The wet Tuesday night at Grimsby. The office colleague with Monday morning delusions of grandeur after a victory on Saturday. The Sundays wasted watching nil alls which would’ve been better spent doing, well, anything. Lost Wednesday nights longing for European football and Thursday nights resenting the Europa league. Fridays thrown away to worry about the next day’s kick off. Being a passionate football fan is a seven days a week commitment, that’s for sure. And we wouldn’t have it any other way, right?

But this love which so often goes unrequited, it turns out, could get you something back in the form of buying and selling merchandise, specifically football programmes. So, we’ve teamed up with avid football fanatics, Where The Trade Buys, outdoor signage providers, to give you the IDEAL guide to collecting football programmes.

MONEY TO BE MADE

Rainy night in Grimsby? Try sunny two weeks in Miami. There are many examples of rare football programmes being sold to collectors for a lot of cash. In 2012, a family from Ipswich managed to make around £46,000 by auctioning off a set of football programmes they stumbled across in their house, which goes to show how easy it is to not realise the treasure you have gathering dust in your attic.

Fairly recently, Sotheby’s New Bond Street auctioned off the oldest-known programme from a FA Cup final — Old Etonians vs Blackburn Rovers in 1882 — for £30,000, while a single-sheet programme from the 1909 FA Cup final between Manchester United and Bristol City went for £23,500 in 2012.

SO WHAT ARE COLLECTORS LOOKING FOR?

For fans, football programmes clearly play a large part in the match day experience, or at least used to. Now, they’re largely for nostalgia’s sake. But how collectable are they and which should you search for if you want to bag a truly special edition?

The first Wembley final programme from 1923 is a great example of an important collectable item. It details the match between Bolton and West Ham United and is worth around £1,000. Alternatively, there’s the programme from the one and only time a non-English club lifted the FA Cup — Cardiff City vs Arsenal in 1927 — which ended with a score of 1-0 and has a value of about £2,500.

WHEN IT CAME HOME

The 1966 England vs West Germany programme is potentially one of the most highly prized programmes in sport. But be warned; there were three reprints of the original, so tracking down a bona fide version is tough. If you want to be sure you’re buying an original, check the weight and colouring — the reprints are more lightweight, while the front cover of the original is a deep, royal blue. Different paper types are also used for the team pages in the original, but not in the reprinted versions.

THE MUNICH AIR DISASTER

Another one that programme collectors look out for is the edition from the game that was cancelled following the 1958 Munich air disaster (Manchester United vs Wolverhampton Wanderers), which can go at auction for around £10,000. Equally like to fetch large sums is the programme for the first match following the tragedy — the 19th of February 1958’s game between Manchester United and Sheffield Wednesday. In this programme, the club showed respect to those involved in the disaster by leaving the team page blank.

WHAT BUYERS SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR

• Age – anything over 50 years old is most collectable.
• Availability — if there are many available and they’re easy to buy then, of course, this will bring the value down. As a rule, the rarer, the better.
• Demand — programmes with an iconic footballer on the cover or detailing a famous match are the most prized and valuable.
• Wear and tear — creases, missing staples and water damage all harm the programme’s price, so ask for a photo before you pay.

ADDING MORE VALUE

Any programme from an FA Cup final match holds value, as does any booklet that was perhaps the first or final edition of a player’s/manager’s career (i.e. the last game David Beckham played for Manchester United).

Another thing to highlight is that certain teams typically hold greater monetary value than others when it comes to programme collecting. So although programmes from your team’s past will be more personally valuable to you, it’s advisable to put allegiances aside if you’re in the program game to make some money. Sides such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, West Ham and Arsenal are all highly sought after and are worth keeping an eye out for if you want a particularly valuable item. The Football Programme Centre is also a good source of advice if you’re keen on becoming a serious collector.