Gillingham V Exeter 09

[Auchinleckian]

It's value of £57.09 is only that of the original purchaser. Should he now try and sell the same item, he'll very quickly be in serious programme negative equity.

[Auchinleckian]

the next one sold for half the price. If you take the 2 big bidders out of the equation (assuming the guy who lost out on first programme got the 2nd one) and look at the other bids, it's likely that the next one should go for between £15 and £18 - that's some difference from £57. Just think, if the guy who finished second in first auction, did win the second one, he's actually saved himself nearly £30!!
Just shows that you need to be selective when bidding for current season items. on't jump in with both feet. When other collectors see what one goes for, they inevitably consider putting one on themselves to try and get the same, but ebay just doesn't work like that. When Gretna played Hearts last season, I pre ordered 25 programmes as it was likely, but not definite at the time, to be their last ever issue. Somebody at the game with me put a few programmes on when he got home from the game, and they sold for about £20 each, for the first few only. Then he put them on fixed price at a lower price, and then virtually gave them away. It was about a fortnight later that Gretna did go out of the league. I sold all mine at between £7 and £10 at fairs, and lastly at a buy it now price. I got a very good deal about of it, the collectors who didn't buy immediately, also got a very collectable programme at a much less price than the original ones.
It is possible to foretell which such programmes are going to be very collectable this year, for instance,
Luton and whoever else joins them in the Conference next season. If their last game is not at home, then the last programmes will be very collectable. If their last game is away, their last home game will become collectable. Similarly, Burton Albion in the Conference should they go up.
Next season, the first games of the above teams, and pre season friendlies, especially the first one as it will their first game as either a non league or league team. Might pay to write off to Burton for their remaining programmes as their crowds will probably start to get bigger the nearer they get to automatic promotion, and if programme runs aren't increased, programmes will become thin on the ground.