 The Sun Newspaper enjoyed a 3-year flirtation with football stickers cards in the early 70s, before disappearing from the scene until 1979. In 1979 they produced the 1000-item Soccercards set, then disappeared again until 1989. |
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| 1969/70 | |||
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Footballers. The Sun's first ever set of
football cards, a set of coloured drawings given away, I think, with tokens
from the newspaper. The cards obviously came as part of a sheet, though
I'm not sure how many per sheet. Number in set: 22 Gallery: N/A Checklist: N/A |
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World Cup 1970 Souvenir Chart. In early 1970
the Sun produced a Souvenir Wallchart (price 1/-) in anticipation of the
1970 Mexico City World Cup. The chart had spaces for a number of stickers,
which you ordered from the Sun. The stickers were:
Number in set: 82 |
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Soccer Calendar 1970 Souvenir Wallchart.
The wallchart has spaces for a number of stickers, which you ordered from
the Sun. The stickers were:
Number in set: 66 |
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| 1970/71 | |||
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Swap cards. In 1970 the Sun began an interesting
series of cards which you acquired from the newspaper to stick into albums
(which they called Encyclopaedia). The first offering was a set of 134 cards
covering teams from the First, Second and Third Divisions, First Division
captains and star players and Second Division star players. The fronts of
the cards had the pictures while the backs (in various colours) included
the instructions. You obtained tokens which appeared every day in the Sun
during the 1970/71 football season and send them away to receive some swap
cards. The cards were to be mounted in the spaces left for them in the 164-page
Scrapbook Encyclopaedia of Football (available from newsagents for 2/-). Number in set: 134 cards Gallery: N/A Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist |
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| 1971/72 | |||
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Soccerstamps. Following on from the undoubted
success of the Swap cards the Sun followed up in 1971/72 with the ambitious
Soccerstamps collection. The Soccerstamps were stamps, rather than cards,
and came in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colours. The tokens for
Soccerstamps appeared in the Sun each day. The Sun only accepted tokens
in lots of six, plus 5p, to get your 12 Soccerstamps by return post. The stamps were to be mounted in the spaces for them in the 164-page Football Encyclopaedia and Soccerstamp Album (available from newsagents for 10p). The album suggests that you stick them in with stamp hinges. Collectors of these stamps therefore distinguish between those which were (a) never stuck into an album, (b) stuck in with stamp hinges or (c) stuck in as stamps. The Sun claimed at the time that over 60 million Soccerstamps were to be printed, which means that they often turn up today. Number in set: 500 stamps. Four additional stamps are also known, numbered 501 to 504, issued as a block of four 'Christmas Greetings'. Gallery: N/A Checklist: N/A |
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| 1972/73 | |||
3D Starcards, Actionpix and Moviecards. In
1972/73 the Sun went even further with 3 different types of cards in the
same album. Unfortunately they couldn't decide what to call them, so they
go by a number of different names... The cards were all '3D' and comprised:
The cards were to be mounted in the spaces in the 99-page Football Encyclopaedia and 3D Album (available from newsagents for 15p). If these cards were stuck into the albums they will undoubtedly have damage to their backs, so collectors are often seeking cards which never saw the insides of the album. Number in set: 108 cards Gallery: Football Stars - N/A Gallery: Football Action Cards - N/A Gallery: How to Play Football Checklists: Football Stars - Set checklist, Team checklist Checklists: Football Action Cards - Set checklist, Team checklist |
 
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| 1978/79 | |||
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Soccercards. A massive set produced by the
Sun newspaper for no apparent reason. This was their first football cards
production for 6 years, and it was another 8 years after this one before
they tried again. The set includes 1,000 "full colour drawings"
of players, flags and trophies. Presumably they were unable to obtain the
rights to the player photos so they commissioned an artist to draw the pictures.
A typically neat way of avoiding the payment of image rights. The cards were available in packs of 50. The information printed on the cards was correct as at November 1978. The fixtures printed in the albums was correct up until 16 December 1978.The set is divided into a number of categories: Cards 1 - 200 International stars Cards 201 - 350 All time greats Cards 351 - 546 Defenders Cards 547 - 742 Midfielders Cards 743 - 938 Strikers Cards 939 - 988 Flags of soccer nations Cards 989 - 1000 Major football trophies Four albums were available for the set, though they had unnumbered spaces, and not enough for 1,000 cards (each album has 150 spaces). Apparently you decided what you wanted to stick into each album. The albums were named: No 1 - Soccer Souvenir Album No 2 - My Gallery of League Stars No 3 - Gallery of Superstars No 4 - Gallery on International Soccer Number in set: 1000 cards. Gallery: N/A Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist |
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