In general you find a number of different types of collectors within the football programme communiuty. There is the potential collector who has a passing interest in beginning a programme collection, there is the latent collector who collects programmes infrequently, 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 distinct aims and regularly tries to purchase programmes in order to enhance their collection.

There is no minimum or maximum size to a programme collection, with the only limitations to it come in the form of your available finance. To be a collector, there is no need to own highly sort after programmes, just simply something that brings pleasure or a sense of satisfaction to the collector. Programme collectors come from all sorts of backgrounds.

When they first start collecting, a collector may try to add everything they can find to their collection as quickly as possible in order to give it some substance. 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 certain traditional ways of building a collection. For example, for example all those programmes involving a particular team, all those concerned with a specific competition, etc. During the course of a collection a person is likely to experience the highs and lows of buying a sought after old football programme, or the frustration of not being able to find a source for one that is key to your collection.

Those collectors who are more causal in their approach to the collecting of football programmes will usually own a limited number of important programmes for major finals or semi-finals for the team that they personally follow, internationals, testimonials, special fixtures, or other major cup matches. These can basically be classed as a Big Match programme.

If you have a big affection for a particular football club your mission in programme collecting may be to simply acquire all editions for your favourite 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 1965, etc.

A collector who is fairly neutral in his or her affiliations, and just has a general passion for football will often widen the scope of their collection. In these sorts of collections you often find football programmes from a number of teams at varying levels (including non league). For the more adventurous type of collector, football programmes may have been bought from other countries.

Chris Rudolph is a football programme collector and dealer. He runs the programme collector website.

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