| Season 1969/70 Quantity as well as quality. A number of firms jump on the football cards and memorabilia bandwagon. Magazines, newspapers and comics beef up their efforts and the marketplace gets fabulously congested. So many things to collect... |
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| A&BC Gum (English) | ||||||||||||||
| Football - Green backs. Another
popular A&BC set. The backs included a Football Facts quiz. Series
1 comprises cards 1 to 64, Series 2 cards 65 to 117 and Series 3 cards
117 to 170. The 3 checklist cards are unnumbered. Two players (Lawrence
and Woodfield) have card number 117. Number in set: 174 Gallery: Arsenal, Burnley, Chelsea, Coventry City, Derby County, Everton, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Leicester City, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Stoke City, Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Checklists Checklists: Series 1 (1-64), Series 2 (65-117), Series 3 (117-170), Team checklist Special: Green-back wrappers gallery Special: A&BC Chewing Gum variants and error cards Special: A&BC counter boxes gallery |
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Crinkle-cut
photographs. Attractive black and white photograph cards with a crinkle-cut
edge. Numbers 1 to 18 were issued with Series 2 of the Green Backs.
Numbers 19 to 36 were issued with Series 3. Number in set: 36 Gallery: N/A Checklists: Series 1 (1-18), Series 2 (19-36), Team checklist |
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World
Cup Posters. A super set of posters. You bought the posters through
buying the bubble gum packets (6d each). The player photographs (see
below) came for free with the posters. Number in set: 16 Gallery: Set gallery Checklists: Set checklist Special: A&BC counter boxes gallery |
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World
Cup Footballers. Super attractive cards for the 1970 England World Cup
Squad. Available in two forms - with or without an embossed Jules Rimet
trophy. These cards were issued with the World Cup Posters above. Number in set: 37 Gallery: Set gallery Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist |
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| A&BC Gum (Scottish) | ||||||||||||||
| Football - Blue backs.
A set of 75 cards plus two checklists. Whereas the previous Scottish sets
had only players from Scottish clubs, this set included a number of English
clubs and players. Gallery:
N/A |
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Crinkle-cut photographs.
Attractive black and white photograph cards with a crinkle-cut edge. These
cards were issued with the Blue back set.
Gallery: N/A |
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| Anglo Confectionery | ||||||||||||||
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Football Quiz.
Each card has Quiz questions on the back, with the answers available on
the following card. The interesting thing about this set is the variety
of players and clubs featured, not just the elite club players but inclusions
from Bury, Chester, Darlington, Lincoln City, Port Vale, Southport, York
City, to name but a few... Number in set: 84 Gallery: Set gallery Checklists: Set checklist or Team checklist |
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National
Team Colours. A rare set of 56 attractive cards. Each card states 'Colours
of national teams shown in this series are colours officially registered
with F.I.F.A. - Federation Internationale de Football Association, the governing
body of World Football. It must be remembered that national sides wear, on occasions, alternative colours and also that some countries may have registered new colours since the publication of this series'. II'm not sure who selected the 56 teams, but there are some strange choices. For example, Congo Kinshasa, Basutoland and Sierra Leone are featured while the likes of Czechoslovakia, Portugal, Bulgaria and Wales are not. Number in set: 56Gallery: Set gallery Checklists: Set checklist or Team checklist |
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| Coffer | ||||||||||||||
| Postcards.
A set of postcards produced by Coffer of London. The postcards are numbered
P/XXX. The lowest number that I know of is 101, and the highest is number
148. I've dated this set based on the
terms i.e. Martin Peters (P126) is recorded as West Ham, and Jimmy Greaves
(P111) is recorded as Tottenham. The two swapped clubs as part of a deal
in March 1970. Number in set: 48? (not sure) Gallery: Incomplete set gallery Coffer may have produced a second series of these cards, numbered P201 etc. They feature players such as Charlie George and Steve Heighway, suggesting a later date than 1969/70. If you can confirm this, please send me an email. |
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| Daily Mail newspaper | ||||||||||||||
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World Cup Wallchart. In anticipation of the
Mexico 70 World Cup the Daily Mail produced a large colour World Cup Wallchart.
