7 steps to record collecting heaven
how to start your own football club's record collection

1/ Narrow Down The Field
As there are hundreds of records available on 7", 12" , CD and cassette it pays to choose a specific club, national team, star player or type of format such as picture discs.

2/ Research The Subject
When you've decided on your subject, find out which recordings exist by writing to the club, the matchday dj's, fanzines, web sites and check various lists that appear in football magazines from time to time. There is also a comprehensive list in the newly published second edition of the excellent and essential a football compendium by Peter J. Seddon. Specialist record collector magazines have been known to write features on the footie music genre.

3/ Finding Copies
The best place to find copies of that 'must have' record are in your local second-hand record shop and or on market stalls, they may well have a special section set aside for the football record. A few shops excel in this area. Try Beanos mail order on 0181 680 1202, Sportspages London on 0171 240 9604, Sportspages Manchester on 0161 832 8530 or Reddington's rare records in Birmingham on 0121 643 2017.

4/ Investigate Collections
Check out the collections released by football music specialists cherry red records and also exotica records. Cherry red are the market leaders in this field having release 37 "club classics" listed on this web site. If Manchester united is your chosen subject then Exotica's releases will appeal to you. They include "George: the best album" and "Cantona: the album". Both feature unique recordings and audio snippets in tribute to those manc idols. All these collections are essential listening and are a great source as to what's available to collect and could be collectable in their own right in years to come.

5/ Get The Best Price
There are ultimately no golden rules as to how to collect. If you find the record you're after in a specialist shop you may well find the price is higher than imagined - you could go to your local charity shop or car boot sale and find the same record for peanuts. Remember that there is always at least one football record in every charity shop in the country so that's one hell of a lot of records. It may not be what you're looking for but that's the reality of collecting.

6/ The Local Media
Local radio can be a good source for finding those rare vinyl copies in reasonably good nick. Due to modernisation many radio stations are clearing their libraries of the space-consuming vinyl. It pays to write to the librarians to see if a sell-off is imminent. Generally they are helpful for providing label / catalogue number details. It's also worth writing to the club reporter on your local newspaper.

7/ Have Patience!
Collecting can be very rewarding on a good day and very annoying on a bad one. It does help if you have endless patience and some creativity to trace the really rare stuff. Due to the fact that there are no definitive lists relating to the subject you could find yourself unearthing long forgotten classics or unique spoken word footage. Football record collecting is likely to become a more disciplined area soon. When it does, prices will rise, so get collecting and good luck!