There is exactly 29 different Love Yourself: Answer photocards, that includes 28 regular and a single special card. With a little bit of effort you can collect all of them.
Love Yourself: Answer is the third part of the Love Yourself series of BTS albums after Her and Tear which were released in 2017 and 2018 respectively. It came out under Big Hit Entertainment on August 24, 2018 as a compilation album gathering the songs from the two previous releases.
There are four different versions of the album available - S, E, L and F. All of them contain - aside from the CD discs with the music - the photocards and some other interesting merchandise.
There is a total number of 26 songs available on the compilation album (that includes a special version of Idol featuring Nicki Minaj present only on the digital release). The majority of them come from the previous two parts of the series. The songs are really great to listen to. The first CD disc contains a solo of Jungkook titled Euphoria, Trivia: Just Dance (sung by J-Hope), the full-length edition of Serendipity (solo by Jimin), DNA, Dimple (sung by Jimin, Jin, V and Jungkook), Trivia: Love (performed by RM), Her (sung by Suga, RM and J-Hope), Singularity (solo by V), Fake Love, The Truth Untold with Steve Aoki (performed by Jimin, Jin, V and Jungkook), Trivia: Seesaw (solo by Suga), Tear (sung by RM, J-Hope and Suga), Epiphany (performed by Jin), I'm Fine, Idol and Answer: Love Myself. Idol serves as the lead single.
The second CD is composed of Magic Shop, Best Of Me, Airplane Pt. 2, Go Go, Anpanman, Mic Drop, the remix of DNA, the remix of Fake Love, and a full-length edition of the Steve Aoki's remix of Mic Drop. An alternative version of Idol featuring Nicki Minaj is also included.
With each of the physical copies you will get one regular Love Yourself: Answer photocard chosen randomly out of 28 versions, a photo book containing 116 pages full of wonderful pictures of BTS members taken during the promotional photo shoot (139 x 204 mm), 2 CD discs with seven new songs, a mini photo book selected randomly out of four different options composed of 20 pages (90 x 127 mm), and 1 sheet of stickers (185 x 120 mm). Additionally you could also get a single group poster added at random out of four versions. All of them measure 594 x 417 mm.
The Love Yourself: Answer photocards are categorized into four versions - S, E, L and F. Each of them showcases a little bit different concept and is composed of seven unique sheets, with a single member of BTS featured only once. That means there is a total number of 4 different sheets per each member of the band created for this release.
The L version is composed of seven photocards featuring the selfie pictures taken by the members themselves. They pose in a colorful attires on a red background.
Version E contains seven Love Yourself: Answer photocards depicting the members peeking out from around the corner. They have mischievious and cute expressions on their faces, and are wearing white clothes.
The third version, L, is composed of seven different photo cards, this time with the members as if they are posing for the ID photos. They are looking very neat and tidy in their school uniforms.
The last selection of Love Yourself: Answer photocards - F, showcases the members wearing a red blush on their cheeks. They are posing in front of a blue background, with some of them making various hand gestures. All of those photocards will be a wonderful addition to your KPop collection.
All of the Love Yourself: Answer photocards create an original image when connected on the backs, just as typical jigsaw puzzle. They have a rounded corners. The size of each of them is 54 x 86 mm, which is around the typical size you can find in the majority of currently released KPop albums.
Additionally to 28 individual member sheets, special photocard was also manufactured. It features the whole group sitting on a blue box, with a blue wall as the background. A similar one was previously released for both Her and Tear albums. This special Love Yourself: Answer photocard is not as rare as the one from the first installment into the trilogy. It is still available on numerous e-commerce website from some third party sellers. You can get it for a higher price than the regular cards, although it is much more affordable than its limited edition counterpart from Her. It's definitely worth buying if you are a collector and you want to own every photocard BTS ever released.
Love Yourself: Answer is one of the most beloved albums among the fans, along with both other parts of the series. During the pre-order period it sold more than 1.5 million copies breaking the record of its predecessor as the most purchased South Korean album before its official premiere. It reached number 1 on the Gaon Monthly chart with total sales of 1,933,450 copies. By the end of the year it sold 2,197,808 units becoming the biggest seller of the year. It reached number 14 on the yearly list in 2019, and number 49 in 2020.
The album was certified Double Million by the Korea Music Copyright Association.
The merchandise from the release, especially the Love Yourself: Answer photocards are valuable collectibles among the fans. They are always in demand since the most devoted fans are always trying to complete their collection. If they are missing a single card they try to spot it online and purchase it as soon as possible before someone else will get it. Sometimes they will simply swap what they need for their duplicates which is a little bit less expensive operation.
