Football Programmes Centre

Stats

About Me

What do you do for a living?

German teacher

Which club do you support and why?

Aberdeen, born and bred and first went with Dad aged 6. It’s the law – you support your home town team or your Dad’s team. Nothing else is allowed!

What do you collect?

Aberdeen Home and Away, plus tickets fanzines, etc. World and Euro finals programmes, tickets and magazines etc. European finals. Trade cards (Topps, A&BC etc.) and a few other things, including Olympics Memorabilia!

How did you get into programme collecting?

Always bought a programme when attending matches as a kid, and then started going to the Dons programme shop. Stopped collecting when I left home and headed down south, but got back into it in the last 8 or so years

Your Collection

What was your first football programme?

Probably an Aberdeen programme from the early 70’s

What was the last programme you bought?

Aberdeen v Hearts Feb. 1964 from ebay.

How big is your collection?

Hard to say really, but I have almost 40 seasons(1970/1 to present) worth Home and Away, with only two homes and 100 or so aways missing, plus numerous other Dons progs, and that’s before you count the others from World Cups etc

How do you store your collection?

A4 binders bought in French supermarkets and then in six filing cabinets in my store room in the garage. Too much stuff to find room in the house!

Whats the oldest programme you own?

A scruffy 1948 away to Dundee.

What is the rarest item in your collection?

Probably two from the Aberdeen tour in Canada in 1956 v Everton or maybe the 1958 World Cup Final

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

Borussia Mönchengladbach away in UEFA cup 1972/3. It was played at a neutral venue(Nuremberg) and I was offered one for €500 a few years ago, but I would never spend that much on a programme! Old cup finals (1937,1947 etc) are also difficult and expensive to obtain.

What is...?

What is your worst buy?

None I can really think of.

What is your best buy?

Probably World Cup final 1958 at £60 (an awful lot for me) or Wolves v Spurs Uefa Cup Final and Rangers 1967 ECWC Final (rarer edition) for £10 for the two!!

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

£60 as above, and a few at £50

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

About £35 for a spare Aberdeen v Real Madrid 1983 ECWC final

What is your most prized programme?

Too many to mention. 1983 ECWC Final/ full set of 2006 World Cup tickets /full set of 1972 blue back Scottish A & BC cards, which I collected as a kid

Whats your biggest regret in collecting?

Not stopping my brother-in-law selling off some of my collection of Scottish football cards from my childhood, when he found them in my sister’s attic!

The Hobby

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

Growing on-line, shrinking everywhere else.

What do you enjoy most about the hobby?

I suppose I’m just a schoolboy at heart, who loves completing sets, and collecting things, and all football stuff just looks and feels so good. And they are fun to read too, or just dip into! Fairs are fun too, and finding bargains in auctions or online, and then selling the spares, so you get the programmes you want for free! Well, in effect!

Where do you buy most of your programmes from?

ebay, and some dealers and general auctions

The Future

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

I’d love to complete my Aberdeen in Europe collection, but the 9 missing programmes all tend to go for £100+, which is too rich for my blood.

Would you ever sell your collection?

Very unlikely, although if I needed the money, I probably haven’t got anything else so valuable, although I could see me selling non-Aberdeen parts of the collection, when space becomes in shorter supply.

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

I just want to fill the gaps from 1970 onwards, and then start seriously going after the pre 1970 programmes. I’m not a stickler for the best condition programmes, as I sometimes find those with scores or scorers and team changes seem to have more character!