Which shop’s most reliable? Trustworthy? Our Say.

Physical Stores

Everysing (Taiwan)
Address: No.34, 36, Xuchang St., Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City 100, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

 

Mystar (Malaysia) 
Mystar is located on the 5th floor of the Berjaya Times Square shopping centre in Malaysia. It’s right at the going up escalator on the KL Monorail Station side of the shopping centre.

It is run by a family and the store is usually kept by the portly, boisterous, and cool grandmother who is very much up-to-date with the latest k-pop (Not just merchandise) news. The clientèle includes the likes of Cassies, ELFs, SONEs, Triple Ss, VIPs, Hottests, and many more fanclubs that I can’t name. And not all of them are even Malaysian. Make no mistake, this small shop has had customers come from all corners of Malaysia, Thailand, and even Japan as the shopkeeper would tell you.

It sells anything and everything to do with all k-pop idols, including the non-SM produced items you sometimes see on the catalogue. Most of their carried merchandise comprise of items such as these as we all know that there are only so many “official” items that SME produces.  That doesn’t mean that they do not carry official products or “original” albums, though. It’s just that the amount of small, cheap, and perhaps lesser quality merchandise produced by subcontractors (They aren’t illegally produced, at least the Korean ones aren’t) far outnumber the official products (They have to, right?). As for official Entertainment company stuff, whatever they don’t have (Usually only applies to “hot cakes” and perhaps out of print items), they can order for you.

One additional thing to note is that they have methods of procuring autographed items and not just of SNSD. Expect to pay a premium for them, usually 1.5x to 2x of standard, unautographed price. And as the aunty will tell you, they do not have any methods to verify whether they are authentic or not. All they have is the word of their supplier Oppa (Yeah, I know, a grandmother calling someone Oppa XD) who swears by them. Even so, the autographs do appear authentic and as I have said many times before, even if they aren’t, at least they are well forged. =P

On the matter of Mystar prices, they aren’t necessarily the cheapest that you can find in Malaysia. However, many times, their prices are at least better than Yesasia and their albums always come with a free poster at no extra charge, unlike Yesasia. The good thing about physical stores like this is that you get to fondle examine the merchandise before paying your cash, even going so far as to exchange on the spot if your copy happens to have some shipping deformities (Well, if you ask nicely, anyway), something that regular Web customers would agree with me is always worth the extra dollar or ten you pay. The staff are always helpful and the aunty always has a good yarn to spin,  even spazzing with you if you want to. And if you spend RM100 on a single receipt (This is easy, btw) at the shop, you get a discount card that usually means 5% off of future album and non-poster purchases. Not much, but worth a mention, I guess.

— owa1985

Rong Bao Tong (Sydney, Australia)
This shop is located in Chinatown and recently started selling K-Pop merchandise late last year/this year. It is easy to find because the front window has recently released K-Pop posters stuck all over it and they usually play Korean music videos on their TV screens.

It sells official and unofficial posters. Unofficial posters are printed on photo paper and are A3 for $5 each. You can also pre-order albums from this shop. It doesn’t only stock K-Pop albums/singles but concert goods, photobooks and other related official goods. The quality of service varies depending on who is running the shop on the day. However, be careful because they also sell pirated items and sometimes they overprice things. The shop also stocks items including those related to Chinese music from Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc.

You can become a VIP customer too if you purchase over a certain amount of $ (not sure what the amount is). VIP customers receive discounts.

I do not purchase items from this store that often anymore. Personally, I do not like their service quality. In most of my experience, the staff are not very nice though recently the newer staff seem friendly. However, a good thing is that they offer pre-orders from albums and that’s how I ordered Taeyang’s Deluxe Limited Edition SOLAR Album. This was convenient because I didn’t have to hunt all over the Internet to get a copy of the album. I guess it’s worth visiting if you’re in Sydney because the shop stocks quite a lot of K-Pop merch and you can look at all the pretty posters. 😀

— iced_tea

Comics Connection (Singapore)
Comics Connection is located in many malls in Singapore, namely Plaza Singapura, Hougang Mall, Kovan City, White Sands Shopping Centre, ILUMA and Junction 8.

The products that are sold not only cater to Kpop fans, they also sell goods that accommodate Jpop fans and Taiwanese-pop fans. They also sell anime-related goods like manga and many others.

However, the outlets do not sell albums, so if you want to buy them, I suggest you try HMV or Popular (but take note that HMV takes some time to get the album in as they usually sell the Taiwan version. Popular sells the Korean version but you have to wait around a month before it’s available).  You’ll be able to find many unofficial merchandise related to Kpop idols. The amount of Kpop goodies they are carrying now has skyrocketed compared to last year because of the recent Hallyu wave that hit the city.

The goods they sell comprise of (from what I can remember) are: Poker cards, ez-link stickers, phone charms, name tags, socks, desk/wall clocks, laminated ez-link-sized photos, files, pens, notebooks, official and unofficial posters, calendars and many more.

I’m not very sure, but I think you can apply to be a member if you spend a specific amount of money in one receipt and if you are a member, you get a discount whenever you buy products from them. Correct me if I’m wrong though.

When I went back to Singapore during my summer holidays, I took the time to visit the outlet in Plaza Singapura. It was quite big; it was twice ~ thrice as large as the one in Junction 8. From my experience, the service there is really good. Whenever I wanted to see a product inside a cabinet (which happened a lot), the staff would open it for me without a sign of irritation. Also, I spent around $300 that day and after the staff scanned the items, he gave me a 5% discount (which I gladly accepted, lol) and I was very thankful for that. The only thing that I didn’t like was how they sold unofficial products instead of official ones, which meant that the $300 I spent doesn’t benefit my idol. D:

Edit (1 April 2011);
PS. Their products are madly overpriced, some people even call them cons. Well, I have to agree. The last time I went back to Singapore, I bought two ‘Oh!’ files (Jessica’s and Tiffany’s) for SGD 25.99. However, I recently patronized a shop here in Hong Kong and it sold for only HKD 15+ which is around SGD 3.00. So yeah, I advise you guys to not buy from them unless you have no choice.

– ityp

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