How do you STOP collecting programmes ?

[manchesterunitedman1]

Wullie wrote:

I think for people like Leslie who have everything ever printed about their team , then stopping is not an option. For mere mortals , stopping is not so bad . For example if you have every home and away from say 1960 to date , I think it would be better to go backwards not forward. Of course if you have space, time , money and energy then swinging both ways is fine..... what happened to Mr Gas ?

I do not think it has anything to do with having a lot of stuff it is more about personal choice and about drawing a line.
I have a 3 story town house with football items in every room bar the 2 bathrooms and one master bedroom. My wife [numero tois] says it was here well before she was and as as she is concerned I better not leave anything of value lying around if she is looking to blow her nose or wipe her apples such is the contempt she has for it all. Still when I have jossed it she knows the values and what to do so then she will maybe thank me but sling everything from 1960 in a skip[bar the few rarities] that she already has memorised so I sometimes wonder who is kidding who!

All good fun-well it still is for me, but it may not suit anyone else and everyone else deals with it all as they see fit collect the dross or otherwise, as they say on the telly with pensions "I'm in!"-for now!

[MINSTERMAN]

I have cut out some peripheral non-York City modern collecting sets in recent years - I've just stopped rather than weaning myself off them. If you stop buying and start selling then you know there's no way back. The big heartache comes when you start to break the collection up.

BUT ......... current season tickets, teamsheets, programmes and match reports from the local paper remain the essential focus of my love for collecting. And the clear out of other items has cleared the space in my programme den for the foreseeable future. My rule is that it has to stay in an organised manner in one room.

Whilst the modern issues are bulky and take a fair bit of storage space, I can't imagine not collecting them. They will represent the history of my club in years to come, just as the older ones do now. It costs me maybe £200 a year to keep the collection going forwards, a reasonable sum but I'm able to afford that at the moment. I go to games and see people spending £3 + on pre-match pints and dubious quality fast food and drink so I can happily forfeit that to buy a programme. I've said it before, treat it as dead money once spent like you would that pie and pint.

At York we have a small group of collectors who between us act as programme mules at the games for getting the aways back safely, so that guarantees the supply and cuts out postage for the aways. I'm sure that helps keep the interest up. Mind you, 20-30 copies are bloody heavy to cart about so I'd welcome a return to smaller page counts for that reason alone. I suspect bulk and 'sameness' is part of the problem now, rather than cost.

I'm lucky in that I have the funds, and I have the space. The third ingredient is enthusiasm. Maybe that's what's missing for some, because if modern programmes were quirky, recognisable and more identifiable by club (like they obviously were prior to the mid-70s) then maybe less collectors would drop out of buying them.

But stop collecting? No way.

[kcs]

A very interesting thread...

I have recently started to downsize my collection and focus on the more rare items that could fit into the collection - which to be honest ties in with the spare room being needed for a nursery... but I do think this would have been case regardless of the new arrival.
I decided to sell (or start) selling my collection post 1956, Leeds won promotion into the 1st Division that season and the prices seem to increase somewhat prior to this date. That was my logical cut off point - I may well go back over 1956 to 1964 at some point in the future but certainly nothing moving forward of that date, for first team issues anyway.

To revert back to the original thread post, I currently still subscribe for away programmes and pick up home programmes from eBay for this current season. I also subscribe for reserve homes and teamsheets home and away.
The above subscriptions are largely down to my website - so although through a collecting angle I probably want to stop but from the website angle I don't.
Maybe, like most have done is to stop at a certain point in the history of the club, and with 2019 being Leeds United's centenary it may well be a good stopping point for current season.

So apart from current season I collect pre 1956 homes league and cup, WRSC home games all seasons, reserve home games all season.
The above does not take up space and generally holds value.

But I guess, its each to their own at then end of the day.
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[hulldon]

As others have said, an interesting thread.
My collecting covers a wider range than my original aim of getting Aberdeen Home and Away back to my first game in 1970. Now I go back a lot further, and have only one home since my birth (anyone got Clyde in Dec 1964?) and have loads from before then too.
I also do tickets, teamsheets and other ephemera which are Dons related - autos, photos, pennants etc, especially as programme gaps, are now a tad on the expensive side.
I have branched out over the years, and also do World Cup and Euro tickets, having sold all my programmes, and also Olympic and Commonwealth games stuff, as I was a volunteer at both of them. And I also do stickers and cards, especially older ones from my youth.
It would therefore seem logical to cut back on something, such as current season programmes, but truth be told, the Dons programme is a cracking read and good value for three quid!
I look forward to it arriving by post - subscriptions make things easier - and I'm not surprised that it has just won programme of the year yet again.
Yes, space and expense is an issue, but as someone previously said, it's the cost of a pre-match pint, so until the Dons programme becomes less of a good read, I will keep on subscribing!

