Football shirt collecting article: Interesting parallels with vintage collecting

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I love a retro shirt (sadly this fits my boy rather than me but what can you do)

Prices vary widely and as we’ve got bigger as a nation (me in particular) 90’s shirts for the fuller figured gent about town are tough to find
 
I still have a couple of 80s Bradford City shirts, but since they were bought for 15 year-old me they don't go anywhere near me now!! I can absolutely see the appeal of this hobby. Anything I collect either has to have a nostalgic attachment or an appealing design, and just like vintage SW there are so many different ways you can collect. I'm not going to be starting up another collection though ;)

How big is your collection @lejackal? Any particular focus?
 
I still have a couple of 80s Bradford City shirts, but since they were bought for 15 year-old me they don't go anywhere near me now!! I can absolutely see the appeal of this hobby. Anything I collect either has to have a nostalgic attachment or an appealing design, and just like vintage SW there are so many different ways you can collect. I'm not going to be starting up another collection though ;)

How big is your collection @lejackal? Any particular focus?
I used to collect rugby shirts before and got to 50 or 60 at one point. That’s down to about 15 now, although I’ve started adding shirts for Coventry Bears Rugby League, the team I played for locally and also the club that my lad now plays for in the juniors. Football shirt wise I’ve got one signed Arsenal shirt from around 2006 (so has Henry, Toure and a few others from the invincibles) and another 4 or 5 from the late 90’s to mid 2000’s. Very much a fledgling collection.
 
Here’s some favourites from Arsenal and also the Coventry Bears
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It really does have some similarities to vintage SW collecting. I noticed this is an old post, but I wanted to chime in because a few years back, I started collecting shirts. I love how both communities appreciate the history and nostalgia. This article sounds like a fun read.
 
As an avid collector of many things over the years, I can certainly see the appeal of football shirts. In recent years I picked up a couple of Scoredraw replica England shirts - '76 and '80. It was bit of a nostalgia trip as I wanted the '76 pattern home shirt as a boy but never got one. The Scoredraw shirt didn't have the Admiral logo though. I always loved the older shirts with their embroidered England logo.
 
I have a couple of signed/framed shirts. Bought them from ebay so fairly certain the signatures are dodgy, but they look good. Got Maldini, Maradona, Cruyff and Pele.

All were alive when I bought them.
 
Yeah, that BBC piece really hit home. The way people chase rare kits now feels a lot like vintage toy hunting — prices, nostalgia, and all. I got hooked after picking up a few soccer jerseys from a retail store last year, thinking I'd just grab one or two.
 
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There's a Bon Jovi signed American football shirt in the house, that my wife bid on from Real Radio charity auction many years ago. The support band donated it and it's framed.
 
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