About collecting football programmes
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 very sporadically, there is the casual collector who may collect old 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 buy programmes in order to enhance their collection.
There is no minimum or maximum size to a collection, and the only limitations to it come in the form of your financial restraints. To be a collector, there is no need to own highly expensive programmes, just simply something that brings pleasure or a sense of achievement to the collector. Programme collectors come from all walks of life.
When they first start collecting, a collector may try to buy everything they can find to their collection as soon as they can in order to give it some bulk. 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 a limitless number of themes and sub-themes of programmes that can be collected. However, there are certain traditional ways to build a collection. For example, for example all those programmes concerned with a particular club, all those played in a specific competition, etc. Whilst collecting a person is likely to discover the highs and lows of acquiring a rare 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 special programmes for cup 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 affiliation to a particular soccer club your mission in programme collecting may be to simply acquire all editions for your favourite team. In addition to the regular league matches and cup-ties, you may also try 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 could, for example, decide to collect back to 1950, etc.
A collector who is neutral in their 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 countries other than his or her own.