[facup1939]

I have to agree entirely with Minsterman.
I have managed to collect every Portsmouth post WW2 competitive game home and away. I am missing some friendlies in the 40s and 50s, and a few Postponed games, but have achieved what I set out to achieve many years ago.
I still go to virtually all home and away games (usually miss one or two a season as my wife insists on a winter holiday) and could not contemplate attending a game and not buying a programme.
Again, like Minsterman, we have a small group of likeminded collectors at Portsmouth, and all try to look out for each other.
It is down to space, but I think you also have to be very focussed in what you collect. I collect any programmes to do with Pompey, other games that I attend (local Ryman League etc) and the F A Cup Final, and that's it.
I really don't care how much any of my items are worth, I have no intention of selling them, although my wife has been briefed, like Leslie's, in the event of me popping off.
As a collector, and not a dealer, it is all down to enjoyment. When it stops becoming enjoyable, and starts becoming a chore, then that surely is the time to stop.

[tackler7]

I am 'fortunate' enough to have a definitive cut off date for collecting my clubs programmes (and everything else!) as they ceased to be in 2004.

However this has not stopped me collecting - I still pick up a programme for the each game I go to on Saturday (I pick and choose and have become a bit of a 'ground collector').

At the start of the year with space now being at a premium I said to myself to stop getting sidetracked and picking up pieces because they were 'nice' and trying to concentrate only on the items core to my collection.

I have even considered stopping buying programmes from games that I watch and worse thought about disposing of all these programmes post 2004.

My head says it makes sense - space will be saved, the core collection will be highlighted more and I will save money to allow spending on the core collection.

My heart disagrees with all this and knows that I dispose of anything or even just stop I will regret it in years to come.

So despite my New Years resolution I have added to the non core collection since January. This week it was some particularly nice Baines Cards....

[Wullie]

Briefing the wife on how valuable your collection might be if you should pop your socks may not be a good idea. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

[gfcpaul]

pastpirate wrote:

STOP!!!!!! I have never even thought of stopping. I enjoy each new issue as much as ever and reckon I can fit another 20 seasons in the dinning room before I have to have a rethink over storing them. I am a bit strange though. Just ask the wife.

Can't stop either, will probably run out of space one day but will cross that bridge when i come to it.

[Dorking]

It is inconceivable to me to go to a game and not but a programme, so I'll always collect whatever there is. As has been said above, some buy a pie or a pint (or both), for me I like to buy a programme and whatever badges I can find instead, and have the bonus of a collection to look back on. Probably financially worthless, but I get my value from the enjoyment at the time.

Like an alcoholic hiding the empty bottles, you can always find nooks and crannies for storage. My bed probably doesn't need legs what with all the boxes of programmes under there!

[andrewesq]

Wow what a response !, I feel like bisphamseasider

bisphamseasider wrote:

Each close season I think about calling it a day for modern issues but then carry on as normal in the new season. This may be a good time to call it a day, considering our current predicament, but then next season there are likely to be programmes against clubs we've never played before. I would want to add them to the collection plus any cup ties, friendlies or specials. Then if Blackpool started issuing cards or stickers I would definitely want to carry on collecting.

[Superajm]

mine seems to be at the end of this season due to ill health. Didn't think of stopping but unfortunately things have conspired against me!

Against my better judgement I'm still buying off ebay

[slightfold]

To answer to the original question, 'How do you stop collecting' it must surely be:-
(1) Keep your hands in your pockets.
(2) Stop looking on Ebay and at dealers' and auction lists.
(3) Destroy your wants list.
(4) Don't come on this site anymore.

Gradually the withdrawal symptoms will lessen and you will get your life back, and realise that there are things in life which are much more important!

[James]

Interesting reading this thread and the responses.

I've not been around on here for a while for a few reason one being that I have cut back a lot on what I am collecting.

I used to subscribe to a number of teams home programmes and had a number of collections going like the below list

Spurs (Anything and everything homes, aways, friendlies 1st team reserves fanzines etc)
Gillingham homes and aways
Maidstone homes and aways
West brom homes and aways
Man Utd homes since 92/93
Arsenal homes since 92/93
British and Irish teams homes and aways in Europe
Ice Hockey programmes (any and all)
Programmes from games - sporting events I attend (Mainly ice hockey and non league football)

Now I collect the following:
Spurs (Anything and everything homes, aways, friendlies 1st team reserves fanzines etc NO tickets though)
British and Irish teams homes and aways in Europe
Programmes from games - sporting events I attend (Mainly ice hockey and non league football

I used to go to 70 sporting events a season this past season I've been to 28.

In terms of stopping collecting I don't think I could stop buying Spurs items, yes modern day issues do require storage space but I want a complete collection. The sporting events I go to if they have sold out of programmes or do not produce a programme for the event them I have to say I'm in a foul mood and don't tend to enjoy the event as much as I would have done.

I also think that as I have a decent sized collection now and the items I require cost a lot more than when I first started and I can't go to Steve Earl, Dick Rattray, Brentside, Programme Promotions and order 60+ programmes and when they arrive in the post the enjoyment I used to get, or during the early to mid 90's when I used to attend a lot of Spurs games leaving home early to go to Walthamstow and visit the late great Dave Ellis RIP, whose shop I would spend many hours in picking up Spurs progs from the 60's-90's for pence (sometimes being told with my dad, watch the shop for 10 minutes as I take the dog for a walk)

I still pop up on ebay now and again and have a little splurge or pick up the current season Brits in Europe or a few Spurs bits and pieces

I do admit I am starting to lose interest with collecting due to a recent increase of complete and utter ***** and thieves on Ebay and Ebay being a bunch of ***** as well