Organised programme collecting - when did it begin?

[Tynie Topics]

As the title says. In the Hearts programmes between 1946-1952 when it was edited by the "eccentric" George Robertson (he died in 1952), he used to list all the people he had received letters from asking for a copy of the programme, from all over the "empire" by the look of it, but with many requests from around the UK.

Whether these were collectors or not is open to speculation, but there was the odd quote printed now and again along the lines of "Thank you for the programmes, which are undoubtedly the best Scottish programme I have seen. Yours, Reginald Smithers. Surbiton."

Now we know that from the early 1950's the likes of Charles Buchan's Football Monthly carried adverts for swaps and programmes wanted/for sale, but was there any collecting going on pre-War? ie more than people just keeping programmes from games they went to?

Just when did actual "collecting" start?
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/footballprogrammes/albums

[Wullie]

I wonder about pre war programmes that were bound together. They are many "ex binder " issues about. Were these made for collectors or were they made for the club records?

[Tynie Topics]

Well Hearts used to advertise bound volumes of programmes for sale in the 50's (and a few have survived intact), so there was a market for them. Never seen an ex-bound volume pre-war Hearts though (not to say they dont exist)
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/footballprogrammes/albums

[Wullie]

Maybe that was the "style" of collecting pre war, for the few who could afford it. A bound volume . I guess kids would swop programmes years ago like they swapped comics and marbles, then maybe one or two, as they grew older, wrote to the secrectary of a club asking for a programme. I think the late David Stacey was one of the first dealers.
Here is a funny article, of a guy who tried to set up his own programme business.
http://www.salutnorth.com/2008/02/programmed-to-f.html

[pastpirate]

As I mentioned in another thread. I worked in a chaps house a while back and his father collected Arsenal progs when he went to games from around 1904 to around the fifties. So I imagine it has been going on for a long time.
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www.bristolroversmemorabilia.weebly.com The definitive list of Bristol Rovers programmes

[Wulfrunian]

As far as I am aware, most fans, even more so than now, only went to home or local away games. Travel wasnt as easy, so most collections contained few away programmes. But I know for a fact that my Grandad had a collection of Big Match 'programmes' going back into the 1800s. Im not sure when most clubs started producing programmes for general league games, but would imagine for most it would be between 1910 and 1920. Maybe someone knows this more factually. However I would think that it that collecting as a buying and selling hobby for general league programmes from games people hadn't attended would have been more of a post War thing. Then again I could just be a senile old twit lol.
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