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In general you find a few different types of collectors within the football programme communiuty. There is the potential collector who has a passing interest in starting a programme collection, there is the latent collector who collects programmes very sporadically, there is the casual collector who may accumulate 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 purchase programmes in order to enhance their collection.

There is no maximum or minimum size to a collection, and the only limitations to it come in the form of your financial restraints. To be a collector, there is no need to own highly expensive programmes, just simply something that brings enjoyment or a sense of achievement to the collector. Football programme collectors come from all sorts of backgrounds.

When they first start collecting, a collector may try to acquire everything on offer to their collection as soon as they can in order to give it some bulk. However, with this comes a loss of tangible meaning, and later when restrictions may mean a particular theme will have to be chosen and explored in order to further a collection.

There truly are a limitless number of themes and sub-themes of programmes that can be collected. However, there are a number of traditional ways to build a collection. For example, for example all those programmes concerned with a particular team, all those concerned with a specific competition, etc. Whilst collecting a person is likely to discover the joys and pitfalls of buying a sought after 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 special programmes for cup finals or semi-finals for the team that they personally support, internationals, testimonials, special fixtures, or other major cup ties. These can basically be classified 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 issues for your chosen team. In addition to the normal league and cup matches, you may also be tempted to collect programmes from friendlies, foreign tours, reserve teams, and youth teams.

One way of increasing 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 1940, etc.

A collector who is neutral in their affiliations, and just has a general passion for football will tend to widen the scope of their collection. In these sorts of collections you may find football programmes from a number of teams at varying levels (including non-league). For the more adventurous collector, football programmes may have been acquired 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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