The last 18 months to two years have resulted in quite a few changes in our hobby and there are some interesting, and sometimes contradictory, trends in the football and memorabilia world at the moment. On the one hand prices on ebay, and at the auction houses, seem to be generally well in excess of where they were pre-covid. In many cases they have gone up by at least 50%, sometimes 100% and more.
This has encouraged a few more collectors to sell off part or all of their treasures but the increase in supply to the market does not, so far at least, have dampened down the prices being achieved. In addition many observes have noticed various changes at auction houses have taken place, with others being planned. We wait to see what effect this will all have.
Meanwhile, there are no clear or discernible trends in modern programmes. Certainly a few clubs in the top four leagues in England have ceased production. But they are a small minority and, from what I’ve seen over the first three months of 2021-22, the quality of most issues has improved. A few have reduced the number of pages (no bad thing from a collector’s perspective) but most have stayed the same, as have the prices.
Paul Matz
