PSA's Top 5 Favorite Vintage Soccer Sets

[kobewhite]

Hey guys,

Wrote this blog post on my Top 5 Favorite vintage soccer sets for their impactfulness or simply how amazing their design is.

Let me know what you think and your Top 5!

https://blog.psacard.com/2022/03/17/...e-soccer-sets/

[YayNJ]

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by kobewhite

Hey guys,

Wrote this blog post on my Top 5 Favorite vintage soccer sets for their impactfulness or simply how amazing their design is.

Let me know what you think and your Top 5!

https://blog.psacard.com/2022/03/17/...e-soccer-sets/

Curious what your definition of "vintage" is....

I only collect cards, not stickers, and I collect primarily based on visual appeal.

So for me, I'd throw in the 1975/76/77 Topps Footballer sets, the 1978/82 Monty Gum sets, the 1991 Shooting Stars sets, and my all-time favorite design....the 1997 Panini Calcio Serie A set.

[fadster]

Nice! The 1970 Panini is a lock, the 1938 Konig is a great set and maybe the first to have so many pan-european stars. Tinghalls is a great set and the early US player cards are helping it further. I'm not huge on the Copes, they look great but it's such a big set but with two megacards (the Meredith and Bloomer) but not much else behind. Interestingly though there was a recent spate of big sales (£500-£800) for apparent commons but maybe they were rarer variants. The 1962 World Cup has some great sets, I have a soft sport for the San Giorgio's with the bold colours and Bobby Moore (which the others don't have) but the Vecchi is probably the nicer set overall.

I have a soft spot for 65/66 Bergmann with Beckenbauer, Muller, Maier, Netzer, Vogts and Heynckes all having rookie cards.

[fadster]

Originally Posted by mfw13

Curious what your definition of "vintage" is....

I only collect cards, not stickers, and I collect primarily based on visual appeal.

So for me, I'd throw in the 1975/76/77 Topps Footballer sets, the 1978/82 Monty Gum sets, the 1991 Shooting Stars sets, and my all-time favorite design....the 1997 Panini Calcio Serie A set.

I believe the PSA definition is:

Vintage 1971 and earlier
Modern 1972 to 2017
Ultra modern 2018-Present

[kobewhite]

Originally Posted by fadster

I believe the PSA definition is:

Vintage 1971 and earlier
Modern 1972 to 2017
Ultra modern 2018-Present

Correct

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by fadster

I believe the PSA definition is:

Vintage 1971 and earlier
Modern 1972 to 2017
Ultra modern 2018-Present

The problem is that while those definitions make sense for other sports, they don't really make sense for soccer, especially if you focus on cards, rather than stickers. Because up until the mid-90's there just weren't very many soccer cards being produced. Even from the mid-90's up until 2017, soccer cards are comparatively scarce and hard to find.

Or to put it another way, it's harder to find a Zidane RC (1992) than it is a Mantle RC (1952).....

[kobewhite]

Originally Posted by mfw13

The problem is that while those definitions make sense for other sports, they don't really make sense for soccer, especially if you focus on cards, rather than stickers. Because up until the mid-90's there just weren't very many soccer cards being produced. Even from the mid-90's up until 2017, soccer cards are comparatively scarce and hard to find.

Or to put it another way, it's harder to find a Zidane RC (1992) than it is a Mantle RC (1952).....

I actually agree with this haha, soccer vintage to me is until 90/00.

[fadster]

Originally Posted by mfw13

The problem is that while those definitions make sense for other sports, they don't really make sense for soccer, especially if you focus on cards, rather than stickers. Because up until the mid-90's there just weren't very many soccer cards being produced. Even from the mid-90's up until 2017, soccer cards are comparatively scarce and hard to find.

Or to put it another way, it's harder to find a Zidane RC (1992) than it is a Mantle RC (1952).....

I'm not sure that's completely accurate to be honest. Most of the big vintage sets were cards, especially pre-war (South America being the main exception). If anything the skew towards stickers was heaviest in the 80's and 90s, when autoadhesive stickers took off and became super popular and put cards on the back burner. Before then when the term sticker is used it often simply refers to a card that was meant to be manually stuck into an album. For example three of these five sets are what most people would call cards, the other two are stickers that had to be manually stuck in with glue.

If I had to classify periods in football I'd say
vintage 1978 and earlier
"panini years" 1979-1993
Modern 1994-2013 (Merlin is bought by Topps and steadily grows, both Panini and Topps expands ranges domestically)
Ultra Modern 2014 - present (Topps and Panini start bringing out global releases and brands)

[kobewhite]

Originally Posted by fadster

I'm not sure that's completely accurate to be honest. Most of the big vintage sets were cards, especially pre-war (South America being the main exception). If anything the skew towards stickers was heaviest in the 80's and 90s, when autoadhesive stickers took off and became super popular and put cards on the back burner. Before then when the term sticker is used it often simply refers to a card that was meant to be manually stuck into an album. For example three of these five sets are what most people would call cards, the other two are stickers that had to be manually stuck in with glue.

If I had to classify periods in football I'd say
vintage 1978 and earlier
"panini years" 1979-1993
Modern 1994-2013 (Merlin is bought by Topps and steadily grows, both Panini and Topps expands ranges domestically)
Ultra Modern 2014 - present (Topps and Panini start bringing out global releases and brands)

To me it depends on country. Brazil didn't have self adhesive stickers until mid 90s for their Campeonato Brasileiro albums, which I consider a big change in sticker collecting.

