[Ulidia]

Originally Posted by Collect Equity

So, Ulidia, I am curious if you were to take a poll of 20 kids in the neighborhood or at the soccer stadium, how many collect soccer stickers and if not, do they collect anything else that does let them feel close to the game (magazines, jerseys, etc.)?

My hypothesis is that lack of nostalgia from kids not collecting baseball cards today will lead to a dearth of baseball card collectors in 30 - 40 years. But because kids today collect stickers around the world (especially Panini WC stickers), that soccer cards will become more and more popular over the next 30 - 40 years.

Here in the British Isles, until today, the main soccer collectible has been the match program (programme) because it has related to a specific game. That has been the primary collectible because those kids attending games got one and kept it and those kids who weren’t able to attend wished they did.

Program collecting would be the closest UK sports comparable to baseball card collecting albeit much smaller values at the high end i.e. it still raises eyebrows when a program sells over $10k or equivalent.

However, program collecting is slowly declining - prices have been falling generally (or at best static for really top end items) for over a decade. More so, this will be significantly impacted by the increasing decision of clubs not to issue program for individual games - so fewer kids will get into the hobby. Ultimately, the match day program may, to some extent, go the same way as the daily newspaper.


Cards were collected in the past. Since Panini (and a number of rivals) made it big here some decades ago, cards were eclipsed by stickers as a collectible. Kids do collect Panini stickers but, in the 1980s and 1990s they sold much higher numbers than today. Interestingly, the attraction to Panini stickers here tends to be more from adults who did collect them and swap them in the prior generations.

To give you an example, my beloved Northern Ireland qualified for the 2016 European Championships, the first tournament they qualified for since 1986. It elicited excitement for many people of my age (heading towards mid 40s) because it meant we’d have Northern Ireland in a Panini sticker album for the first time since the 1986 World Cup. I’ve got completed 1982 & 1986 Panini albums because of the Northern Ireland team.

So there’s definitely a place for stickers / cards but, of the serious collectors over here (serious in terms of money spent, albeit generally modest versus US), they don’t want to spend their money on stickers or cards of players.