The wallchart has spaces for the 22 members of the England squad. Each space
on the wallchart notes that 'The coupon for this colour picture & biography
will appear in the Daily Mail from April
6th. The set of stickers for the wallchart, available as a single sheet
of glue-backed stickers, actually comprises 28 stickers, the sheet noting
that 'These 28 players are the travelling party for Mexico named by Sir
Alf Ramsey on March 25th. His final squad of 22 will be announced eight
days before the May 31 World Cup kickoff". Each sticker has 'Daily
Mail World Cup Souvenir' printed, plus a player biography. Number in set: 28 Gallery: Set gallery |
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| Daily Sketch newspaper | ||||||||||||||
| World Cup Souvenir.
The World Cup Souvenir Cards were produced to acknowledge 'England World
Cup candidates plus international stars of world renown'. The cards were
obtained by cutting out coupons which appeared in the Daily Sketch. You
needed to collect 5 coupons then send them to the newspaper who sent you
5 cards (as a strip of 5). The first coupons appeared in the newspaper dated
23 February 1970. The Daily Sketch later issued a 'Stop Press' which advised 'You can now get your complete set of 40 World Cup Colour Cards in three weeks instead of seven. All you have to do now is send in Twelve Coupons for the other 35 cards. Start collecting your coupons from the Daily Sketch from Monday, March 2nd'. The cards were designed to be cut out from their strip of 5 and stuck individually into the Mexico 1970 World Cup Souvenir Album, which cost 1/3 at the time. Some cards therefore appear on the market in strips, while most appear singularly. Number in set: 40 Gallery: N/A Checklists: Set checklist or Team checklist. |
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| World Cup Transfers.
These transfers were issued as two sheets, each of 14. They were often cut
into single transfers and stuck onto school books.
I'm not sure how you got them or much more about
them. Do you know? Number in set: 28 Gallery: Set gallery Checklists: Set checklist or Team checklist. |
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| Esso | ||||||||||||||
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World Cup Coin Collection.
In 1970 Esso commissioned 30 coins depicting the England squad for the World
Cup. The coins are made of solid metal, and were wrapped for distribution
through petrol stations. You were given a coin each time you bought four
gallons of petrol, or two coins if you bought eight. Two options were available for storing and displaying the coins. The free red card provided 30 slots to hold the coins. The blue mounting board could be bought from Esso petrol stations for 2/6. The board was made of thick card and the coins pressed into holes. There is a special, very rare, set of these coins made of solid bronze by the Franklin Mint for presentation by the Esso Petroleum Company Ltd. These coins come in a blue presentation folder (see picture). Rarer still there is also a Sterling Silver set by Franklin Mint, presented only to Sir Alf Ramsay, each player, plus each Director of Esso Petroleum (this fact confirmed by the son of one of the Directors). The sets presented to the players have the player name embossed on the front of the presentation folder, the sets presented to the Directors do not. A special gallery of these coins is available below, including special statistics of the appearances and goals of each of the squad members at the World Cup. Number in set: 30 Gallery: Set gallery Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist |
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| FKS Publishers | ||||||||||||||
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The Wonderful World of Soccer Stars in Action.
Similar to the previous year's album,
except that the player biographies are no longer printed on the backs of
the cards. The now familiar phrase 'A full biography of this player will
be found in the appropriate space in the album' first appears. Album: Price
2s 6d. Number in set: 330 Packet: 7 stickers for 6d Gallery: Arsenal, Burnley, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Derby County, Everton, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Stoke City, Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers. Checklists: Set checklist Special: FKS album gallery |
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| IPC Magazines | ||||||||||||||
A complete
record of the World Cup 1970 (presented free with the Valiant). An
interesting poster issued by the IPC comic in their 6 May 1970 issue. It
had spaces for you to fill in all of the results from the World Cup, including
team selections and scorers. Most interestingly the poster has 16 spaces
for stickers which were issued with the comic in four sheets (see below).
These stickers are unnumbered and have no other features to identify them
with this poster, so they are rare finds if still unstuck.
