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Football memorabilia: He looks up, he bids, he scores

 
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burnley_collector



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 757
Location: Burnley, Lancashire

PostPosted: Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:55 am 
Post subject: Football memorabilia: He looks up, he bids, he scores
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Spotted an interesting article in the Money section of yesterday's Guardian about football memorabilia collecting:

It's not easy to list the advantages of being a Spurs fan. Season tickets are expensive, the players tend to imagine they are better than they are and a recent psychological survey indicated it was by far the most stressful team in the country to support.

As every footie fan knows, disappointment comes easy; it's the hope that kills you. And the ability of Spurs to screw up or concede late goals is legendary.

Yet pootling about on eBay some while back, I discovered one very good reason to follow Spurs. Along with Manchester United memorabilia, Spurs souvenirs are highly collectible. Quite why this should be is another matter.

With United the reasons are fairly obvious: they win things. Often. After the league and cup double-winning season of 1960-61 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1963 – something we like to name-drop at every opportunity – Spurs have had to make do with the odd FA Cup and League Cup triumph, along with a couple of wins in the Uefa Cup, a competition most British clubs now do their best to lose in. No matter that Arsenal, Chelsea and countless other teams have enjoyed far more success; their fans aren't so interested in forking out to share in it.

Confession time. I have no pension worth talking about. There again, I suspect you don't either. Though for very different reasons. You have no pension because the fund managers have squandered all your savings on their bonuses. I have next-to-no pension because I have managed to save next to nothing. This remains the single best financial decision of my life.

Not that I don't understand the importance of saving; it's just that my inbuilt sense of futility induced investment inertia. When you're certain you're bound to lose money, it's hard to see the point. But then came eBay and with it the liberation that if I was going to lose money I would at least have some fun doing it.

The curious thing is I haven't lost money. In fact, I might even have made a bit as prices for some memorabilia have been particularly buoyant over the past couple of years – though that's almost certainly been more by accident than design.

First and foremost, I'm a collector. This means I'm happy to snap up ticket stubs and programmes from games I've missed for a quid or two to complete the collection. I know this stuff will never be worth much more than I've paid for it, but I'm not really bothered. At least if I want to, I can always get my money back by flogging it myself.

But I also collect the rarer stuff and this is where the investment angle kicks in. Many Spurs fans will be interested in getting their hands on a programme or ticket stub from the 1960s FA Cup (1961, '62 and '67) and ECWC finals and there is a steady market for this stuff at around the £25-£35 mark. You won't get ripped off, but then you won't be getting a bargain.

Where it gets more interesting is in the European cup runs of the 1960s and 1970s. It's the simple economics of supply and demand. How many Spurs fans made it to the away games against Gornik Zabrze, Dukla Prague or Olympiakos Piraeus? And of those that did, how many kept their programmes or ticket stubs? Very few, I'd reckon.

So even though memorabilia from these games may set you back more than £200 – stubs are often more expensive than programmes – they probably represent much better value for money than many cheaper items.

There are bargains to be found at the lower end of the market, though. Ticket stubs from league games from the 1960s usually go for about £15, but they can be picked up for less than £10. It's often worth checking the midweek listings for bargains; bidding is often more ferocious at weekends.

It's also worth checking out friendlies, especially now so many teams go on pre-season jaunts to the far east.

Spurs played three games in China in July and some vendors have been trying to sell stubs from these games for £49.99. It's unlikely anyone will pay that, but they might get £20.

Friendlies from the 1950s and 1960s are especially collectible – particularly those played abroad. One of my most prized items is a programme from May 1959 when Spurs played at Torpedo Moscow. I paid more than £300 for that and I don't regret it. I've yet to see another one come up for auction.

Of course it's not all tickets and programmes. There's a strong market in signed shirts and boots; the sky's the limit, depending on the player and the occasion. Alan Gilzean's number 9 shirt from the 1967 FA Cup Final recently sold for more than £5,000.

All these goods should come with a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) but make you sure you check this out; some of the shirts and COAs on eBay aren't all they are cracked up to be.

While eBay may be good for the more moderately priced stuff – up to £300 – you're going to have to get stuck in to one of the growing number of sporting memorabilia auctions for some of the really rare items. A 1901 FA Cup Final single sheet programme will set you back about £20,000 – assuming you can find one – roughly the same price that Danny Blanchflower's league and cup double-winning memorabilia recently achieved.

