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In general you find a few different types of collectors within the football programme world. There is the potential collector who has a passing interest in starting a programme collection, there is the latent collector who collects programmes occasionally, there is the casual collector who may collect old or new football programmes without having a specific theme to their collection, and also there is the confirmed collector who has specific aims and regularly tries to acquire programmes in order to enhance his or her collection.
There is no minimum or maximum size to a collection, with the only limitations to it come in the form of your available finance. To be a collector, there is no need to own highly expensive programmes, just simply something that brings enjoyment or a sense of satisfaction to the collector. Football programme collectors come from all walks of life.
When they first start collecting, a collector may try to buy everything on offer to their collection as soon as they can in order to give it some substance. However, with this comes a loss of focus, and later when restrictions may mean a particular theme will have to be chosen and explored in order to enhance a collection.
There truly are a limitless number of themes and sub-themes of programmes that can be collected. However, there are certain traditional ways of building a collection. For example, for example all those programmes involving a particular club, all those concerned with a specific competition, etc. During the course of a collection a person is likely to experience the joys and pitfalls of acquiring a rare old football programme, or the frustration of not being able to find a source for one that is vital to your collection.
Those collectors who are more causal in their approach to the collecting of football programmes will usually own a small number of important programmes for cup finals or semi-finals for the team that they personally follow, internationals, testimonials, special fixtures, or other big cup ties. These can basically be classed as a Big Match programme.
If you have a strong affection for a particular soccer club your mission in programme collecting may be to simply buy all editions for your favourite team. In addition to the normal league matches and cup-ties, you may also attempt to collect programmes from friendlies, foreign tours, reserve teams, and youth teams.
One way of improving the depth and scope of your collection is by choosing an earlier date from which to collect. You could, for example, decide to collect back to 1950, etc.
A collector who is fairly neutral in his or her affiliations, and just has a general passion for football will tend to widen the scope of their collection. In these sorts of collections you often find football programmes from a number of clubs at varying levels (including non league). For the more adventurous type of collector, football programmes may have been bought from countries other than his or her own.
Chris Rudolph is a football programme collector and dealer. He runs the programme collector website.
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