To Collect, or not to Collect??!!

[kcs]

Was sitting in doors with very little else going on due to the weather and this got me thinking.....

Modern day issues!!!

Do people collect still them?? Why to both (Yes/No)?

I currently do subscribe (have done since 03/04) to get both Leeds home and away programmes from the current season including all league, cup and friendly issues, but I am very quickly running out of space and am seriously contemplating making this the last season of collecting (will of course continue to collect back issues).
I pay cover price for these issues, so at a minimum it's going to cost 150 quid a season (46 games @ 3 quid a pop, plus at least 3 cup programmes, FA, League and JPT), this is not including a decent cup run, play-offs, pp, or friendlies. Or even P&P. The true cost is nearer 200 quid.

I don't wish to be seen as collecting as an investment as I collect purely for the enjoyment of doing so, but at some stage in ones mind it must be considered if collecting certain issues is feasible in the long run.

I have heard many arguments on here (specially from the older/wiser heads) about modern issues being worthless now and in the future. This can be backed up with seeing complete season programmes on eBay being unsold for less than a tenner, even dealers seem to be struggling to sell full-sets. I have used Michael Hewitts catalogue for a while and see the same complete season descriptions in them for numerous catalogue versions, even though I think the prices are reasonable (for programmes more than 3/4 years old)

On the other hand a selection of members on this forum have struggled to gain current season/modern programmes due to the 'rarity' of them with prices often reaching double figures.

Another side to this decision is as follows;
If people are collecting them for an interest then there is a flaw in this side of the story too, they are all very similar and I totally agree, almost like a commercial document in some cases. Why do people want 20-30 copies from the same season with very little different between them.

I hope someone can put a more convincing argument for collecting current season issues as I am struggling to convince myself for next season!!

I do have a slight worry, if I stop.... and in the future decide to collect them once again will there be an increase in prices for certain issues (inevitable I guess)? Or are they simply too mass-produced to allow this to happen. Do eBay limit this too?

Hope this sparks a debate and response...





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[goonerboy]

I guess the answer is also influenced as to whether you consider modern day ones as a matchday magazine to read on the train/bus on the way home or items to collect.

If there is an enjoyment in reading them then that is part of the value and at least it is putting money into the club's coffers. Nevertheless with the internet, I would suggest that there is now very little of interest in a modern programme which could not be read on the web.

However I know a lot of people glance through them but primarily have them for collecting purposes (hunter gatherer instinct !)

Then it brings into consideration as to whether the point of collecting is solely to have something or whether there is also an intent that when you sell up then there is some return on the vast sums invested.

If there is some hope of getting a return then the modern day ones are just not worth the investment. There are always a few exceptions which for some reason or another exceed face value. However the vast majority can be picked up at a small fraction of their face value later in the seaon or a year later.

Then there is the storage issue due to the size of the modern day issue. So modern day progs hold very little interest or value to me. However thats because I'm a middle aged bloke having collected for many years. I do however see a great value in them to encourage youngster to start enjoying programmes..... after all when I sell my collection in a few years I want there to be an interested audience out there !

[Wullie]

I went to the Arsenal v Everton game yesterday and picked up the programme for £3 and to be honest it was crap. Mindless interviews with reserve team players and the usual predictable stuff. The fanzine was far more interesting. Now if i were a regular visitor no way would i keep on buying this stuff. What is the point? It takes up too much space and is expensive. As Kcs says you could end up paying 200 quid for a seasons worth, which could buy you a couple of pre war items from the street dealers leading to the ground. I dont really collect anything after 1955 purely from a re sale view if i ever need to sell . I think quality is better the quantity.

[OldburyWBA]

I keep them, £3 is around the price of a pint and less than a packet of fags. Might depend on the club you follow. Albion programmes to be fair are excellent, plenty of reading in them. But saying that some of the programmes picked up at away grounds are nowhere near the same quality.

All depends on personal choice though.

[Tynie Topics]

I stopped collecting current season Hearts aways many years ago and a few years ago stopped homes as well.

I enjoy older issues, probably for the historical aspect, and there's no denying that I have one eye on future value. Current season issues will rarely become sought after, although some are a good read and I would never go to a game without buying one.

The exceptions to this are Scotland aways (I'm at nearly all games anyway), Junior clubs in the Scottish Cup and this seasons AFC Wimbledon home/away as it's their first season back in a national division (and it's good to get back to old fashioned style of collecting by writing to clubs to buy a programme).
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[Wullie]

Well this should be of interest to you kcs. Every Leeds home and away from 1964 plus 128 before that includes many rare items . Basically almost every modern Leeds programme produced. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MASSIVE-.....27ae52c683

[Posh1959]

I dont collect modern issues, no interest in them. How do people manage to find the space.

[kcs]

Wullie wrote:

Well this should be of interest to you kcs. Every Leeds home and away from 1964 plus 128 before that includes many rare items . Basically almost every modern Leeds programme produced. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MASSIVE-.....27ae52c683

Have been watching this one with interest, I have all the homes but umming and r'ring whether to collect the away's. This would be one way of doing it!!

Will show some aspect of what a collection is worth.
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[Superajm]

Posh1959 wrote:

I dont collect modern issues, no interest in them. How do people manage to find the space.

