Pele/Maradona/Ronaldo/Messi - player collectors?

[overlap]

Hi, What to make of the development over the past year or perhaps longer, where people are selling memorabilia items tagged to a player name, usually the likes of Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, and Messi.
I have seen ludicrous prices asked for eg World Cup tickets featuring any of the above, and there are other listings related to other players like Bobby Charlton, Johan Cruyff, even Iniesta.
What puzzles me is - who is buying these vastly over-inflated items featuring certain players?
I don't know of anyone in the UK who collects items for just one player (maybe TheDoog apart).
So who are the buyers? Americans? Also, what has triggered this cult (which of course includes "rookie cards").

[holtie96]

Hi
It has been fuelled by the American market. Rookie items from
Baseball and basketball sometimes fetch thousands and on the bbc news this week a basketball card May hit many millions.
I think the American market has now recognised the ‘soccer’ card and ticket market is undervalued.
The bubble May burst?
https://www.blackenterprise.com/lebron-james-card-expected-to-top-6-million-at-auction/

[BAZZERFOX42]

Just wondering how much my Bob Morton/Ricky Hill/Kevin Nicholls and Harry Cornick collection will be worth ??????

Code:

:D  :D

[Pete’s Picture Palace]

Talking of ridiculous, but I saw on eBay something about a few blades of Knebworth grass, being held up in front of the stage with one of the Gallagher brothers performing - think that was last weekend - and bidding had reached £7900 with a few days still to go.

Just wish some of the guys who bid thousands for these "rookie" photos discovered my website! Though I was cleared out of Pele photos recently by an optimistic chap who is a Forum member.

[hibernian]

I travelled to Molde to watch Hibs in the UEFA Cup in 2017. Cost a lot for a one day trip.
It was one of the last games Haaland played for Molde
Anyway I put my ticket on eBay and it was bought for £175 from a guy in England
Also sold Hibs v Barca, messi first game wearing number 10 shirt for £75, again sold to England
The ticket was only worth £1 previously as it was so common
Other guys I know got much more than these amounts, mostly selling to USA

[overlap]

Thanks for the interesting replies.
Seems to be a totally USA-centric market then.
I wonder when/if it will go pop.

This nearly had me choking on my cornflakes.... $35k being asked for 4 x 1958 WC tickets... utter insanity!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275339964941?hash=item401b8a720d:g:rKIAAOSwluBimuuL

[seand]

I can see the attraction of a Messi / Maradona / Pele collection. I know its a bit odd to us, assume most of us are focused on one club, but the likes of Messi is a cultural icon, specially if you 'consume' football in a more casual high level way than us traditional diehards. You could certainly get a nice interesting collection together with a few programmes, tickets, cards and stickers, photos, match worn gear etc.

Just realised I recently swapped away a 2006 World Cup ticket from Messi's World Cup debut match, maybe I should have sold it as a Messi item rather than a WC ticket. I know I have a programme and ticket from Ronaldo's Real debut in a friendly against Shamrock Rovers, who knows what else I should be re-assigning as a Pele / Maradona / Best item rather than a bog standard programme / trade card.
_________________
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https://flickr.com/photos/54078441@N03/albums

[garyspain]

George Best has been well collected for years. Some very common programmes in Northern Ireland suddenly started selling for lots of money.

Each to their own.

I was shocked at the 2018 World Cup at the amount of Messi and Ronaldo fans. Definitely popular in the United States but many in Russia came from the Indian sub-continent.