Ordering My Golden Child Take A Leap Albums via Makestar

Golden Child is already making their second comeback of 2020 with fourth mini album Take A Leap, released on June 23rd. With COVID, Golden Child is offering video calls instead of the traditional fansigns. I opted for pre-ordering from Makestar here.

Makestar Details:

• Album sales through this project will be reflected as initial sales for Hanteo, Gaon, and Music Bank charts
• 30 winners will be selected to video call with Golden Child (about one minute per member)
• Application period (meaning pre-ordering) is from 2PM KST on June 12th to 11:59PM KST on June 23rd
• Winners will be announced at 6PM KST on June 24th
• Video call event is at 7PM KST on June 28th
• Winners will also have one of their purchased albums personally signed (they will sign using the Starmaker name you indicated at purchase); if winner didn't answer their call, they will also receive a member proof shot digitally
• Albums will be sent after the event
• Each album purchase counts as one chance to be chosen for the video call event
• You can only win the event once, even if you have multiple entries
• Each album comes with 2 random limited Makestar photocards (out of 10)
• There is also a PR event for applicants - leave a cheering message on the project page along with the link of you promoting this Makestar project on another platform. 20 winners will each receive a random member signed Polaroid

I'll go into how I decided how many albums to order, but first I need to break down the album inclusions (including Makestar's inclusion):

• A version and B version
• 1 special card (out of 10, same for both versions)
• 1 phone strap (out of 10, same for both versions)
• 1 remover sticker (out of 10, different for each version)
• 3 photocards (out of 40, same for both versions)
• 1 group poster (one design total)
• 1 special poster (out of 10, same for both versions)
• 2 Makestar photocards (out of 10, same for both versions)

My first thought was that Woollim has pushed their luck in trying to get me to collect everything, including FORTY PHOTOCARDS. But then I started to reason out, each album comes with 3 photocards, and there are so many other inclusions that it's totally doable to collect everything. Especially because it's a lot harder to buy inclusions through eBay now, and because as an international Ness I finally have a chance at an album event, it made sense to go all in this time (though looking back for Re-boot I ended up with 10 normals and 4 deluxes...that also felt like going pretty in).

So I made this spreadsheet based on Makestar's prices (all in USD)...

Sorry if the photo is hard to see. But basically the total cost per album dropped from $23 USD if buying 2 albums to under $16 USD if buying at least 12 albums. And if collecting all 40 photocards is the main goal, I'd have to buy 14 albums to have 42 photocards. And with buying 14 albums, I'd have 14 special cards, straps, and special posters, all out of 10. I'd have almost 3 full sets of the Makestar photocards. The only thing I'd be missing is 3 stickers of each version. Of course there is always a great chance for duplicates, but that's why trading exists~ Therefore I settled on getting 14 albums. And to my really pleasant surprise, two friends reached out offering their video call chances to me, so in total I placed an order for 18 albums.

Makestar's video call project was released just as Woollim released the album details, along with the Synnara video call fansign. So it was clear to me to buy from Makestar as it was much more international friendly and for the video call chance. But on June 16th My Music Taste also announced a global video call event, with their own set of 10 unreleased photocards. Here are my personal downsides of MMT if I were only to choose between Makestar and MMT:

• An English interpreter is included (this is probably a plus, but think of it that they'll be wasting the precious time that Golden Child could be staring at you instead)
• You can't choose which album version you'd like; it's random
• The event date is TBA
• The 30 winners are announced on June 30th, after Makestar's (a downside if you want your album sooner)
• Shipping is super expensive - the total came up to $35 for 1 album (no group or special member poster), $38 for 1 album (posters included) and $317 for 18 albums (posters included; as opposed to $276 from Makestar)
• If you miss your video call as a winner, that's it, whereas with Makestar you still get a member proof shot

The only upside of going with MMT is probably it is less competitive than Makestar's due to the late release date and significantly more expensive shipping.

The wait for my albums was tough, especially since I had to wait until after the event was over before Makestar sent out my order. But I figured that I should buy all my albums from one source for the best chance at the video call, and even if I don't win, the price was really good and the order came with the additional photocards and I could try to collect all the photocards from the same source.

