A few seasons ago Wigan were handing collectable player cards out at matches (as part of a joint initiative with the police for some reason). I don't think it was that popular though as the scheme didn't last that long as I remember.

I had the '97 sticker collection.

There are Hundreds of cigarette, trade and periodical issues of cards covering many different teams some of the most obvious to check out are Godfrey Phillips cigarettes Pinnace series most RL clubs represented , Copes clips footballers ( many RL issues) Check out Baines shields. Merlin did a whole set of about 200 in the 90s with all Rl clubs represented.

Various police forces have issued cards Greater Manchester Police did about 4 sets of Wigan cards. West Yorkshire police have done Bulls, Giants and Leeds sets etc etc.

Prices can be cheap depending on where you look but can also be expensive. I just bought a Baines shield for £45 and lost out in an auction for two Copes cards at £16 each , however i got a Daily Citizen team picture from 1914 for £5 and they are as scarce as rocking horse .
I am interesting in hearing from other collectors who may know of other issues i have not considered
If anyone has any Huddersfield cards i am always looking to buy.

Never managed to complete it, got all the Bulls squad, think I was about 30 stickers short of finishing it, still got it somewhere in my shoeboxes of old programmes

Had all but one in the end. You could finish off the set by requesting the last ten stickers or so, but my Mum made a mistake so I was always left with one short. I was very young at the time.

There were RL cards in the early 90's that I would buy on my way to school.

A poster on here was involved with the Panini stickers back in the mid-late eighties - if he's lurking around he might have some information.

I remember as a young lad the police inside the ground at headingley would give out 2 cards per game in which you built the squad over the season I really enjoyed collecting these and it encouraged you to go to every game!

This was in the era of Kevin Iro, Alan Tait, Ellery Hanley, so every to mid 90's

Reckon it must have been early 90's, RL Cards where knocking about. Remember the one for Batley's John Stainburn "a nuggety characture", seem to remember the likes of Eddie Rombo and Dennis Bailey been fairly highly prized at school - back then Dewsbury were the glamour boys flashing the cash compared to the more thrifty rivals at the other end of the Heavy Woollen, with Stephen Ball (and his box of tissues) controling things from the Taveners.

Seem to remember on our board (Wakey) a pic of Lawrie Daley as a Wakefield player on a collector card.....

You got me. I worked for Panini in the 1980s before setting up Merlin Publishing in 1989. Panini wouldn't touch RL but at Merlin we had two goes - the trading card set around 1992 and an SL sticker album a couple of years later. Enjoyed doing both of them but both lost money. Wire fans may find it amusing that after the official launch of the trading cards to RL commercial managers I was given a lift back to the station by Paul Cullen - then CM at Warrington. I bought a 'baseball-style' jacket off him from stock in the back of his car.

Problem is that, sadly, wendyball dominates the collectables market. In the almost thirty years I've been involved ( I consult for Merlin - now known as Topps - these days ) collections have been tried on RL, athletics, Sky Sports (generic sport) cricket, RU and the RU World Cup ( and even dedicated single-club wendyball collections like Man U etc ) and they've all lost money for the publishers.


BTW, Topps probably still have an archive of the old SL stickers if anyone still wants to finish their collection.

Ryan Bailey, Dwayne Barker, Leon Pryce, Stuart Reardon, The Huddersfield Giants and a few Greg Birds. Catch them while you can.

I have the Merlin 1991 card collection (man I am getting on, there are some first team players that are not that old ) which was the last English card set to be made. There are obviously others that have been made in New Zealand and Australia. Going back further there are a lot of old cigarette cards around, these can go back as far as Northern Union.

I collected the 97 stickers at the time and I picked up the early 90s cards set online a couple of years ago.

Greater Manchester Police issued a squad of Leigh ones during the 2001 season, got the full set at home somewhere.

Wigan used to always do them back in the early 90's.

I had the 97 sticker album as well and was sent a 2000 NRL one that was full