HAVE you ever been lucky enough to catch a player’s shirt at the end of a match? You could be sitting on a goldmine worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Match worn football shirts are big business, with some selling for upwards of £150,000 at auction.
2
2
Maradona’s “Hand of God” top, which he wore for Argentina’s famous World Cup win against England in 1986, sold for £7.1m in May, making it the world’s most expensive football shirt.
It was sold by England midfielder Steve Hodge, who swapped shirts with Diego at the end of the match, earlier this year.
Prior to that, Pele’s 1970 World Cup and Geoff Hurst’s 1966 World Cup shirts topped the list of most expensive tops, fetching £157,750 and £91,750 respectively.
While it’s unlikely you’ve got a match worn World Cup final shirt collecting dust in the attic, football memorabilia expert Dave Alexander from Football Wanted said there are plenty of other collectors’ items that could be worth hundreds – or even thousands – of pounds.
Here are his tips on how to cash in on sports memorabilia ahead of the World Cup.
Match worn football shirts
If you’re lucky enough to have a match worn football shirt from the right player, era and game you could be sitting on a goldmine.
“Match worn shirts is a really big, up-and-coming market,” Dave said.
“For an average player on an average team you might get £100 for a match worn shirt.
“If you’ve got lucky and Ronaldo threw you a shirt, you might be looking at £1,000.
Most read in Money
“For big money, it needs to be the right player, on the right team, in the right era.
“Shirts from around 20 years ago could be worth a lot now.
“There’s a rumour Alan Ball’s World Cup shirt could be coming up for sale next year, which could potentially go for hundreds of thousands of pounds.”
Match worn shirts have sold on eBay for nearly £3,000.
A shirt said to have been worn by David Beckham for Manchester United with his famous number 7 on the back recently sold for £2,850 on the site.
But Dave warned punters to be careful when buying on eBay, as it can be difficult to verify authenticity.
He said: “People do take it for granted that shirts are real, but you can’t always be sure – that’s why you are best off buying from a reputable company that specialises in memorabilia.
“If you are buying one look for a shirt that’s UACC backed, it’s a governing body that verifies shirts and they’ve got a fantastic reputation.”
Replica shirts
While the big money is in match worn shirts, some replica shirts can also be valuable.
Dave says there’s been a particular boom in sales of shirts from the 80s recently.
“Prices have gone sky high,” he says. “If you have a shirt you bought from the club shop in the 80s, chances are it’s worth more than £100 now.”
Some 90s shirts are also proving popular, with one rare Arsenal top selling for hundreds of pounds.
“There’s a very popular Arsenal shirt that was worn as their third kit for a couple of seasons, called the bruised banana.
“If you bought that for £15 at the time, you could sell now for around £300. It’s really popular at the moment. I sold a match worn one, worn by a sub, for £1,400 recently.”
Football programmes
Modern day football programmes aren’t worth much, but if you’re sitting on a collection from before the 1960s you could be on to a winner.
“Programmes from recent matches, even from the 70s and 80s, aren’t worth more than a pound or two – but if you dig out your grandad’s collection from the loft you could be looking at thousands,” Dave says.
“I recently sold a collection of paper football programmes from before the war for £35,000.”
Football cards
Football cards can be another popular collector’s item, Dave said.
“Cards are really buzzing at the moment,” he said.
“Kids will relate as they’ll be collecting the Panini 2022 World Cup cards but if you’ve hung on to cards from the 50s and 60s they could be worth something.”
Interest from American collectors is apparently driving the price up on some rare cards.
“There’s a George Best cigarette card worth over £2,000 at the moment,” Dave said.
“It comes as part of a set of 50 from the early 60s.
“The rest of the set are probably worth about £50 but it’s that one George Best card that has the real value.
“It was his first ever card, when he was a bit of an unknown – the Americans call it a rookie card – and people are buying that now as an investment.”
Autographs
While autographs were once popular collectors’ items, they’re unlikely to fetch much at auction.
“Most autographs – especially from players still in the game – aren’t worth much,” Dave says.
“There are a few exceptions to look out for though. Bobby Moore, George Best and Pele’s autographs tend to hold their money.”
Autograph values can also vary depending on what they’re signed on, he explains.
“If you have Bobby Moore’s autograph from when he was manager of Southend it might only be worth £30, but a nice England photo that he’s signed could be £150. On the whole, his is one of the most valuable autographs.”
‘66 memorabilia
Along with England’s hosting – and win – of the World Cup in 1966 came a huge amount of memorabilia.
Dave recently sold 150 different World Cup items at auction, including food menus given to the players, autographed balls and lots of items bearing the official ‘66 World Cup mascot – World Cup Willie.
“Almost anything with World Cup Willie on it is sought after,” Dave says.
“There were loads and loads of things that had him on it in the run-up to the tournament. You can sell teddies of him for £90, or car mascots given to AA members now go for about £100. I probably sold around 50 or 60 items with World Cup Willie on them in my last auction.”
Ticket stubs
While it’s impossible to know what might hold value in the future, Dave says your best bet if you’re heading to a match and want to make a few quid is to hang on to the ticket stub.
“If you go to any of the big games, hang to your ticket stub,” he says. “The final ticket for the ‘66 World Cup is worth £100 just for a stub.”
And Dave says stubs are worth the most immediately after the event.
“Let’s say England wins the World Cup, the next day that stub could be worth £500.
“It would be worth more than its face value in no time if we win it.”
