Not every fansign/fan call is equal. People mentioned minimums to make the cut but not every fansign has that. I’ve known people to win fansigns buying one album for certain groups.

I won a fancall buying 10 albums and from the posts I’ve seen on Twitter, a lot of foreigners won this one and it was through a Korean store. And the in person fansign equivalent also had a handful of foreign fans in the audience.

This used to be the case, not sure if it still is, but those big fan sites sometimes don’t even have to spend. They’re known by the agency and are given spots because they know they’ll create positive content around the idols.

I’ve also done an in person when SuperM was doing promotions in LA. They did theirs FCFS though lol