Sticky Fingers

Do I feel like I have been the victim of a scam? 

Can that feeling of having been exploited and ripped off to some extent actually be retrospectively applied to myself 50 years ago aged 7? 

No, I haven't been subjected to psychoanalysis, regression therapy or hypnosis nor contacted by a firm of lawyers asking if I might have a claim for injury or worse during my formative years. 

This all came about having watched an ITV programme on April 23rd entitled "Stuck on you- the Football Sticker Story". 

I was an avid collector of football cards, my earliest album being that for the 1970 World Cup Tournament. The cover of the cardboard album depicted Bobby Moore being carried aloft with the Jules Rimet Trophy from those far off days when, wait for it.....England were the Champions and Holders of that tiny golden symbol of soccer supremacy. 

I seem to remember that a packet of cards, flimsy paper things, cost an old sixpence which was at that time more than my weekly pocket money allocation. 

I continued with the pastime and had albums for the English League for the seasons of 1971-1972 and 1972-1973. I thought nothing of the quality of the photographs of the players but according to the ITV broadcast they were variable in quality, at times featuring a player's head clumsily superimposed on another's body. some poorly re-painted shirts where in the pre-publication period a player was transferred to another team, weird and ungainly poses and some action shots where a player's face is actually obscured by the ball or the elbow of an adversary. I have provided a few examples from the 1972/73 album within the following paragraphs. 

The Publishers of the English League collector cards were FKS whose address was in Canning Place in Liverpool. Theirs was a responsible role and the inside back page of the album bore, under a large capitalised WARRANTY the assurance that each and every stamp as they called them was of identical print run and that a special mixing process was carried out to ensure that there was a fair and equal selection and distribution across the packets. 

Every child who was drawn into the world of collectable cards must have accumulated a huge number of duplicate cards or "swapsies" and this brought about scenes of huddled and haggling youngters with, to anyone eavesdropping being party to a strange and very repetitive mantra of just two words of "got" and "need". The level of negotiation, bartering and horse-trading done in such circumstances may not ever have been duplicated in successive generations and may, you never know, have been the inspiration of many those participants to go into business, mediation, arbitration and the Stock Exchange. 

It was true that FKS ruled in an unopposed manner in the football card sector. That was until the arrival in 1978 of the new kid on the block, the monarch elect in the guise of the Italian company, Panini. They did have a hard act to follow but their unique selling points really appealed to the young market. 

These were an adhesive backing, a better quality of picture and a much more glossy album. I was, in 1978 far too old and cool to partake in the revolution of football cards but my two younger brothers took up and continued the tradition in our family.

If there is one hard lesson I have learned from the experience it is that in retrospect I should not have sellotaped the cards into the album.