Adam Martin remembers taking boxes of Panini stickers and their accompanying World Cup albums to a Formula 1 race in May, shortly after his collectibles shop had received a shipment and long before the tournament was to begin.
The idea was to give them to friends with kids. But what happened next surprised him.
"When I walked in with this box of cards,” Martin recalled, "hundreds of people of all creeds and cultures said something: ‘Where did you get those? How can I get some?’ Those Panini stickers are just that iconic collectible that goes beyond sports collectors.”
The stickers depicting players and teams in the World Cup have been around since 1970, when four Italian brothers paid US$1,000 (RM4,138) to procure the rights to produce the images. More than 50 years later, the stickers are available in packs all over the world, and fans young and old not only purchase them but also swap among themselves, helping each other fill their keepsake albums.
This year's book is the largest ever, partly due to an enlarged 48-team tournament, with 980 distinct stickers. They've become such a hot commodity that many stores are sold out, and backorders may not ship until the tournament has crowned a champion.
"We've sold an unbelievable amount of the stickers,” said Martin, one of the owners of Dave and Adam's Card World, which has shops in New York and Europe.
"We thought the order we placed months ago would be enough to tide us over,” Martin said. "We've had to reorder twice.”
Panini had produced more than 2 billion packs - each containing seven stickers - by the start of the tournament, said Jason Howarth, the senior vice president of marketing and athlete relations for Panini America. That's quite a feat considering the field wasn't set until April 1.
Most stickers are not valuable by themselves, though older ones - such as the debuts of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo - can fetch hundreds of dollars. The value comes in trying to fill the World Cup album.
"In European and South American culture, completing the sticker album is something almost every child does at some point,” said Matt Blazey, from Milton Keynes, England, whose YouTube channel featuring cards and collectibles has more than 62,000 subscribers.
"Most rediscover it in adulthood,” Blazey said, "when they realise they have adult money, which brings back all of those memories of bringing stickers into school, showing them off to your mates and swapping them to complete the album.”
Indeed, part of the beauty of the Panini stickers is in their accessibility. Each pack only costs about US$2 (RM8.30).
Beginning with the last World Cup in Qatar, though, Panini also began producing variations with special borders that are much more scarce. Suddenly, stickers with red, purple or orange edges became especially sought-after, and collectors have put huge bounties on ultra-rare, black-bordered, 1-of-1s - as in, one in the world - depicting Messi, Ronaldo, Lamine Yamal and other big stars.
Some industry experts believe the black Messi sticker alone could command US$200,000 (RM827,599) at auction.
"We're tracking and following through social media who pulls the black 1-of-1s,” Howarth said. "Neymar, Leo, Ronaldo - this is probably their last World Cup. What do those stickers sell for? That's going to be a new high mark for the category.”
Sammi Kaewsawang had never participated in the World Cup album experience until this year, when the content creator from Long Beach, California, decided to see how long it would take to physically peel and stick all 980 examples into the album.
By the time Kaewsawang finished with Panama, the last of his 48 teams, he'd been at it for about 7 hours, 47 minutes.
"Now I'm on my second one, helping my fiance's nephew complete his,” Kaewsawang said. "What made the experience so memorable was the people I met along the way. Trading stickers brought me together with fans of all ages.”
That is undoubtedly part of the appeal: Even though Panini has a digital collection available, the sense of community that comes from swapping your doubles for a player you might need brings with it a quaint sense of nostalgia, not unlike the way American kids have collected and traded baseball cards for generations.
Many shops help by scheduling swap meets. Panini itself has a truck at Rockefeller Center in New York, where thousands have shown up in the evenings to trade. Message boards allow fans to connect anywhere in the world, and about 8,000 collectors recently showed up at a stadium in Santiago, Chile, to swap.
"I've made genuine new friends though this hobby,” Kaewsawang said, "and that means more than completing the collection itself.”
Even though Panini stickers have never been hotter - a partnership with Coca-Cola means stickers can be found under labels of certain bottles - the company is facing the end of an era after the 2030 tournament in Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
The Fanatics brand Topps will take over the rights to produce World Cup cards, stickers and other FIFA collectibles, and it's unclear whether the US-based company will produce a similar product as its Italian rival.
"It is a real bittersweet moment,” Blazey said. "From my side, and for probably 90% of collectors at the moment - more so outside the US, where Panini is a household name - it's a very sad moment for this to be the end. So many people grew up collecting them, and it's synonymous with their childhood, so the loss of the license is very much seen as sacrilege.”
Yet there is also hope among collectors that Fanatics, which also recently took over the license for the Premier League, can take some of its forward-thinking ideas from sportscards and apply them to a sticker product for the 2034 World Cup.
It may not be the end of an era so much as a reboot.
"We're very privileged to be a significant partner with both Panini and Fanatics. We try not to pick sides,” Martin said.
"I think Fanatics will do an amazing job with World Cup products, but I'm not sure they'll be able to capture the cultural impact.” - AP
