition.

I still have lots of posts in my drafts, but excited to get them all published!

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