Football Programmes Centre

Stats

About Me

What do you do for a living?

I calculate people’s wages, basically I print a lot of payslips!

Which club do you support and why?

Sheffield Wednesday. All my family support them so I guess it was inevitable! I also follow England at most home and away games, and I also watch Sheffield Eagles (Rugby League) too

What do you collect?

I Collect Sheff Wed homes and Aways going back to 1960. I don’t need many competitive fixtures now but there’s still plenty of friendlies to tick off! I also collect Sheffield Eagles programmes from 1984 (when the club was formed) and I’m about 50 short of a complete collection. In recent times I’ve also started picking up England football and rugby league programmes, so maybe that’s a future collection area!

How did you get into programme collecting?

I’m not sure really! I was absolutely football mad as a child, all I ever did was kick a football around (It didn’t do me any good though, I’m a pretty rubbish player!!) and my dad and granddad gave me a few programmes and I kept them, so I guess it probably started there

Your Collection

What was your first football programme?

Unsure as I can’t have been older than 6, probably a mid to late 80s Sheffield Wednesday home game

What was the last programme you bought?

Aston Villa V Manchester United – Carling Cup Final 2010. I bought this as I wanted to read the ‘League Cup – 50 greatest moments’ section in the middle. At 164 pages it’s probably the largest programme in my entire collection!!

How big is your collection?

I have around 2700 Wednesday programmes and over 500 Sheffield Eagles in my collection.

How do you store your collection?

At the moment they’re all just in rather random boxes. I do aim to get them properly sorted out and placed into binders in the future though

Whats the oldest programme you own?

1946 FA Cup Semi Final – Birmingham City V Derby County, played at Hillsborough

What is the rarest item in your collection?

Now that’s a question! I’ve got a few programmes from postponed Wednesday matches which are pretty hard to come by. Some of my Eagles collection is rather scarce due to lower crowds and obviously a lower print run

Which programme from your club is the rarest and most expensive to obtain?

The 1962 UEFA Cup game away at Barcelona. Usually goes for about £750!

What is...?

What is your worst buy?

Not sure, probably something from my early days of collecting when I didn’t really know what I was doing or how much things were worth! Although I can’t recall spending a load of money on something that turned out to be junk.

What is your best buy?

The entire 99/00 season – home and away programmes – for 99p! All in mint condition too!!

What is the most you have paid for a programme and which one?

I paid around £50 for Koln V Sheffield Wednesday, 63/64 UEFA Cup. It’s in excellent condition for a newspaper style programme too

What is the most you have received for a programme and which one?

Have only ever sold a handful of programmes and none of them were particularly rare! So probably about £2!!

What is your most prized programme?

Probably Wednesday V Barcelona – UEFA Cup 1962. Not particularly rare but Wednesday won the game 3-2. How times change!

Whats your biggest regret in collecting?

None

The Hobby

In you opinion, is the programme collectors communtiy shrinking or growing?

I don’t feel that it is shrinking, there are still plenty of people bidding for items on eBay etc. Not sure about it growing though.

What do you enjoy most about the hobby?

Getting home and finding that my latest order has landed on the doormat!

Where do you buy most of your programmes from?

eBay

The Future

If money was no object, which programme would you most like to add to your collection?

Barcelona V Sheffield Wednesday 1962

Would you ever sell your collection?

Certainly not for a while

How do you wish to develop your collection over the coming years?

I’m hoping to complete my collection of Wednesday programmes going back to 1960, and also complete my Sheffield Eagles collection.