Number in set: 16 player stickers and 16 flags (four sets of flags were issued by the Valiant so that you had enough to complete the poster). |
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Shoot stand-up figures. Bobby Moore was the
central figure when Shoot Magazine was released on 16 August 1969. The magazine
used the phrase 'Bobby Moore writes for you...'. In it's fourth edition
(dated 6 September 1969) Shoot gave away a 'super stand-up colour figure
of Bobby Moore - the player of players'. Inside the magazine was a full-page,
colour advertisement with a 'sensational offer, exclusive to Shoot readers'.
A set of 8 stand-up figures, with an average height of 7", could be
purchased for only 3s 9d. This was the first set of 8, followed by three
other sets, meaning that there was a total of 32 stand-ups which you could
buy, plus the original Bobby Moore.The second set was available in the Shoot
magazine dated 13 September, the third set 25 October and the fourth set
some time after that (not sure of the exact date). Since you had to buy
them, these stand-ups are very rare.Thanks to Jim and Dee for providing
the images for this gallery. Number in set: 33 Gallery: Set gallery |
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My favourite soccer stars (Blue backs). A
set of 160 small cards that most boys of the period will remember. They
were issued as sets of 32 cards in 5 different comics. The cards came in
sheets of 8 per comic, so you had to buy 5 comics for 4 weeks to collect
the whole set.The cards could be mounted in small albums presented free
with the comics. Fortunately the mounting was done by slipping the cards
into slits by their corners, so the cards should never have been glued.
This means that a number of the cards have survived in excellent condition.
The cards featured a number of players from lesser known clubs and lower
divisions, so proved quite popular to a wide audience. The comics were: Buster,
Lion, Scorcher, Smash and Tiger. The publication dates were: February 7,
14, 21 and 28, 1970.Scorcher comic only commenced publication on 10 January
1970, so this was obviously a vehicle to promote the new comic. Smash had
begun in 1966, but didn't last much past these cards, ending in 1971. Number in set: 160 (32 x 5) Checklists: Set checklist and Team checklist. |
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| Monty Gum | ||||||||||||||
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International Football Teams. A set of team
pictures produced for the international market which includes 11 English
teams. I'm showing a scan of the packet which they came in plus one card.
The back of the packet is written in Dutch, so its all foreign to me. However,
I suspect that it says that the backs of all of the cards make up a 4-colour
poster of Benfica. The Benfica picture is the same image as card number
57 from the set. There are no markings on the cards to indicate that they
are produced by Monty Gum or are part of this set. I'm not sure how many countries these cards were sold in, but they don't seem overly common, so perhaps just a handful. There was nothing else from Monty Gum in England for another 6 years, so let's assume that they didn't sell too well in England in 1969 and 1970. A pity really, because they showed some promise. Number in set: 72 Gallery: Set gallery, Benfica team picture gallery Checklists: Set checklist, Team checklist |
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| Nabisco | ||||||||||||||
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Footballers.
A set of 24 cards included in packs of Shredded Wheat. There are two varieties
of these cards, perhaps representing an initial print run and a reprint.
