In general you find a few different types of collectors within the football programme world. 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 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 their collection.

There is no exact size to a programme collection, with the only limitations to it come in the form of your financial restraints. To be a collector, there is no need to own highly sort after programmes, just simply something that brings enjoyment or a sense of satisfaction to the collector. Football programme collectors come from all sorts of backgrounds.

In the early stages of a collection, a collector may try to acquire 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 focus, and later when restraints may mean a particular theme will have to be chosen 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 particular competition, etc. During the course of a collection a person is likely to discover the highs and lows of acquiring a sought after old football programme, or the frustration of not being able to find a source for one that is vital to your collection.

Those casual collectors 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 major cup ties. 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 buy all editions for your chosen team. In addition to the regular league and cup matches, you may also be tempted to collect programmes from friendlies, foreign tours, reserve teams, and youth teams.

One way of improving the depth and scope of your collection is by choosing an earlier date for the time period for which you’re collecting. You might, for example, decide to collect back to 1965, etc.

A collector who is fairly 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 clubs at different levels (including non-league). For the more adventurous type of collector, football programmes may have been acquired from other countries.

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