Soccer Cards and Chill Podcast: Are Stickers a GATEWAY DRUG to CARDS?

Been a while, hasn’t it? I’d like to offer you a warm welcome to Soccer Cards and Chill, a podcast for you if you love collecting cards (and stickers)!

It’s a great place to learn about the hobby regardless of if you’re a rookie or a veteran. Our podcast will help you keep abreast of what’s going on with wisdom from people who work in the hobby or those who just have an immeasurable amount of love for it...

In this episode, I caught up with Greg Lansdowne. He’s a Freelance Sports PR Advisor & Writer and he knows a thing or two about collecting stickers and cards. Greg has published two books, one is the fantastically named ‘Stuck on You’, released in 2015, and the other is called 'Livings A Fan’s Adventure Tale', which was published a year later.

The bulk of our conversation is very much dominated by that synergy between collecting cards and stickers.

Why do people love stickers so much? As Greg points out, a lot of people come to adore stickers because of the great memories many of us have from childhood, especially in Britain. There has been a big sticker collecting culture here in the UK for decades, I can remember being mesmerised by a Carlton Athletic ‘shiny’ in the playground at my first school.

Greg told us about how he got ‘the bug’ and became a collector back in the 70s, going on to almost complete an iconic album from that time. He theorised that stickers endure because not only are they rather addictive, but they’re fun!

Are Stickers now starting to mimic cards?

The short answer is yes. Interestingly, Stickers are now starting to borrow many of the terms we commonly use on the card side of the hobby.

Greg told us that some of the ‘purists’ aren’t too happy with this development. How has the hobby evolved? Both Greg and I covered how we have seen things change over the years. He won’t mind me writing this, but Greg has been around a bit longer. Now, as with cards, many collectors are thinking more about the value of their collections, and this is impacting behaviour.

It’s interesting to zoom out and recall how things have changed, that was a particularly enjoyable segment of the podcast.

Do Stickers have an international appeal?

Four Four Two produced a documentary on stickers before the World Cup in Russia back in 2018, after speaking with him they interviewed a guy from Columbia who spoke about how big collecting stickers was in that country. Like cards, stickers have an international appeal. Greg elaborates on this and talks about how things might play out in the future with a World Cup in North America on the horizon.

I asked Greg is football stickers were the perfect gateway drug to football cards? He agreed. Stickers do seem to have a nice appeal with younger audiences who then go on to become card collectors in the future. Greg’s best stickers?

We also spoke about Greg’s prized sticker and his top sticker album, and found out more about the various books he has written on the hobby.

He had advice for those who might be collecting for the first time this year and we reminisced about some of Futera’s collections from the 1990s! This is an episode you won’t want to miss, so ensure you’re subscribed across the various different podcasting platforms and YouTube.

Until next time,

Adam