One set has 'Nabisco Foods, Welwyn Garden City, Herts' on the back, while
the other has 'Nabisco Foods Ltd., Welwyn Garden City, Herts'. According to a flyer recently listed on ebay you could send away for a 'full colour, presentation mounted, autographed, 7" x 5"' photograph of each of these players for only 3'11 plus one cereal packet top each. I wonder how many still exist? Number in set: 24 Gallery: N/A Checklists: N/A |
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| Panini | ||||||||||||||
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Mexico 1970. The Mexico 1970 production marked
Panini's first international edition, and therefore their entry into the
English football card market. This is a very high quality set of cards in
an excellent album. It is very collectable, and therefore both album and
cards fetch high prices. Subsequent to this production Panini produced cards
for the U.K. market under the name 'Top Sellers', until 1977 when they returned
as Panini. See the separate
Top Sellers page for
details. This set comprises a combination of stickers and cards. The stickers are self-adhesive, with a peel-off back. The cards are designed to be glued into the album. If you collect the stickers it is therefore ideal to collect them with their backing paper. If you collect the cards it is best to collect them in 'never been stuck in an album' condition. The album and cards were printed in Italy by Edizioni Panini, Modena. They were distributed in England by Thorpe and Porter (Sales) Limited, Melton Road, Thurmaston, Leicester. The set comprises the following (with galleries available via each link):
Number in set: 288 (42 stickers, 242 cards) Checklists: Set checklist or Team checklist From Marcello, Florence: In Italy Panini cards were sold in the sixties and early seventies in small packets containing four cards each at the cost of 10 lire. In each packet one card have the word VALIDA or BISVALIDA printed on the back. The VALIDA cards were one-point premium cards and BISVALIDA two-points (BIS in Latin meaning two). Italian boys sent to Panini all the VALIDA and BISVALIDA cards collected and received very desirable items not always available at cheap prices in shops like leather footballs, shirts of the favourite teams (in wool!), football shoes and so on. To give you an idea, to have a leather football a boy had to collect and send to Panini 300 VALIDA cards or 150 BISVALIDA, if memory serves me well. The items that you can required from Panini in exchange for VALIDA cards were far less important than the collection itself, and so you sent to Panini only your 'doubles'. I've never sent a rare Gordon Banks, even with VALIDA printed on back, to have a shirt! In other words, Italian boys sent to Panini only their doubles and the most common VALIDA and BISVALIDA cards from his collection, and not the one with a 'rare' footballer on front. I remember that in Mexico 70 Italian collection the most rare cards were the ones with Gordon Banks, Martin Peters, Sepp Maier and the Brazil 1958 Cup Winner. |
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| Scott Paper Company | ||||||||||||||
| Scotties Famous Football Teams.
Scotties were a brand of facial tissues launched by the Scott Paper Company
in 1943 to compete with Kleenex. What is a company like this doing producing
football cards I hear you ask? This set of rare cards is labelled 'Series
1', but I'm not aware that a second series was ever produced, which is a
pity since they are high quality cards. It's a little hard to date this set exactly. The photos used are quite old - for example, the Arsenal photo includes Jim Furnell who left the club in August 1968. The Leeds United card and team photo includes Jimmy Greenhoff, but notes "now with Birmingham City". This transfer occurred in August 1968, suggesting that the team photos and player list details pre-date the card texts. However, the Manchester United team photo includes Alan Gowling, who only joined the Red Devils in September 1968. The Newcastle United photo includes Gordon Marshall, who was transferred to Nottingham Forest in October 1968, but this transfer is not noted on the card. By way of contrast the text on the rear of the cards includes details of the complete 1968/69 season, include the March 1969 League Cup final result and the June 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup win by Newcastle United. This suggests that the set was produced sometime in the 1969/70 season. One peculiarity with this set, at least with the copy I own, is that the West Bromwich card is smaller than the others! Number in set: 9 Gallery: Set gallery Checklists: Set checklist. |
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| The Sun Newspaper | ||||||||||||||
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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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| Texaco | ||||||||||||||
| Famous
Footballers. In 1969 Texaco issued a series of coins, which could be
placed into a plastic holder. These are quite rare. Number in set: 20 Gallery: Set gallery |
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| D.C. Thomson | ||||||||||||||
