Footy cards

Yesterday I attended a collectors fair near to where I lived. The majority of the traders had die-cast cars or trading cards, or a combination of both.

The best part of the show were those collectors who specialise in collecting football cards from the 1970’s and 1980’s. It was interesting to compare cards from that era from the current cards.

Here is a selection of recent National Rugby League trading cards:

All very flash and professional, but the special effects seem to lessen the human side of the players featured. This in stark contrast to the cards that were produced in the 1970’s:

Those pictures seem to be more human. They also show that huge moustaches and really bad hairstyles weren’t an impediment to playing top level football in Australia in the 1970’s! I do feel sorry for Gary Allsopp and Terry Wickey though for having to play in one of the worst football jumpers of all time. The Panther’s mid-70’s vertical brown and white strips was truly awful. Maybe this was the reason why the team were so bad back then – the players were probably embarrassed by the jumper. I can imagine the stick that they received when they played away from home!

Getting back to the cards, one thing that the current cards do not have is a stick of chewing gum. I bought cars when I was a youngster in primary and high school, but never managed to collect a full set. I eventually threw them away. Seeing what some of these cards were selling for at the fair, I only wish that I had kept them!