how come 2nd gen ifans didn't buy physical albums?

Fandoms just weren't as competitive when it came to physical albums. It all changed when EXO came along and started the 3rd gen that it started to matter again

EDIT: Didn't realize you were asking about ifans.... In that case I would say its due to the fact that there weren't many options to pick from to buy your kpop albums and albums being resold were always more expensive

it was hard as fuck and expensive for shipping. i was a sone in 2009, and the thought of buying physicals was basically 0.

and shit like twitter barely existed for mass buying, so it was all sketchy forums that organized it

Beck then you try buying an extremely overpriced album (X3 or x4 the normal price) from a either abroad website only or from very very select local music shops.

There were a few shops in my city where you could buy albums which was cool. Buying online was a bitch though

I don’t live anywhere civilised or somewhere that sells K pop to buy an album and I don’t order things online. I prefer to download my music.

It's hard to make pre-order back in the day even though the internet exists. The company also doesn't focus much on selling online, I think only SM dominate physically at that time. It,s also hard to find a trustable seller, even if he/she is trustable the price is high as fuckk! I can use the money for 1 month worth of food.

I think K-pop wasn't as wide spread as it is today, additionally buying options were less easy for ifans than they are today.

I wasn't a k-pop fan back then but I guess even though there was internet, there wasn't an option to buy albums online.

You would have had to buy them from stores. Distributions for kpop albums outside Asia started in 2017 when ARMYs demanded for album distributions to the company as well as the stores.

Also the reach of k-pop wasn't as big as it is today so even if international distributions would have been a thing, I don't think it would have been as impactful as it is now.

It was so hard/expensive to get albums also shipping was expensive.

Banause I was a little girl back then who don't have money

shipping

lack of retailers

expense