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World Cup Soccer Means Fun for Collectors

The official FIFA World Cup Sticker Collection.

For many fans around the globe, the four-year celebration that is the World Cup of soccer is bigger than the Olympics. National pride and championship bragging rights will be on the line for the 32 teams participating in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. The tournament kicks off June 14, 2018, and will run through July 15, 2018. During that time, the world will be captivated by the matches of the beautiful game.

For fans, aficionados and collectors of the sport, the World Cup presents plenty of opportunities to commemorate the tournament with multiple collectibles available. In particular, Panini America, the licensed manufacturer of trading cards and stickers for FIFA, has three products that will be of interest to fans worldwide.

World Cup Stickers

One of the most affordable and comprehensive collections of World Cup players is the official FIFA World Cup Sticker Collection. Consisting of 650 total stickers, the collection is sold in individual packs with five stickers per pack. Retail boxes contain 50 packs. A custom, four-color collector’s album houses the entire collection. The 80-page album has spreads for each of the tournament’s participating teams.

This lot of 50 Panini 2018 FIFA World Cup official stickers sold this past May 2018 for $100.

The sticker collection was so popular during the 2014 FIFA World Cup that there were multiple reports of shipments of stickers being hijacked and sold on the black market. Pretty amazing for a product that costs a mere dollar per pack.

World Cup Trading Cards

2018 Panini Prizm World Cup soccer cards.

For more traditional trading card collectors, 2018 Panini Prizm World Cup soccer cards provide the opportunity to collect autographed cards of some of the tournament’s most popular players including Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr., and many others. With a current retail selling price of $115 per 24 pack box, each pack contains six cards. The set consists of 300 base cards along with multiple insert sets that highlight the game’s elite scorers, new comers, and more. Autographs are inserted at the approximate rate of one in every other box. With a pack price of less than $6, there is a relatively low price of entry with potentially big rewards. Autographed cards of the World Cup’s biggest stars can sell on the secondary market for hundreds of dollars. This built in chase definitely adds to the excitement of opening packs.

This autographed Luis Suarez 2018 Panini card sold for $299 in May 2018.

For those collectors with deeper pockets and who appreciate the nature of super premium trading card products, Panini America is also scheduled to release a luxury brand of soccer cards called World Cup Eminence. With a retail price tag in excess of $8,500, each box delivers a minimum of nine autographed cards. However, these are no ordinary trading cards.

Lionel Messi Panini Eminence card set.

The designs themselves are exquisite and are highlighted by the absolute best of the best when it comes player selection. Showcasing on-card autographs of many legendary first-time signers, the autograph checklist reads like a who’s who of soccer. Every hand-packed box of Panini World Cup Eminence will receive at least one autograph each from the following groups:

Group A: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo (Brazil)

Group B: Neymar Jr, Pele, Ronaldinho, Diego Maradona, Roberto Baggio

Group C: Christian Pulisic, Javier Hernandez, Philippe Coutinho, Eric Cantona, Gabriel Batistuta, Zico

The product also features a lengthy list of Cut Signature cards from many notable greats including: David Beckham, Gerd Muller and Helmut Rahn, just to name a few.

Panini America’s trifecta of FIFA licensed World Cup products are designed to deliver a fun and enjoyable collecting experience regardless of your budget.

World Cup Player Memorabilia

A jersey signed by Argentinian great Lionel Messi, perhaps the game’s most world-renowned player.

If trading cards and stickers aren’t your thing, multiple companies sell licensed autographed memorabilia of several players participating in the World Cup. Some of the most reputable companies include Upper Deck Authenticated, Icons, and Fanatics. Each carries some beautiful signed memorabilia pieces of the Argentinian great Lionel Messi who is perhaps the game’s most world-renowned player. Fans of other nations can be assured that they too can find autographed memorabilia of their favorite footballers as well.

Dele Alli signed cleat.

Autographed national team jerseys are very popular with collectors and make for an impressive display piece. Autographed cleats, soccer balls and photographs round out the top memorabilia items most in demand. Collectors will pay a premium for such items. However, these collectibles almost assuredly, will at least maintain their value, if not see an increase in the future.

Regardless of who you cheer for or who you collect, the World Cup promises to be filled with drama and plenty of opportunities to collect the game’s biggest stars.


Rob Bertrand has been an active collector of sports cards and memorabilia for more than 25 years. His involvement in the hobby community is well documented, having been involved with multi-media content development for several sports collectibles websites. Currently the Senior Marketing Manager for Sports & Entertainment at the hobby distributor GTS Distribution, he is also the co-host of the sports collectibles hobby’s only live streaming and nationally broadcast web show, Go GTS Live – The Hobby’s Web Show. He is the author of the highly respected and trafficked blog, Voice of the Collector and you can follow him on Twitter @VOTC. A dealer himself, Rob runs an online business through eBay, and is frequently asked to consign collections.

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