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In general you find four 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 very sporadically, there is the casual collector who may collect 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 buy programmes in order to enhance his or her collection.

There is no exact size to a programme collection, and the only limitations to it come in the form of your available funding. To be a collector, there is no need to own highly expensive programmes, just simply something that brings enjoyment or a sense of satisfaction to the collector. Football programme collectors come from all walks of life.

In the early stages of a collection, a collector may try to add everything on offer to their collection as soon as they can 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 has to be selected and explored in order to enhance a collection.

There really are an unlimited number of themes and sub-themes of programmes that can be collected. However, there are a number of traditional ways of building a collection. For example, for example all those programmes concerned with a particular team, all those concerned with a specific competition, etc. During the course of a collection a person is likely to experience the joys and pitfalls of acquiring a rare 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 limited number of important programmes for major finals or semi-finals for the team that they personally support, internationals, testimonials, special fixtures, or other big cup matches. These can basically be classified 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 purchase all issues for your chosen team. In addition to the normal league and cup matches, you may also attempt 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 setting an earlier date from which to collect. You might, for example, decide to collect back to 1970, 1960, 1950, etc.

A collector who is neutral in his or her affiliations, and just has a general passion for football will tend to widen the scope of their collection. In these sorts of collections you often find football programmes from a range of clubs at different levels (including non league). For the more adventurous type of 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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