Near-complete 1970 Mexico World Cup Panini album, £2000 at Gildings.
Previously the firm, founded by two brothers in Modena in 1961, was producing stickers for the Italian league. But for Mexico 1970 it secured the rights to publish its first FIFA World Cup trading cards and sell them outside Italy for the first time.
The craze for collecting and trading football stickers that became the norm in playgrounds in the 1970s-80s was born.
The cards from the original 1970 World Cup issue are not easy to find in any quantity and in good condition.
The near-complete album offered by Gildings (20% buyer’s premium) in Market Harborough on December 5 came for sale from a vendor who had received it as a 12th birthday present from his aunt. She had worked for Thorpe and Porter, Panini’s Leicestershire-based distributor and had given her nephew the complete set. The only two cards now missing were the Jules Rimet Trophy and the Moroccan Football Federation badge.
Offered with an estimate of £1200-1800, it took £2000 from a UK-based collector. Last year Stacey’s in Rayleigh, Essex, sold an outstanding complete copy for £2800.
Man Utd – the Newton Heath years
Trade card 'Play Up Newton Heath', with player inset for Farman and Pears soap advert to the back, £2100 at Loddon Auctions.
The WG McGregor Bonner Collection offered at Loddon Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) included a trade card Play Up Newton Heath, with player inset for Farman and Pears soap advert to the back. Newton Heath were the forerunner to Manchester United.
This scarce card, described as ‘slightly grubby and with some paper adhesion to reverse’, was estimated at £1000-2000 in the November 29 sale held by the Reading firm and made £2100.
