Is It Me

[bee007]

Do I expect to much from clubs? Over the last 2 months I have sent 50 emails to non-league clubs all over the country regarding Supporters Club badges. All I was asking was do they do one, or have any info on older ones formally produced. Out of the 50, 2 said they didn't know. 2 said they had one and I sent the money only to receive a football club badge, and the last one gave me an email address of someone else who didn't reply. Do clubs not want to sell their merchandise and promote themselves? 1 other club said I needed to join their SC to obtain a badge, but never sent out the forms. I admit that some of the addresses may be out of date(ex-employees etc) but surely a simple reply with yes or no wouldn't take up too much of their time. Am I expecting too much from clubs, or is it that they just can't be bothered? Rant Over.

[Dorking]

I went to a game at AFC Wimbledon tonight, and for the first time witnessed the vast scale of 'Terrys Badges' stall! If you want a particular non-league badge, then try him first - he has an easy to find and use website, and the quality of his badges are top notch.

And he replies to emails!

[bee007]

I met Terry last season and bought about 30 badges from him in one go. I have also used his website and found him a very helpful person who seems to care and wants to help.

[derby1884]

It's the communication medium that's the problem. Email.
It's like applying for jobs - it's never been easier to do so (email, job portal) but it's such an impersonal medium that you're lucky if you get constructive replies from 5% of what you put out.

Emails are intangible. Easy to delete. Often get forgotten about.
A handwritten letter, less so.

I wrote to a dozen clubs by hand back in the mid-70s and, though I know that's a while ago now, I got a dozen replies all on club notepaper (kept them all - still have them).

Fifty handwritten letters might cost you the best part of £30 to send out - but it night be more effective.
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[DySporting]

I will be looking out for the badges at my trip to AFC Wimbledon next season. I have a few I’m after. Always heard good things

[Tynie Topics]

There’s even better mediums these days called Facebook and Twitter to name but two.

Social media is where it is at these days and in my experience, leaving a post on a clubs FB page or tweeting them a question usually draws a response of some description, I’m talking about smaller clubs not the EPL monoliths. It is particularly handy when contacting overseas clubs.

It’s not fool proof of course, but slightly harder to ignore than an email.
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[Auchinleckian]

Tynie Topics wrote:

There’s even better mediums these days called Facebook and Twitter to name but two. Social media is where it is at these days and in my experience, leaving a post on a clubs FB page or tweeting them a question usually draws a response of some description, I’m talking about smaller clubs not the EPL monoliths. It is particularly handy when contacting overseas clubs. It’s not fool proof of course, but slightly harder to ignore than an email.

Agreed. I use Facebook a lot for contacting Scottish non league sides. Nearly always get a reasonably quick reply as I think the folk who run them get a pleasant surprise that someone actually reads them and thinks them useful. Great way for finding out about smaller club's programmes, past and present.

[Superblue]

Terry also has his store at Wycombe home games from time to time, that's where I met him in 2014, and I've spent loads buying off him ever since. He also does some ground hops and football fares around the country, highly recommend .

As for contacting football clubs, I had the same problem with teams in Cumbria, couldn't find contact details or they were out of date. I emailed the Cumberland FA asking some emails addresses and the reason why I wanted them only to get a reply saying 'sorry we are unable to help you because we are suspicious of your activities'. Other clubs I emailed never got back to me. Penrith AFC were helpful and replied (eventually), but the most helpful club was Cartmel & District FC who let me have a badge for nothing and got me in touch with black Dragon badges who helped me find the rest of the badges I was looking for.

So from my personal experience I can understand the frustration you have suffered and I have learnt that the best help comes from fellow collectors on this forum.

Kyle

[littlewiggy]

derby1884 wrote:

It's the communication medium that's the problem. Email. It's like applying for jobs - it's never been easier to do so (email, job portal) but it's such an impersonal medium that you're lucky if you get constructive replies from 5% of what you put out. Emails are intangible. Easy to delete. Often get forgotten about. A handwritten letter, less so. I wrote to a dozen clubs by hand back in the mid-70s and, though I know that's a while ago now, I got a dozen replies all on club notepaper (kept them all - still have them). Fifty handwritten letters might cost you the best part of £30 to send out - but it night be more effective.

Before I was allowed to start going to the County on my Jack Jones in 1980/81 (aged 12), I used to write to football clubs too Steve, and ask them if I could have a used or unused match ticket from their game against us for my collection.

Most clubs were great and used to happily send me one, sometimes with a nice letter on headed paper saying things like they'd never heard of such a collection before and wishing me well, etc.
I used to treasure those club letters almost as much as the ticket that came with it.

My trick was always to heap praise on their club in my letter, along with being very polite and well mannered.
I also used to include a SAE, and would purposely put the stamp on the bottom on the envelope rather that the top - this meant it usually came back unfranked so I could re-use it!!

(Quite rare back then, yet nowadays I seem to get more unfranked mail by the year, must cost the PO a fortune)

I think people / clubs in general were more courteous back then in the 'olden days' of the hand-written mail personally.

[AberdeenBob]

Back in the mid 90's I would write to clubs saying I was a young programme collector and politely ask fro a programme. Most clubs would send me one back.

Some clubs were very generous. Heart's sent me a programme signed by 3 players including French goalkeeping sensation Gilles Rousset whilst Tottenham included a signed photo of Gerry Francis.

The SFA sent me a superb bundle including Semi and Cup Finals and I even received something from FIFA.

Only two clubs asked for money, Greenock Morton and Coventry City.

And no matter how many letters I sent, Chelsea and Leeds would only ever send me a merchandise catalogue.

[derby1884]

littlewiggy wrote:

I think people / clubs in general were more courteous back then in the 'olden days' of the hand-written mail personally.

Interesting reminiscences! All that effort to save a stamp? Are you an Aberdonian?

One of those clubs that wrote back to me was Aston Villa - for my birthday present I persuaded my Dad to pay for a programme subscription for the 75/6 season.
Each issue would arrive in the post 2 days after the game with a Villa compliments slip annotated with a "thank you for your support" inside the programme.
A nice touch - though it made me feel a bit guilty them thinking I was a Villa fan!
I just liked their programme.
1971 to 1976 was the heyday of programme issues. After 1976, the homogenisation principle slowly started to take effect.
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[overlap]

With regards to the original point about non-replies from non-league clubs and badges, as an aficionado of non-league football for many years, there may be a number of reasons for the 'radio silence', not to excuse the frustration of such a low level of response to Bee007, but just a few thoughts.

As most clubs, below National/Tier 5, are run by volunteers with other full-time jobs, it may be:

a) they are simply too busy/overwhelmed on other things such as the next home match programme, drink and snack orders for the clubhouse, organising coaches to away matches

b) they simply don't know. at non-league level i have known badges to be produced by independent supporter factions in the club, which club officials know nothing about, because the club and any "supporters club" are often at loggerheads, and not connected/talking to one another

c) the high turnover of those in position of responsibility at many non-league clubs means such requests often fall through the cracks

d) Finally, do all non-league clubs actually have 'Supporters Clubs' these days to produce badges?

As I say, not to excuse the low response level, but a few factors to consider.

[littlewiggy]

derby1884 wrote:

littlewiggy wrote: I think people / clubs in general were more courteous back then in the 'olden days' of the hand-written mail personally. Interesting reminiscences! All that effort to save a stamp? Are you an Aberdonian? .

Lol, in my defence I was only ten or eleven years old and operating my ticket collecting on a meagre pocket-money budget of about a pound a week.




Overlap makes some very valid points.
In all the years since we reformed and made our climb back through the non league, all our "official" badges were produced independently of the club.