Makestar announced the winners of the video call event and PR Polaroid event, and luck wasn't on my side this time. Makestar also updated the summary page by listing their 3 steps for delivery:

1. Order within the given timeframe 
2. After the project ends, Makestar will produce the limited rewards, taking 1-2 weeks on average (this is for pre-order projects, not funding projects)
3. Worldwide shipping starts

On June 25th, Makestar sent an email that production is complete and that the shipping process will begin after 11:59PM KST on the 28th. This email stated that you can also change your shipping address. As a note, prior to the winner announcement, Makestar also sent 2 emails stating that you can modify the comments section of your order if you need to change your video call info. On June 29th, the project page updated the status to "checking delivery information". On July 6th, the status updated to "reward shipping start".

On July 3rd, Makestar announced a second video call event that includes a different set of unreleased photocards. However this time the posters are not included. On July 22nd, Makestar announced an encore video call event where it would be 3 minutes with 1 member, and again a different set of unreleased photocards.

My friend and I did some research, and we found out that the posters are external. She ordered her albums from Kpoptown and chose "no poster", and she really didn't receive a group poster or special individual member poster. This is definitely different from Without You where the individual member poster was folded up and included inside the album.

On Wednesday, July 15th, I received an email from DHL stating that my Makestar package has shipped and is scheduled to arrive on Monday, July 20th. I have always had the best service and shipping time with DHL (usually I receive my package in 2 days), however I was disappointed that this time it took 5 days (or 3 business days); what was even more frustrating is that other American Makestar participants received theirs on Thursday or Friday, including my friend in the same city as me. For some reason my package took a detour to Hong Kong instead of coming straight to the US from Incheon. Regardless, I received my package on Monday.

The 18 albums came well packaged, with thick bubblewrap filling up all the space within the cardboard box.

Removing the bubblewrap reveals the first press posters at the very top, followed by 9 copies of one version and then 9 copies of the other version at the bottom, along with the Makestar photocards.

Please note that this is not an unboxing post - this is more of a recap of ordering from Makestar and my pulls. I'll have a more thorough unboxing post coming up!

Here's the order my posters were sent. While the individual poster and group poster are bundled together and are outside of the album, it's still randomized and Makestar wasn't able to give me every member.

Instead, I got 3 Daeyeol posters, 6 Jaehyun posters, 5 Jibeom posters, and 1 each of Tag, Seungmin, Donghyun, and Bomin.

Makestar bundled up 4 of their exclusive photocards per pack, so I received a total of 9 packs.

Here are all my pulls from all 9 packs. There were no duplicate within each pack for me, however my friend received 2 Jaehyun photocards within 1 of her packs. Towards the end I was getting worried if Jibeom would show up, and luckily he did~

Here are all the Makestar photocards, sorted by member.

Here is a closer look at the entire Makestar photocard set. As a reminder, this is for the first Makestar event; the second and third events include different sets of photocards.

Here are the backsides of the photocards. These cards are all glossy.

Here are how the albums were placed within my package, with some albums upside down.

All the inclusions are spread out throughout the photobook. It was really nerve wracking opening up each album; with so many albums coming from the same order, I was worried if the inclusions would all be duplicates.

I started with opening my 7 copies of Version B. After opening the first 2, I was getting really worried that all the cards would continue being the same. These both had the Joochan special card, Jangjun strap, and the same Daeyeol, Tag, and Donghyun photocards.

So instead I didn't open the third one (since I had 9 on hand, but only 7 were mine). So I opened the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 9th albums and these were my pulls.

I opened 7 copies of Version A, and luckily my pulls were a bit more diverse. I was a bit more strategic in choosing which albums to open; I ended up opening the 1st, 5th, 7th, 9th, 3rd, 2nd, and 8th.

After opening up the 14 albums, these were my pulls:

Special Card: Daeyeol x3, Y x2, Jangjun, Seungmin, Jibeom, Joochan x6.

Blue Sticker: Daeyeol, Y, Tag, Joochan x4
White Sticker: Daeyeol, Y, Jangjun, Seungmin x2, Jibeom, Joochan

Strap: Y x2, Jangjun x4, Tag x2, Jaehyun x2, Donghyun x2, Bomin x2

Photocard: (I'm not sure what the official naming convention is, so I'll make up my own)
Daeyeol A x3, Daeyeol B, Y A, Jangjun A x4, Jangjun B x4, Jangjun C, Tag A x4, Seungmin A x3, Jaehyun A, Jibeom A, Jibeom B x2, Donghyun A x6, Donghyun B x2, Joochan A, Joochan B, Joochan C, Bomin A, Bomin B x4

Well this has been a long post in the making! With lots of duplicates and lots of missing items means lots of trading ahead~ And again I will be blogging about unboxing these albums in an upcoming post.