Programme Business

[Scholey]

I wonder if I could obtain the opinionsof people on this form. Many many years ago my late father had a football programme business in Sheffield. I am seriously considering starting it up again in his name. My dad mainly sold Sheff Utd and Sheff Wednesday programmes having the biggest sheff utd collection in the country bar none. He also sold programes for other clubs as well as Internationals and cup final programmes.

Could you tell me how you would go about obtaining current season items ie cup finals, internationals at a discount price. I see lots of programme dealers selling these in their ebay shops and can't see how they make any money on them.

I was also considering offering as part of my business a programme subscription service (certainly for Sheff Utd and Sheff Wednesday) and for any other clubs whose supporters may be interested. Once again I'm not sure how you would buy the items at a sufficiently low price to make a small return on per programme.

Can people tell me if they think my ideas would work and also how you could source current season programmes (both domestic and big match) at a sufficiently low price to make a small profit.

I Already have a massive collection of programmes fom my father running into thousands of items.

Many thanks

[James]

Welcome to the forum...

In terms of Subscriptions a lot of clubs now refer you straight onto the supplier/publisher of the programme, places like,

http://www.programmemaster.com/
www.global-programmes.com/index.php
http://cre8ingshop.com/shop/

They sell the programmes on behalf of the club, if you look at a lot of the dealers you will see they charge about £1/£2 above the cover price, then you have to add postage on as well, (well certainly seems the case with the team I collect Spurs).

Programmemaster also sell all the major cup finals as well as England programmes at cover price, which is where i get my copy from, i'm guessing that the dealers again add £1/£2 to the cover price to make it worth there while buying so many to sell on, but i don't actually look at these items in their catalogues to be honest as I'm happy buying the items from Programmemaster.
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Maidstone/Tottenham fan

[Ann Orack]

First of all 'respect!' to your late father.

He was Mr Programmeman in Sheffield

I had many a dealing with him in the early 80's and was saddened to hear of his passing when I returned to collecting in 2001.

Theres many a good Wednesday ( and no doubt United) collection out there that has benefitted from Alans gift in tracking things down.

(as a mark of respect to your dad you'll note I refer to his team as United and not the Blunts)

I'm sending a Pm with further contact details

All the best

Chris

[oldbolt]

I rang Bolton up a few years ago about getting a discount for buying in bulk off them.The best they could offer was committing to 20 per match and getting 50p off the £3 cover price.The club also wouldn't sell unsold programmes in the summer at knockdown prices, instead they gave them away to local charities.

I don't see how anyone could make a living on current season programmes if it is a similar story round the other clubs. If 20, for example Bolton v Newcastle programmes were bought at £2.50 each i think it would be a struggle to sell all 20 at £3 plus postage to even make a tenner.

[Dorking]

Probably not a great deal of use, but I go to all the England home games at Wembley and rather than pay £6 every game, I have a subscription from the publisher - It's £24 per 6 issues INCLUDING postage, so I'm paying £5 a programme and getting it on the morning of the game too.

I guess if you had a few subscriptions like that it'd be cheaper than paying cover price.

At my club team (Crystal Palace), season ticket holders have the option of buying a thing called an "Eagle Gold Upgrade" ignoring the naff name, you get a booklet of numbered vouchers, and for every home game you give any programme seller the correctly numbered voucher and they then give you a programme. The scheme costs £50 a season, so you've already saved £19 considering there are 23 games at £3 a programme. If there are home cup games you also get those included too - meaning you save even more. Not sure if other clubs do this, but it's a great scheme if you go every home game and always buy a programme.

[sharrowblade]

Ann Orack wrote:

First of all 'respect!' to your late father.

Just to echo what Chris said.

When it comes to Sheffield United programmes, your father is still a legend.