This is the point at which my editor started leaning on me. "It's the Money pages, John. So how much have you spent and what's your most expensive item?" Thing is, it's more than my life's worth to tell you.

You see, my wife hasn't a clue and she'd kill me if I let on. I will say that my most valuable item is a 1921 FA Cup Final ticket. You can whistle for the price. The thing is, though, that if I told my wife I had invested the equivalent amount in my pension she'd have thought I was being financially responsible, even though it would have lost 90% of its value. Go figure.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/mone.....emorabilia
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oldbolt



Joined: 06 Jun 2009
Posts: 436

PostPosted: Sun Aug 16, 2009 12:52 pm 
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From my experiences of buying programmes and tickets over the last few years, i'd put Tottenham ahead of Man United as the most collectable club.

I've not paid over £50 for a programme but have managed to obtain 5 Bolton v Man Utd's before 56/57 but not one Bolton v Tottenham before then.

I was surprised to see a Bolton v Tottenham from 54/55 sell for under £30 last week but that doesn't mean i would have won the auction for that price if i'd bid!
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burnley_collector



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 757
Location: Burnley, Lancashire

PostPosted: Sun Aug 16, 2009 12:55 pm 
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I have found Burnley v Tottenham games to be the most collectable from the 1960s.
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oldbolt



Joined: 06 Jun 2009
Posts: 436

PostPosted: Sun Aug 16, 2009 1:00 pm 
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burnley_collector wrote:
I have found Burnley v Tottenham games to be the most collectable from the 1960s.


Bolton got relegated in 63/64 but the Tottenham programmes are defintely more expensive than the Man Utd ones from 60/61 -63/64.
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burnley_collector



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 757
Location: Burnley, Lancashire

PostPosted: Sun Aug 16, 2009 1:03 pm 
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yeah, and harder to come by - especially from Spurs' 60/61 double winning season.
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KavJack



Joined: 21 Nov 2008
Posts: 49
Location: Long Beach, California

PostPosted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 8:48 pm 
Post subject: Certificate of Authenticity ?
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I don't collect autographs although I get the odd item signed by a player with me watching him sign it. I would never pay for an autograph.
I can never see the point of getting a Certificate of Authenticity.

After all, if somebody's going to forge an autograph, surely they can easily forge the corresponding Certificate of Authenticity (COA) ?

Here in the USA they reckon over 90% of all autographed balls or shirts (baseball or American football) are fakes. And they usually come with the appropriate COA.
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Geddon



Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 1044
Location: Bristol

PostPosted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 3:00 pm 
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I don't have the programmes for our games with Spurs from 46/47 or 49/50, but they do tend to be among the most expensive teams.

For the teams we played regularly in the fifties I'd say probably West Ham & Leeds are the most difficult to obtain, with Liverpool in third. We played West Ham 10 times between 46-58, and I don't have any of them, same with Leeds 46-61, I do have a few Liverpool programmes from the same time period.
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kcs



Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Posts: 1655
Location: Ashford, Kent

PostPosted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 7:02 pm 
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Can certainly confirm that leeds programmes from the war through to the 1963/64 season are the hardest to get for them seasons, prices tend to be a large percentage over the 'normal' price for the season.

I think the reason for this stems from the size of the club around that period, crowds were often less then 20,000... in 64/65 we competed in division one under Revie and challenged for most honours until the mid 70's resulting in a larger fan base, which i guess generally means a larger collector base.

Basically the size of the collector base now is bigger than the club was in the mentioned seasons, the same with Liverpool and I guess West Ham.

Programmes from these seasons (especially earlier seasons) are annoyingly difficult to obtain and are expensive... it is not unusual to ask dealers at fairs or through email for Leeds 50's and get told.... "Can't get hold of em, when i do they fly out", the only real substantial stock base for Leeds 50's is Michael Hewitt, even he has gaps in his catalogues!! (Although very good catalogue from a Leeds fans perspective)

The joys of programme collecting....
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oldbolt



Joined: 06 Jun 2009
Posts: 436

PostPosted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 7:13 pm 
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I saw a 56/57 Bolton v Leeds programme in a second hand bookshop a few months ago for £10.There was one on ebay at the same time so i decided to see what that went for.It turned out I was the only bidder and got it for 99p.The other Bolton v Leeds ones in the late 50s are just as cheap at the moment.It's fair to say that Leeds' visits to Bolton in 46/47 and 49/50 are both rare ones that sell for well over £50 though
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