Hi everyone, I’m new here, and I wanted to hear you guys’ opinions on something.
So my wife and I are semi-casual k-pop fans, but there’s two groups we follow with dedication: Ateez and OnlyOneOf.
Now, obviously Ateez is a lot bigger than OOO, but we’ve noticed something we thought was both weird a little disappointing throughout our time of following these boys: the general quality of all of OOO’s stuff is a lot higher than Ateez’s.
We own lightsticks (all versions) for both, albums, photocards, some official merch, season’s greetings….
We first noticed this with the lightsticks in particular. Ateez’s give a very flimsy impression, the plastic seems cheap and like dropping it once would be a death sentence. Screwing in the batteries gives me anxiety that I will accidentally crack the plastic, especially so on the first version. OnlyOneOf’s lightstick is much heavier and sturdier, it feels like it would survive a drop or two, and just generally appears to be better made.
The same pattern continues in their albums, in our opinion. While Ateez’s albums seem fancy on first glance, we find that a lot of the photoshoots are very repetitive and the inclusions like stickers and such often feel like something you could get from AliExpress. OnlyOneOf’s photobooks seem a lot more varied in their pictures, and feel extremely professional. They have fewer inclusions but the albums are sleek, heavy and elegant. When holding them they feel valuable, and like something that was made with care.
This has, over time, led to us purchasing less and less Ateez merch because it simply doesn’t really bring us much joy holding it because it often feels cheap and flimsy, and instead we’ve focused a lot more on OOO’s merch which has yet to let us down.
Why is that? We thought that maybe, since OOO is a smaller group (nugu even, some might say), they have to produce less merch, allowing them to focus more on the quality of it. While Ateez have to cut their costs to put out significantly more merch. But simultaneously KQ is a lot more successful with Ateez, and considering the occasionally insane prices Ateez puts on their merch, the least fans should expect would be decent quality, no?
Have you made similar experiences, even with other groups? How do you feel about this, if yes? What do you think are the reasons for it?
submitted by /u/Happy_Hawk97
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