GS COLLECTS INTERVIEW


1. INTRODUCE YOURSELF.

My name is Gareth Steen I live in Northern Ireland you can find me on TikTok and Instagram as GSCOLLECTS where I have over 10,000 TikTok followers.

I collect mainly stickers from Topps and Panini new and old. Sometimes I collect cards but mainly stickers - I recently completed the 2014 World Cup album so now have every World Cup album completed 2002-2022.

Other projects include collecting every UCL sticker album starting with the 1999/2000 panini UCL album which is still ongoing.



2. WHEN DID YOU START COLLECTING AND HOW/WHY?

I started collecting as child in 1994 (8 years old) when I first got really interested in football.
The first album I collected was Merlin Premier League album 1994/1995.
The album and all the information that came with it about teams and players was like my football bible I used it to get knowledge of all the players as I became obsessed with football.
I collected Premier league stickers until 1999 and then stopped collecting.

In 2016 my country Northern Ireland qualified for Euro 2016 so I started collecting again then realized there were new ways to trade online via Facebook groups or get missing stickers via eBay making it a lot easier than when I was younger.

This gave me the taste for collecting again and after another pause in January 2022 I collected the Panini Premier League sticker album for 21/22 season. Upon completing this album I started realising more and more adults were collecting online and I joined some more Facebook collectors groups and was interesting in older collections.
I then started a TikTok account in June 2022 when I began to collect older albums like World Cup 2010 and 2018 and share this on TikTok.



3. WHAT ARE YOUR MOST VALUABLE ITEMS ?

Most valuable sticker R9 World Cup 2002 stickers I packed this myself and plan to get it graded another would be Maradona sticker at Napoli from 1985/86 this one could be worth a lot of money in good grade.



4. HOW MUCH DO YOU SPEND IN STICKERS/CARDS
WEEKLY/MONTHLY/YEARLY ?


Over the last 30 months I have collected a lot of albums and bought a lot of boxes of stickers there are times like during the World Cup 22 or during Euro 2024 where I spend a lot more then afterwards I try to calm it down and maybe sell some high value items to balance it out.
I would say no more than £100 per month minimum £50 spend a month. Some months I don't buy any stickers but spend money on accessories like binders, top loaders and card sleeves.

5. WHICH TEAM DO YOU SUPPORT ?
I support Tottenham Hotspur and also Northern Ireland national team where I go to home and away games regularly.

6. NAME YOUR FAVOURITE INSTAGRAM, TIK TOK AND
X(TWITTER) ACCOUNTS, BESIDES YOURS !


I have been following Exon_Delatorre on Tiktok since 2022 when I started collecting again properly. He inspired me to collect multiple albums and we have done many trades and became good friends.
Other big collectors such as Paolo Panini where I took part in live breaks for a while and became part of a community and discord chat he was also one of the first people to inspire me to record my own pack openings and put them on Tiktkok as we are of similar age.

7. HOW DO YOU SEE THE FUTURE OF THE "HOBBY" ?

It is a big time for stickers especially it was great to see so many people of all ages collecting Euro 2024 stickers during the summer - now with the introduction of rarer and more valuable numbered stickers it has brought new attention to the hobby.

I prefer stickers over cards because it is more simple with less variations to try and collect compared to cards - with cards there are so many new collections released all the time and most people can only have access to these via box breaks which are really expensive and to be honest if is gambling which is not good for so many young people and they will quickly have a resentment to the hobby.

For stickers the future is in the hands of Topps which keeps introducing so many variations of stickers I still prefer the simplicity of collecting Panini albums with majority base stickers which is always simple and fun (also why I prefer to collect older collections)



8. 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 TO ?


When I was younger I always dreamt about being able to go to sticker swap shops but there were never any near where I lived.
I would love to go to London Card Show or any of the big ones in England in the future and meet up with some collector friends I have made in the last 30 months.

9. WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE BRAND (PANINI/TOPPS/UPPER
DECK/ETC.) ? AND COLLECTION ?


Panini by far my favourite brand whilst I do appreciate some of the features Topps have I like legend stickers.

10. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF STICKERSONE.COM ?

I think stickersone.com is a fantastic website and a great place for sticker fanatics to go and see the wire variety of stickers from so many collections.
The layout of the new site is really good and I love how clear the images are which is important.
There are so many collections on there that I would not have any other opportunity to view without this site.


INSTAGRAM - GSCOLLECTS


TIKTOK - GS COLLECTS


YOUTUBE - GS COLLECTS


I also recently joined Bluesky @gscollects.bsky.social

You can find me on twitter @gareth_steen but I this is for personal use I don't really discuss the hobby here more on instagram

https://soccerstickersfc.net

is a website I started to contribute to in 2024 that reviews sticker albums from all over the world and I will be adding more of my own collection reviews in the near future

Actually Soccer

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