#Net #Collecting #Soccer #Cards #WorthPoint
Soccer has a long tradition going back to at least Ancient China. In medieval England, soccer—or football, as it’s known in Europe—was more like an all-out street brawl than the game we know today. Over the 20th century, the game became a global cultural phenomenon, giving rise to some of the most famous figures in popular culture and countless team fandoms. This enduring love for the game has also created a vibrant market for memorabilia and collectibles, including collectible cards.
The Birth of Soccer Cards
The first soccer cards date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when tobacco companies began including trading cards in cigarette packs as a marketing gimmick. These early cigarette cards spanned a range of themes, from castles of England to popular musicians of the day, but British cigarette maker Thomas Ogden was a notable early pioneer of sports cards.
From the early 1900s through to World War II (when shortages made including free cards no longer practical), Ogden’s company produced countless cards of soccer players, which are now highly collectible items. Each card features a picture of a player on the front—a drawing in the early days and photographs in later years—and a short biography on the back, making the cards a fascinating window into the world of football from over a century ago.
The value of these cards varies wildly, depending on quality and year of production. The cards were ubiquitous in their day, so despite their age, they can often be acquired for surprisingly low costs. On the more expensive end, a graded and well-preserved 1908 card can go for around $300.
The Golden Era of Soccer Cards
By the mid-20th century, soccer had become an obsession for many countries worldwide, and card companies were eager to capitalize on it. The 60s and 70s were a particularly rich period, as the game’s popularity grew across South America and Europe (with England’s historic 1966 World Cup win as a landmark moment for the game’s popularity in Britain).
Companies such as Topps, known for their baseball cards in America, seized the opportunity to produce large sets of soccer cards. Cards of notable players from the 1950s to the 1970s can be worth large amounts today, especially if graded and well-preserved. A PSA-graded George Best card from 1964 went for over $50,000 in 2022, while a mint condition 1957 card of Pelé went for over £480,000.
Complete sets of cards from this era can often fetch very high prices at auction. In 2022, a full collection of gum cards produced by Anglo Confectionary Ltd for the 1970 World Cup, PSA-graded and bearing the autographs of several key players, sold for nearly $2000.
Another notable collectible of the era is the Panini World Cup sticker album. These albums are a common sight during any World Cup and are still made today, but the first and most collectible Panini album was created for the 1970 Mexico World Cup. Even the album, with only a small handful of stickers, sells for thousands of dollars.
The Modern Era
Modern soccer is popular worldwide and is comprised of different leagues where teams of similar quality are pitted against each other. In England, the EPL (English Premier League), instituted in 1992, hosts the twenty top club teams in the country. This is of global interest as many of the world’s top players play for English clubs such as Manchester City, Chelsea, and Manchester United.
Other popular competitions include La Liga (Spain), Bundesliga (Germany), and Brasileirão (Brazil). Each showcases the top teams from its respective country, and graded cards featuring players from these leagues are highly collectible.
Nowadays, companies produce pre-autographed cards designed to be highly valuable upon release. A 2019-2020 Topps card bearing the autograph of Erling Haaland sold for over $400,000 in 2021. Haaland is currently considered one of the best strikers in the world and has played for both the Norwegian national team and Manchester City. Companies also produce cards containing the autographs of multiple players, which can go for high prices.
The Beautiful Game
Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world—an estimated five billion people engaged in some way with the Qatar World Cup in 2022, with 1.5 billion watching the final. Cards are just one of many types of collectible items, but their long history means that fans of the sport have over a century of cards to start checking out. If you’ve got enough cash to spare, you could even own an autograph of your favorite player.
Getting cards professionally graded by companies like PSA is a surefire way to increase their value and confirm their authenticity—and on top of that, you’ll be preserving pieces of soccer history for generations to come.
Matthew Doherty is a writer, editor, and teacher specializing in all things history-related. His work has been published in the UK Defence Journal, the Small Wars Journal, and The Collector. He holds an MSc from the University of Edinburgh and a BA from the University of Leeds. In his spare time, he also writes science fiction stories.
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