[Ray V]

Always so difficult to narrow down to just 5, you've made some fine choices. A few others to consider:
1) 1958 Alifabolaget - the set with the Pele "rookie" card, the most valuable soccer card, deserves to be in the list. Honourable mention to the Quigol set.
2) 1898-1902 Ogden's sets - maybe excluded because they are not exclusively soccer but landmark sets in their own right and first appearances on cards for many vintage greats.
3) 1958 A&BC - their first dedicate soccer set, includes the Bobby Charlton rookie card that some people liken to the 1952 Mantle.
4) Baines and Sharpes Shields - unique design, some great players, and large quantity of obscure teams.
5) 1902 Wills - classic photograph design and great checklist of early stars.
6) 1928 Gartmann Chocolates - naturally beautiful cards

[fadster]

Originally Posted by Ray V

Always so difficult to narrow down to just 5, you've made some fine choices. A few others to consider:
1) 1958 Alifabolaget - the set with the Pele "rookie" card, the most valuable soccer card, deserves to be in the list. Honourable mention to the Quigol set.
2) 1898-1902 Ogden's sets - maybe excluded because they are not exclusively soccer but landmark sets in their own right and first appearances on cards for many vintage greats.
3) 1958 A&BC - their first dedicate soccer set, includes the Bobby Charlton rookie card that some people liken to the 1952 Mantle.
4) Baines and Sharpes Shields - unique design, some great players, and large quantity of obscure teams.
5) 1902 Wills - classic photograph design and great checklist of early stars.
6) 1928 Gartmann Chocolates - naturally beautiful cards

I'd definitely have Ogdens instead of Copes if we could count them as one set, but like you said its actually a whole bunch of sets covering everything. 1902 Wills is a great pick, that should be there.

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by fadster

If I had to classify periods in football I'd say
vintage 1978 and earlier
"panini years" 1979-1993
Modern 1994-2013 (Merlin is bought by Topps and steadily grows, both Panini and Topps expands ranges domestically)
Ultra Modern 2014 - present (Topps and Panini start bringing out global releases and brands)

I'd place the dividing line at 1990....that's when the first US manufacturers starting producing sets....Pro Set in 1990/91 for the UK, and Score in 1992 for Italy, following by Upper Deck in 1993/94 for the World Cup.

For me....pre-1990 is vintage, 1990-2016 is modern, and post-2016 is present-day.....

[fadster]

Originally Posted by mfw13

I'd place the dividing line at 1990....that's when the first US manufacturers starting producing sets....Pro Set in 1990/91 for the UK, and Score in 1992 for Italy, following by Upper Deck in 1993/94 for the World Cup.

For me....pre-1990 is vintage, 1990-2016 is modern, and post-2016 is present-day.....

Those early 90's sets were false starts. Aside from the Pro-set none were popular at the time and all brands shelved after one or two seasons. They were more spillovers from the junk wax era rather than the start of something permanent. It wasn't until Merlin Premier Gold, Panini Megacracks and the Panini Calcio Cards things started to stick.

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by fadster

Those early 90's sets were false starts. Aside from the Pro-set none were popular at the time and all brands shelved after one or two seasons. They were more spillovers from the junk wax era rather than the start of something permanent. It wasn't until Merlin Premier Gold, Panini Megacracks and the Panini Calcio Cards things started to stick.

Yes and no.

It's true none of those brands lasted beyond a year or two. But at the same time, they were the "gateway" products that introduced soccer card collecting to North America.

You have to remember that prior to 1990, soccer (and soccer card collecting) for all intents and purposes didn't exist in the United States. The NASL had slowly withered away and died in the early 80's, and the US hadn't qualified for the World Cup in 40 years.

Then the US qualified for the 1990 World Cup in Italy and was awarded hosting rights for the 1994 World Cup, and the lightbulb went on in a few people's heads that hey, maybe there might be some collector interest in soccer cards, especially in the USA.

And then Merlin & Panini looked at these products and saw that there was, in fact, a market for soccer cards (as opposed to stickers) and started producing Premier Gold, Panini Calcio, and other card sets starting in the mid-90's.

They were the "link" products that connected the North American card-collecting tradition with the European/South American soccer sticker collecting tradition and established that there was a market for soccer cards.

[kobewhite]

Originally Posted by Ray V

Always so difficult to narrow down to just 5, you've made some fine choices. A few others to consider:
1) 1958 Alifabolaget - the set with the Pele "rookie" card, the most valuable soccer card, deserves to be in the list. Honourable mention to the Quigol set.
2) 1898-1902 Ogden's sets - maybe excluded because they are not exclusively soccer but landmark sets in their own right and first appearances on cards for many vintage greats.
3) 1958 A&BC - their first dedicate soccer set, includes the Bobby Charlton rookie card that some people liken to the 1952 Mantle.
4) Baines and Sharpes Shields - unique design, some great players, and large quantity of obscure teams.
5) 1902 Wills - classic photograph design and great checklist of early stars.
6) 1928 Gartmann Chocolates - naturally beautiful cards

Love all of these sets. Didnt want to choose more than 1 per country, England could have a top 5 alone easily. Chose sets with only soccer as well, which ruled out Ogden's.