It is very true that I prefer stickers over cards, but I will preface by saying I do collect cards also, I just like stickers a lot more! (Did the website title give it away?)
This article will outline a few of the reasons I think stickers are more satisfying to collect than cards. By no means am I trying to persuade anyone to one side, rather just giving readers an idea of why I think this way.
1. Completely Tracking a Player’s Career
Once a player breaks into the first team, it’s not long before Panini and Topps take notice and add them to their sticker collections. This has been historically true, and a reason a player’s true rookie card is often in the sticker form. Often when a player gets their first sticker, they will continue to get stickers for the rest of their career, assuming they play in a league where stickers are produced. Let’s use Luis Figo as a case study. He gets his first sticker for Sporting CP in a Panini Portuguese set in 1992, he went onto move to Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan. The super cool thing about stickers is you can have a Figo sticker for every year since 1992 until his retirement with Inter Milan. I think this makes a really complete collection for a personal collection (PC).
On the flip side, if you were to collect Figo cards, there would be many missing in a given, with most cards being with different companies. Yes, if you like collecting Figo it is still very cool, but, in my opinion, not as complete as a sticker collection. Admittedly, cards are produced a lot more in 2024, but you will still find it very difficult to find a card for every year a player plays. A major reason for this is not all leagues have cards currently, (for example, Portugal) and if a team does have cards, let’s say the EPL and Panini Prizm, there is no guarantee that the player will be in the collection as they don’t include the full squad.
I think tracking a player’s career through stickers is very cool as you can remember all the kits and memories of that season. For example, Robert Pires 2003/04 Merlin sticker is likely dirt cheap and will never be an expensive sticker. But when I see this sticker and that kit, I remember Pires absolutely on fire and leading Arsenal through the Invincibles season and ultimately the title! Value is not always in dollars 🙂
2. A Simple Collection
This is becoming more relevant each year as Panini and Topps and printing new sets like its going out of fashion! It became really noticeable with the emergence of Pedri from Barcelona. I can’t remember off the top of my head, but there was something like 15-20 rookie year cards of Pedri, with multiple having the “RC” logo. Now for a new comer in the hobby, that has got to be confusing! Don’t get me wrong, I love collecting cards, but it starts to get tedious when I have collect 20 of one player for a single season.
On the other hand, stickers offers a very comfortable alternative. Depending on the club a player is at and how good the player is, in most cases the most stickers you will get in 1 season is around 5. This usually consists of one in the league, for example Panini English Premier League, a Uefa Champions League sticker, maybe a generic set like Panini 365, and any relevant National Team sticker for the year (Euros, Copa America, World Cup ect). In the sticker world the most desirable sticker is always the league sticker. So a nice simple way of collecting a PC player is just collecting their league sticker every year – this is easily doable as nearly all footballing countries have a sticker set. I don’t know about you, but to me, it is much more comfortable than collecting 20 cards every year. Over a 15 year career thats 300 cards (Not including parallels)!
A fantastic example of this is a Paolo Maldini collection from my friend on instagram: nk.cards – check his profile by clicking the link.
Below is a picture of all Paolo Maldini’s league stickers from the Panini Calciatori collection (Italian Serie A) – stretching from 1985 to 2009!!!!
Here is another great example collecting a player’s career from retrosoccercards – with an amazing collection of Frank Lampard
Retrosoccercards is huge Chelsea collector and probably has the most extensive Chelsea collection I have seen!
He can be found on Instagram – and also has a Youtube Channel, where he has very interesting hobby related content – mostly focused on the EPL.
3. Forgetting About Money $$
A big perk of collecting stickers is the avoidance of all the speculation that is in the card hobby. I don’t think this speculation is a bad thing as I personally enjoy it. For some people, this is not the case – where you often find people saying something like, “the hobby is only for rich people and breakers.” Well, in a sense that is true. It is hard for the beginner/casual card collector to get a low numbered parallel of a big player. For such collectors, it is discouraging and they quickly lose interest. I guess one of the underlying questions is are they in it to make money or collect their favourite players. If it is the latter, then collecting stickers is a great alternative!
I should note that some older stickers are subject to speculation also, but in the grand scheme of things, it is no where near the level of cards. If you are someone that just wants to collect their favourite players, stickers is great and will not break the bank. As previously mentioned, it is quite easy to get a league sticker each year of a player’s playing career. It might not seem as glamorous as a 1/1 rookie auto, and in truth it’s not. But when you see a whole players career spread out in front of you, showing each of the kits they played in, it is very satisfying. And for me, more satisfying than having a low numbered parallel of a given player.
For me personally, I have a bunch of card parallels but it is pretty much only for resell purposes. It’s not really passion, I am just trying to make some money out of it. Stickers on the other hand, I can’t see myself selling the ones I love! Have you noticed with cards you can have an awesome rookie card but it is only a base card so it’s basically junk? When the hobby has got to that stage, there is something seriously wrong.
Diversity
I have touched on there being stickers sets in most countries, but that hasn’t given the reader a grasp of how many stickers there are around the world. Most people are aware of the big league stickers like EPL, Bundesliga, Calciatori and France Foot, but there are 100s of other sets out there to make a really interesting collection. In South America you have Brazil, Argentina and sometimes Uruguay and Colombia. North America you have Mexico. In Europe you have the big leagues that we have mentioned, to the smaller collections like Belgium, Czech, Poland and Russia. The diversity is just massive and some of the players you can find in these sets are just amazing.
For example, Robert Lewandowski’s true rookie sticker comes out of Poland before he signs for Dortmund. Now for me, that is more interesting than a low numbered parallel you can find in any card set. Now this one isn’t cheap and it is not easy to find!
A recent example is the Khvicha Kvaratskhelia rookie sticker from Panini Russian Premier League 2019/20.
Final Word
For me, collecting stickers is the funnest way of collecting because of the reasons I have said above. I still love cards, but stickers are the best!
There is nothing wrong with people who are in the hobby to make money. As far as I’m concerned, the more the merrier! When it comes to people who actually want to collect, I think it is important they value their collection for the nostalgia and satisfaction it brings. Too often people value their collections based on its dollar value – and in my opinion, this is why people fall out of love with the hobby.
Thanks! Great article!
Thanks for reading!