Dr. M.-Oliver Zomer - Sticker-Shop International

Introduce yourself

My name is Oliver, I am 58 years old and one of the "old school guys" in the hobby. I was born in Germany, in Dortmund and my father was Italian, so enough roots to become addicted to football.
In the internet you can find me in eBay with my eBay shop sticker_shop_international and in Instagram @sticker_shop_international. I am a lifelong football fan and a – more or less – lifelong collector of football memorabilia. My eBay shop was opened in 2009 already, making it one of the oldest eBay shops focusing on football stickers and cards (and sealed boxes!) with more than 10.000 customers, over 70.000 articles sold and approx. 4.200 followers worldwide. Only one and a half years ago I decided to also show up on Instagram and I am looking forward to achieving 10.000 followers hopefully soon.
To be honest I did never expect all this to happen. My personal passion to collect has grown over the decades and with more opportunities to buy interesting collectibles I also needed to organise selling parts of it professionally. That's how and why the whole personal hobby got bigger and bigger ending in the eBay shop more than 15 years ago now.
I was working in the industry as a marketing director for many years and also as a consultant for strategy, communication and brand management. Just before the pandemic started – without knowing where this would lead to – I decided to change some things in life and quit my job to more focus on "me and the hobby". That's more than five years ago now, and what can I say? It was a good decision and I am now doing this as a full-time job.

When did you start collecting and how/why?

My first Panini sticker collection I collected was Panini Jean's Football Fussball Weltmeisterschaft Argentinien 1978, published by Panini in 1978. I still have this collection and I am even offering sealed boxes of this collection in my shop now. This was not a standard sticker collection but a special collection with stickers made of Jeans-style material, without numbers on the back and without an album. Panini has never published anything like this later.
So it all started in 1978, with the Football World Cup Argentina 78 on TV. I was 11 years old at that time and for the first time in my life really fascinated by football, the atmosphere in Argentina and Mario Kempes, my first ever football hero.
And after 1978 things continued, collecting the Panini FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro sticker collections mainly. During my studies at the university we have founded "collectors' clubs" for students collecting stickers, swapping and trying to complete the albums.



How much do you spend in stickers/cards weekly/monthly/yearly?

This is really hard to say, but over the many years of collecting, and especially when collecting turned out to be a buy-and-sell-business too, I definitely invested a six-digit number in football collectibles. My wife always told me I must be crazy when I tried to explain to here what I have bought and why. But in the meantime even she has understood that football collectibles are a huge market worldwide with lots of opportunities for everyone.

What are your most valuable items? Name one with sentimental value and one with money value.

My all-time favorite is the complete set of 270 mint stickers plus empty album of the first Panini World Cup sticker collection Mexico 70. I am currently thinking about sending all 270 stickers/cards to PSA and let the whole set be graded as an entity. From what I know this would be the only complete Mexico 70 set graded by a grading company.
But I personally love so many other Panini sticker collections, like Champions of Europe 2005, a wonderful sticker collection of the early Champions League times. Or the World Cup sticker collections of the years 1998, 2002 and 2006, also real beauties with so many legendary players in the set. And not to forget the first ever UEFA Euro sticker collection Europa 80, a pure old school sticker collection, very hard to find.

Which team do you support?

I was born in Dortmund, so did I have a choice? Of course I am supporting Borussia Dortmund. My first match I have seen in 1979, my first season ticket I have bought in 1982. And since then I am still holding a season ticket and I am visiting almost all the home matches in Dortmund. I am living in Detmold now, which is a 125 km drive to and from Dortmund, but true football love can stand this.
As a highlight of my life as a supporter I need to mention the five European Cup finals with Borussia Dortmund I have all seen live in the stadium (1993 UEFA Cup final vs. Juventus in Dortmund and Torino, 1997 CL final vs. Juventus in Munich, 2002 UEFA Cup final vs. Feyenoord Rotterdam in Rotterdam, 2013 CL final at Wembley vs. Bayern Munich and again 2024 CL final at Wembley vs. Real Madrid). BVB has only won one of these five finals, not too successful, but unbelievable memories anyway.

Name your favorite Instagram accounts, besides yours!

There are so many excellent Instagram channels out there with people investing so much time to create wonderful football and hobby related content. I truly appreciate this and everybody running such a channel should feel concerned and addressed. To name just a few (knowing I have definitely missed many others worth mentioning here as well): @mundialstylefootball, @retro_calcio, @thefootballlove_, @smoothauctioneer, @specialonecards, @tunisianshirtscollector, @old_football_world, @psacarter, @nostalgiology, @football_in_the_70s_and_80s, @futbol_retro_siempre, @elrey_collection, @footballcardsnet and @thefootballpapers.



How do you see the future of the "hobby"?

In general I am pretty positive about the hobby. Especially football is the number one sport in the world and will always be an emotional topic for billions of people. All the childhood memories connected to football/soccer are so strong that collecting will remain a "natural human" desire. And there are many scientific psychological explanations about why collecting offers so many good feelings to people. So that's the good side.
On the other hand people still need to have enough money left to collect and enjoy buying collectibles, with prices which are affordable also for young collectors. With all the disruptive and worrying developments of our time I could also imagine that the hobby will struggle in the future to find enough "offspring". The big companies (Fanatics, Panini) and there pricing policy is also worrying me in the sense of making the hobby too exclusive and high-level forgetting the roots and where it all came from. Just some thoughts …
Short-term I do expect a brilliant year in 2026 with the next World Cup in USA, Canada and Mexico coming. Prices especially for high-level rookie cards and stickers of legends and goats have seen a remarkable upward trend over the last weeks and months. Classical sticker collections of Euro and World Cup tournaments as well as Champions League should benefit from this development as well.

Did you ever take part in any football stickers/cards fair? If yes, which one? Do you have a fair you really want to go?

So far I did not attend any football stickers/cards fair or show as a vendor. But I would love to try to see how a guy more focusing on stickers and sticker collections can "survive" at such a show. The London Card Show sounds good, also the Dublin Card Show, the Valencia Card Show or the CARDMADNESS in Düsseldorf. No plans made yet, will see what happens in 2026.

What's your favorite brand? And collection?

I grew up with Panini and with stickers, so this is my favorite brand, although Topps is launching some nice cards products too. What I don't like are these "waves" and the "overflow" of too many cards collections published almost every month. If you offer too much one day it gets uninteresting or even irrelevant. That's a mechanism especially Topps should care about in my opinion.
My favorite trading cards collection definitely is the Panini World Cup Germany 2006 card collection with both Messi and CR7 WC rookie cards and many legend cards. A truly lovely collection!

What do you think of stickersone.com?

Supernice project and website! It is a big help for collectors to have such an overview and database available. I cross my fingers for all of you guys that the website as well as the acceptance in the market is growing steadily!


Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sticker_shop_international/

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