Got, Got, Not Got, Got.
Some notes on the unparalleled joy of collecting sporting stickers and cards.
Got, Got, Not Got, Got
The other day I found myself in the supermarket perusing the newest edition of Panini Premier League collectible cards for this season. I realise that at 39 years old I should probably be way past this stage but I must clarify this situation by saying that the reason I was looking was as a prize for the children at my work. Or so I told myself anyway, but realistically I definitely still wanted them for myself.
I ended up buying a few packets and taking them home. Sitting there with them on my lap on the couch transported me back to my childhood instantly when card or sticker collecting was one of my favourite pastimes. There was nothing quite like peeling open the edge of a packet, waiting nervously to see what gems you would find inside and, even better, if you would get a glimpse of a shiny.
By the time I had opened my new packets, I had already made a decision. Any of the standard cards would go into the prize box at work (barring any Liverpool ones of course as I couldn’t part with them) and any special ones would be kept as an ‘investment’ in case they were actually worth any money. In reality, I think they just looked so cool that I couldn’t bear to let them go.
I now find myself actively using my rapidly decreasing willpower not to go past the collectibles section every time I go into the supermarket as I know that I will inevitably spend again. I think that what I am really waiting for is for my own son to be just a little older so that I can start collecting properly again under the pretence that I am doing it for him.
In the past, I have talked about how my love of professional wrestling really kicked into full gear when I started collecting the cards featuring the stars of the squared circle but, for a while, I collected a bit of everything, from stickers featuring TV’s Gladiators to Pogs and GoGos. Anything that was bright, colourful or shiny and could be ticked off a collectors list was always appealing to me. I was an advertiser’s dream consumer.
My biggest obsession of all though was always football stickers. The first time that I really became aware of these was just after my 7th birthday in May of 1992 when my Grandpa had ordered me a subscription to Roy of the Rovers comic from the local newsagent. A few issues in and I was presented with one of the many ‘free gifts’ that were given away with magazines and comics of the time - a sticker book for the upcoming Euro ‘92 tournament and some stickers featuring the best that Scotland and England had to offer.
I had really begun to get into football over the year prior to this after moving up to Scotland as all of my new friends were absolutely obsessed. Every playtime and lunchtime was spent out on the field putting jumpers down for goalposts and kicking a ball around. Much hated were the days when it had rained a little bit and the dreaded red flag was put out on the field meaning that we were not allowed to go on and play. I slowly began to get my head around the main players of the local teams and understand the pecking order in Scottish football.
As the Euro ‘92 tournament drew closer, I received more free stickers from the comic and carefully added them to my album. I never completed this album (one of the main reasons being that none of my friends seemed to be collecting that time) but that didn’t matter. I was happy enough just looking through the pages and studying the names of the different players and the often strange sounding clubs that they played for. Even at that point, I was desperate just to soak up as much information (data) as possible.
Following this came the sticker collection for the Scottish Premier League, and this time my friends were collecting too. Each week I was desperate for Friday to come as, if I had done all that was asked of me, my reward was some packets of stickers after school. I sat there in wonder as players like Duncan Ferguson, Alex McLeish, Ally McCoist and Davie Cooper took their rightful places in my sticker book. I was always desperate to get them stuck in as neatly as possible and, at that age, sometimes I had to rope Mum in to assist with this. During this stage, I think she could go through the entire Dundee United first eleven as easily as I could!
The best thing though, even better than getting the packets, opening them and sticking in the stickers, was getting to the playground at school early on the Monday morning with my duplicate stickers (doublers) at the ready to find someone to swap with. Scattered all around the concrete you would see clusters of young boys (girls just genuinely didn’t seem interested at that time) huddled over piles of stickers, rifling through with the endless chorus of ‘Got, got, not got, got,’ and trying to find their next piece of missing treasure.
Budding businessman were made of us all, haggling over which players were ‘worth’ the same as others (was Richard Gough really as valuable as Mo Malpas?) and how many normal stickers would need to be given over for a shiny. It was a ruthless business and one that you always drove the hardest bargains in. Every child will have a story of a deal gone wrong and I still vividly remember the day that I lost a big portion of my Euro ‘96 doublers on a silly bet when a friend of mine’s Gogo landed closer to the wall than mine. Tens of valuable commodity handed over in one fell swoop. Remember kids, gambling doesn’t always pay off!
Many years later, during Euro 2016, my classroom turned into a trading shop during lunch times where children would come and barter. I had started up a ‘class set’ (yet another excuse for me to collect myself) and spread the word around the children that there were doubles willing to be traded. Hordes of children came weekly and plonked themselves around my room, checking their own doublers against my list of needs and wants and then trying to get a deal from me. I must say that in this case I was a little more generous with my swaps than the younger me was in the playground.
I completed that Euro 2016 set though (and far cheaper than if I had just had to have kept buying packet after packet) and I completed that Scottish Premier League book back in the day too. Last year I was rooting around in my attic for something and I came across it, a little faded around the edges now but still absolute perfection to me. It was nestled in amongst a pile of other sticker collections I had gone through over the years, mostly from the major international tournaments (ranging from 1992 to 1998 - peak collecting years) but also some other Scottish and English league editions, both from Panini and competitors Merlin (never as good in my humble opinion).
There were also some more eclectic collections that I had begun but never finished (usually triggered by another magazine freebie) and the most special of all of these were definitely the ProMatch cards where footballers were drawn in beautiful caricatures that I spent hours trying to copy as a child.
As an avid collector, I have of course kept everything in as close to pristine condition as I can and I spent hours perusing through these wonders, drifting back to memories of a more simple time when who the next sticker or card that I would get was all I really had to worry about. And I guess that is the beauty of collecting in the first place, a snapshot in time of both the players themselves and of our own lives.
In recent years, I have tried to satiate my appetite for stickers and cards in a slightly more ‘grown up’ way by asking for vast hardback editions of full collections so that I can peruse at my leisure. Due to this I am now the proud owner of reprinted editions of every World Cup sticker album from 1970 to 2018 and every Euros from 1980 to 2020. I also have two wonderful editions of the UK Football sticker books ranging from 1978 to 1993 which has given me even more data to dive into. They still don’t compare to the real thing though.
The joy received from looking back and remembering is unparalleled for me and the feelings brought back are most definitely of the warm and fuzzy variety. On that note, I might just go and make a visit to that collectibles aisle of the supermarket!