In general you find a number of different types of collectors within the football programme world. There is the potential collector who has a passing interest in beginning a programme collection, there is the latent collector who collects programmes very sporadically, there is the casual collector who may collect old football programmes without having a specific theme to their collection, and also there is the confirmed collector who has distinct aims and regularly tries to buy programmes in order to enhance their collection.
There is no minimum or maximum size to a programme collection, and the only limitations to it come in the form of your financial restraints. To be a collector, there is no need to own highly expensive programmes, just simply something that brings pleasure or a sense of achievement to the collector. Programme collectors come from all sorts of backgrounds.
In the early stages of a collection, a collector may try to buy everything on offer to their collection as soon as they can in order to give it some bulk. However, with this comes a loss of focus, and later when restrictions may mean a particular theme has to be selected and explored in order to enhance a collection.
There truly are an unlimited number of themes and sub-themes of programmes that can be collected. However, there are certain traditional ways of building a collection. For example, for example all those programmes concerned with a particular team, all those concerned with a specific competition, etc. During the course of a collection a person is likely to discover the joys and pitfalls of buying a rare old football programme, or the frustration of not being able to find a source for one that is vital to your collection.
Those casual collectors will usually own a small number of important programmes for cup finals or semi-finals for the team that they personally support, internationals, testimonials, special fixtures, or other big cup ties. These can basically be classified as a Big Match programme.
If you have a strong affection for a particular soccer club your mission in programme collecting may be to simply buy all editions for your favourite team. In addition to the normal league and cup matches, you may also be tempted to collect programmes from friendlies, foreign tours, reserve teams, and youth teams.
One way of improving the depth and scope of your collection is by setting an earlier date from which to collect. You could, for example, decide to collect back to 1950, etc.
A collector who is neutral in his or her affiliations, and just has a general passion for football will often widen the scope of their collection. In these sorts of collections you often find football programmes from a range of teams at varying levels (including non league). For the more adventurous type of collector, football programmes may have been bought from countries other than his or her own.