Hi Clive

When did you stop? I'm down to needing about 50 from 60/61 up to WBA away on boxing day 2009!

[oldbolt]

Bolton have a subscription that is £57 including post for every home game or the same for every away game so that works out much cheaper than the Leeds subscription.For that price the away subscribers got 7 or 8 pre season friendly programmes so it was a good deal.
I stopped collecting all the aways in 2005 due to storage issues and started collecting reserves instead.
I collect the homes mainly as historical documents to look back at in the future.The current Bolton home programme has too many dull interviews with current players and staff but does have useful stats and reserves/youth match reports that may be of interest in the future.Only this week I wanted to find out who the goalscorers were in a 10-1 reserves win against Sunderland in the mid 90s.The only way to find that was looking for the match report in the first team programme at the time.All this info may be available on the internet in the future but I would rather have it on paper.
The investment angle doesn't come into it.I don't buy them with an eye on making money on them in the future.I do buy extra copies of some of the youth/reserves matches as a potential investment but at 20p each i don't buy enough of them to lose any sleep over losses!

[Rocky]

So how do we define 'modern day issue'? Current season, last season, anything in the last decade? I stopped collecting anything dated after the millenium with the exception of Cup games, Friendlies and any postponed games.

For me, I class anything after 1990 as modern day. Is this because I was brought up collecting 60's, 70's & 80's?

[Auchinleckian]

Have approximately,4000 programmes that are pre 1970, and that's the cut off I've decided upon just out of a sense of keeping things in perspective (bar a few dozen non league BPA 70-74) and not taking up attic space as well as the front room / office.
Also included are about 500 hardbacked books, but again, am now looking to streamline collecting habits so that it's either statistical books, Breedon complete records, club histories, and older biographies. There's also the complete sets of Rothmans league and non league directories as well.
Have about 100 pre 1960 handbooks which I've been collecting for the last two years, and about another 150 from the 1960's. Everything else is surplus to requirements. Guess I'm stuck in a time warp....

[Wullie]

I didn't tell the whole truth as i 've have one programme from each club from the 63/64 season ( apart from Exeter if any one has a copy). What is interesting about this season apart from the year i was born, is the variety. Some large, small, four page, glossy 16 pages with photos a real mixture. Today's programmes just seem all the same size and content. From Oxford United to Manchester United you are going to get more or less the same sort of thing. I'm not knocking anyone who collects the modern day programme. It's just for me lack of space , lack of money and lack of interest.

[whitetiger]

to me the problem with modern programmes is that everything printed inside is readily available elsewhere in the media, therefore in my opinion making them not unique but glossy mass produced magazines with little variety in size or content

[Posh1959]

Superajm wrote:

Posh1959 wrote: I dont collect modern issues, no interest in them. How do people manage to find the space. Hi Clive When did you stop? I'm down to needing about 50 from 60/61 up to WBA away on boxing day 2009!

Hi;

I sent you a pm a few weeks ago asking you for your wants list!!!!

Stopped collecting modern Posh end of last season, stop collecting modern Blackburn 2000.

[pastpirate]

Must admit, I love the modern issues. Mind you I am glad in some way that Rovers are in the lower leagues as that's where the best programmes are found. Over the last few seasons I have enjoyed some of the issues from when we were in the bottom division more than ever. Exeter have produced great programmes for years now and am looking forward to seeing it this year. Agree with Oldbury that the WBA prog is superb. Or it was a few years ago when I awarded it top spot in my reviews of that season. Think it had 100 pages and took ages to read. Same season I saw a Man U one and thought it was crap. Written by people that had no feeling for the club but were no doubt paid a lot of money to write such unfeeling garbage.
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[matt blue]

I still collect everything home and away - cardiff and wales, although programmes are now getting stupidly large, peterboros the other day was 100 pages !!! WHY !!! crazy size

[OldburyWBA]

pastpirate wrote:

Must admit, I love the modern issues. Mind you I am glad in some way that Rovers are in the lower leagues as that's where the best programmes are found. Over the last few seasons I have enjoyed some of the issues from when we were in the bottom division more than ever. Exeter have produced great programmes for years now and am looking forward to seeing it this year. Agree with Oldbury that the WBA prog is superb. Or it was a few years ago when I awarded it top spot in my reviews of that season. Think it had 100 pages and took ages to read. Same season I saw a Man U one and thought it was crap. Written by people that had no feeling for the club but were no doubt paid a lot of money to write such unfeeling garbage.

Still 100 pages and still £3.

[Superajm]

mattblue wrote:

I still collect everything home and away - cardiff and wales, although programmes are now getting stupidly large, peterboros the other day was 100 pages !!! WHY !!! crazy size

A fitting tribute to that game

You want to collect a 100 pages every home game - I'll need to move house soon!

[Geddon]

Yeah the Peterborough programme was like a small book this season. Mind you I probably didn't feel as bad leaving the ground as Matt did so maybe not too much of a problem

I still collect them, but I think it's more to do with the fact that I want to have a programme from every game I've been to if there is one, rather than actually finding them particularly interesting. Most of them have very little interesting to say about the away team, and other than that it's just unbearably positive stuff about the new amazing youth team players etc. I much prefer reading our fanzines as they actually have an opinion on things.