Having looked through previous threads I haven’t come across any that mention soccer cards, If I’ve missed it then please link below.
Anyway I think there’s huge potential in these right now with Panini now having the rights to the English Premier League and pursuing other avenues to get the Champions League so the likes of Messi, Mbappe etc, could eventually become annual panini regulars rather than waiting for world cup years or reverting to stickers. Some of the prices on Messi/Ronaldo in particular are already in the thousands…
What are everyones thoughts on soccer cards? Any collectors on here and if so what are you collecting?
I fondly remember collecting Panini football (yes, that is the proper name of the sport) cards from world cup 94 and euro 96. Although I love football, being a Liverpool fan, I do not have any interest at all in collecting football cards as an adult. Would rather have shirts or other merchandise to show support for my club.
It is funny that american sport cards of disciplines such as american football, hockey and baseball that are irrelevant outside north america are so big over there, while the greatest and most popular sport in the world does not seem to have a comparably strong international collector base. I think it has to do with tradition and cultural differences, where USA is somewhat uniform while football fanatics are split between countless countries on several continents with many different languages. It would therefore be hard to establish some sort of uniform primary collectible outlet. In comparison, this is why Pokemon is so nice since it is a truly global collectible.
I used to collect the EPL Panini stickers when I was a kid and I still do the World Cup ones. I think I have 1996, 1997 and 1998 still completed from when I was a kid. I’ve got 2014 and 2018 World Cup completed albums as well.
Another side collection goal of mine is to eventually purchase every completed World Cup album from 1970 (Mexico) onwards.
Stickers are definitely the big football thing over here, but when I say big I don’t mean big as collectables, I mean big as in kids love them. I wouldn’t know where to buy cards, but almost every convenience store here sells football stickers. I’d say for every shop which stocks Pokémon cards there are probably 10 or so shops which stock football stickers.
As for collectability? Not sure. Football tends to be a sport most commonly associated with the working class - people who don’t really have the money to spend on collectables. I don’t know if there’s really much value in them.
Have you seen how much a season ticket costs? Also working class trades can earn very good money. That Stone Island isn’t going to buy itself you know!
That’s exactly my point. Season ticket prices have increased by over 1000% in the past 30 years in the UK, yet the average football fan’s wealth has barely gone up. This has lead to protests very recently as football is becoming unaffordable for those who enjoy the sport the most.
If you’re spending all your money on watching football, you don’t have any money to spend on collectables.
During the quarantine I have completed the Panini Football 2020 (Premier League) sticker album.
Primarily did it because this is the first ever Panini premier league set. Although Panini always had the rights to the national tournaments, they never had the rights to the domestic stuff. I think Merlin always did the stickers. Also, this season has been delayed because of the pandemic, which I think makes it unique and possibly more collectable. Although I did it more for nostalgia than investment purposes, because when I was a small kid we used to collect football stickers.
Bought two display boxes from Amazon for £40 each and then completed the form on the Panini website for the remaining stickers (you can order up to 50 individual stickers).
I think Panini also make trading cards and also Topps make the Match Attax trading cards.