Football Programmes Centre

Football Programmes Reach £25,000 At Auction

While the collecting and selling of football programmes and memorabilia might not be as well known as other sport memorabilia, there are still the occasional big-ticket items or treasure troves of memorabilia to be found and bought.

The printing of football programmes began way back in the 1880s, and has been a constant at football match days since then.

One Mans and his Treasure

Gerald Mortimer was a collector, as well as a respected regional daily journalist, and the Derby County Football Club correspondent from 1970 to 2002 for the Daily Telegraph.

Mr. Mortimer even wrote for the Telegraph up until a year before his death in 2014 and had been a close associate of former manager Brian Clough - he was even rumoured to have typed out his resignation letter to the club's board for him.

Mr. Mortimer's sporting memorabilia recently sold at auction for a combined total of £25,000 plus, with the collection featuring 25 boxes of literature and memorabilia owned and collected by him during his reporting days at Derby County Football Club.

The auction was held at Hanson's in Derbyshire and attracted a lot of attention from collectors across the country.

The Collection

The 25 boxes filled with Football history, include impressive artefacts like a letter requesting the reinstatement of managers Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, signed by all the Derby Country players from the year 1973.

This letter was estimated to bring in a maximum of £800 pounds, but sold for an impressive £4,000 - a sum that many players would be happy to take home when playing pokies online.

Some the of the collection on offer was purchased by Derby County itself, these included a directors minutes book from 1888 and a supper card from the golden jubilee celebration in 1934 (this celebration included football legend Steve Bloomer). The director's minutes was expected to fetch £2,000 but made an impressive £40,00m while the supper card made an impressive £400.

Derby County was delighted with their purchases, and have plans of displaying the items on their grounds for fans of the club to enjoy.

One of the best items in the collection was a 1976 match programme for Derby County vs. AEK Athens, selling for £1,800 (with an original estimate of £400).

This is considered a rare and sought-after programme, as few are believed to exist, they are thought to have blown away on match day when they were placed on the stands. It is not known if many photographs were included in the lot, but if they were, they'd surely be worth plenty on their own.

The End of an Era

Though we lost a great collector and journalist, a man who was on the front line of a lot of Football history, from his records and collecting skills we have found and recalled a great wealth of Football memorabilia.

Continue