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The Great Stars of Football
1970. A set of 16 cards in a plastic wallet, issued with the Wizard comic. Number in set: 24 Gallery: Set gallery |
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| Football Favourites, presented with
the Victor. A set of 2 posters, each with 8 panels of colour and black and
white photos. No 1 includes Emlyn Hughes, Tommy Lawrence (Liverpool), Bobby Tambling (Chelsea), Brian Kinsey (Charlton), Peter Eustace (Sheff. Wed.), Gordon Banks (Stoke), Terry Hennessey (Notts. For.), Ron Davies (Southampton), Graham Cross (Leicester City), Maurice Setters (Coventry), Francis Lee (Man. City), Len Ashurst (Sunderland), Brian Whitehouse (Orient), Peter Gelson (Brentford), George Jones (Bury), John Hughes (Celtic), Tony Waiters (Blackpool), David Shaw (Huddersfield), Pat Stanton (Hibernian), Bobby Woodruff (Crystal Palace), George Graham (Arsenal), Ken Mulhearn (Man. City), Alan Oakes (Man. City), Henning Jensen, Preben Arentoft, Børge Thorup, Per Bartram (Morton), Rodney Marsh (Q.P.R.), John Cushley (West Ham), Mick Jones (Leeds Utd.), Richard Hale (Watford), Fred Pickering (Birmingham), Dennis Gillespie (Dundee United), John Trollope (Swindon), Ken Wimshurst (Bristol City), Oliver Conmy (Peterborough), Norman Piper (Plymouth), John Toshack (Cardiff), Neil Hague (Rotherham), David Best (Oldham), Maurice Kyle (Oxford), Norbert Lawton (Brighton), Barry Lines (Northampton), James White (Bournemouth), Hugh Curran (Norwich). No 2 includes Alex Brown (Everton), Denis Law (Man. Utd.), R Moller (Hearts), Alan Ball (Everton), Roger and Ian Morgan (Q.P.R.), Roger Hunt (Liverpool), G Stewart (Dundee), Peter Osgood (Chelsea), John O'Rourke (Ipswich), Bobby Hope (W.B.A.), Gordon Wallace (Raith Rovers), Eddie Presland (Crystal Palace), Phil Parkes (Wolves), Gerry Taylor (Wolves), Peter Rodrigues (Leicester), Lew Chatterley (Aston Villa), Jack Charlton (Leeds), Bobby Moore (West Ham), Bobby Ferguson (West Ham), Sandy Jardine (Rangers), Alan Mullery (Tottenham H.), Bill Bentley (Stoke City), Chris Cattlin (Coventry City), Tony Dunn (Man. Utd.), John Gilchrist and Keith Weller (Millwall), Bobby Gould (Arsenal), Bobby Kellard (Bristol City), Jimmy Blain (Exeter), John Hobson (Barnsley), Peter Bebbington (Barrow), Vic Gomersall (Swansea), Anthony Gregory (Shrewsbury), Ray Dean (Reading), Graham Rusling (Scunthorpe), Ken Hodgson (Colchester), Les O'Neill (Darlington), Keith Jobling (Grimsby), Brian Gibbs (Gillingham), Tom Hallet (Bradford City). |
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| Week-By-Week Record of All Football Leagues, presented with "The Victor". A fascinating booklet with pages for each of the English and Scottish leagues, including league ladders. In the centre of the booklet was a page of stickers with each of the 129 teams. The idea was that you cut out each of the team names, removed the backing paper and stuck them down in the correct place in the league tables. According to D.C. Thomson there was no need to wet the panels, they stick by themselves! Each week you could unstick the panels, move them and stick them down again. The panels would 'retain their stickiness no matter how often they are moved'. Where has this technology gone? P.S. I've got one of these, but unfortunately after 30+ years they are no longer able to be unstuck and restuck - pity! |
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| Tonibell | ||||||||||||||
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England's Soccer Stars.
A set of 12 cards issued in association with World Soccer magazine. Number in set: 12 Gallery: Set gallery Checklists: Set checklist or Team checklist |
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| Typhoo Tea | ||||||||||||||
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International Football Stars, 2nd series.
The cards were able to be cut from the side of the tea packets. The
quality of the cards therefore depends a lot on the person who cut them
out, since this dictates how much of the packet was included, and how
neat the borders will be. Some people cut them out with the accompanying
text, while others cut around the picture only. Number in set: 24 Gallery: Set gallery Checklists: Set checklist or Team checklist |
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International Football Stars,
2nd series, Colour Pictures. If you collected any 12 of the tea packet
cards you could send them away to Typhoo Tea and obtain a 10" x 8" colour photo of your favourite team, 'suitable for framing'. The address
for postage was: Typhoo Tea Ltd., REF. "2FS" Birmingham 5 The Billy Bremner 10 x 8 card appears to have a basic error where his name is spelled 'Billy Bremmer' in three different places. Can anyone confirm that this occurs on all editions of this card? Number in set: 24 Gallery: N/A Checklists: Set checklist or Team checklist. |
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The copyright of
all images used on this site remains with the copyright holders. No commercial
gain is made from the use of the images on this site.
The copyright of the overall layout, design and textual content of the site is
asserted to reside with its creator, Nigel Mercer.