Programme Collecting

Programme collecting has been with us ever since football began. From the earliest days over 100 years ago, some form of programme or souvenir was issued to commemorate the rnatch. The beauty of programme collecting, and the core of the hobby, is the fact that each and every enthusiast decides what he or she wishes to collect, making every collection personal. Most people started by keeping programmes from matches they attended, so most serious collectors have been, or still are, fans who regularly go to games. However, programmes are now a serious and lucrative investment, so there has been a growing trend for some seriously wealthy people to buy for financial reasons alone, but more of that later.

There are no set rules about how to begin a collection - due to the personal nature of the hobby you decide what you want to collect. But one of the first decisions you have to make is how much you wish to invest in your collection programmes vary in price from 5p to more than £5,000. Once this decision has been made you can then take the step of deciding what you want to collect. A lot of enthusiasts specialise in their own teams home programmes, reserve games, away games, friendlies, testimonials, specific cup games and miscellaneous games played at your clubs ground. Once you've decided on one of these, or any other category, you can see to what limits you can broaden the collection - the possibilities are immense.

Many collectors choose League and FA Cup finals, European games, Internationals or World Cup games and often they will collect from a specific time - blocks of 10 years is an obvious choice because it gives you the opportunity to complete a collection before moving into another area. So, maybe you should consider starting a collection by aiming to get all the FA programmes from the '60s. Another popular choice is to start with the year in which you were born - this gives the collection a personal value, and, with thousands of football may played every week, there's always the opportunity to move on to a new area once you have completed a specific target.

But beware, once they start, most serious collectors collectors continue the hobby for the rest of their lives. Obviously, a new collector wants to know if programmes from recent matches will be worth anything in the future. The programmes bought at today's match may not have any real value individually for at least 25 years, but certain games often turn out to be hard to obtain. A good example of programme for the England vs Switzerland game from Euro '96 which is already fetching anything up to £20. As in all areas of collecting, the laws of supply and demand dictate which programmes have the greatest value; a programme is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it and the reasons they want it can often be complex - it might be the last programme they need to collection, for example. Certainly most collectors would agree that if they are looking for that last elusive programme they are likely to offer more as soon as it becomes available rather than a better price and risk losing it.

Remember, programmes are worth much more in good condition and even a particularly rare programme may not be valuable if it is in poor condition. Programme designs from the post-war years up to the late '60s did not differ greatly, until modern technology arrived with the introduction of colour photography and advanced design tools. The modern programme often resembles a Sunday glossy magazine packed with adverts. In "the good old days" the programme was an invaluable source of information concerning your club and the opponents and general topics from the game. That information is now available on TV, radio and in newspapers and magazines, but at one point, the programme was the main source of information for many fans.

There are several ways in which you can find programmes. Firstly there are a couple of trade magazines that are worth reading, such as Boot (6 Denmark Road, London N8 ODZ) which carries over 60 pages of adverts each month and The Football Collector (179 Grove Street, Newark, Notts NG24 3AS). Another way to obtain programmes is through an offers list which is like a mini auction held every six weeks by dealers and collectors. Most rare programmes are purchased by this method. There are also fairs held up and down the country throughout the year. All the main fairs are listed in the trade magazines and there's also a list on pages 12 and 13 of this supplement. Some club programmes also carry details of fairs.

Major auction houses such as Christie's and Bonhams hold auctions twice a year and the more expensive and very rare items appear here. Recently a private collection was sold for over £100,000 which is not bad for a few bits of old paper. Financial investors have escalated the price of programmes to such an extent that the record price for a British programme now stands at over £7,000. But for genuine enthusiasts who see the hobby as a challenge rather than just a means of making money, the historical value of a programme can be one of the main lures. As with many areas of collecting the Munich air disaster in February 1958 is a significant event and one of the most sought-after programmes is for the match that was never played on the Saturday after Munich. The programmes for that game against Wolves were destroyed as a mark of respect, but some had already been distributed and are a poignant memento for United fans of the club's darkest hour. They regularly go for up to £1,000 at auction.

Written by Richard Lerman and Andrew Young - Arsenal programme specialists and are the authors of The Arsenal Programme Guide. Contact them on 0181 341 2663 for further information.