Football badges are my favourite area of all the football memorabilia items available, it has been a passion of mine since I was a young lad going to my first ever game with my dad and seeing the local badge man outside the old Feethams ground in Darlington.
Obviously I’m not the only person to have got the badge collecting bug and this has created an absolutely massive football memorabilia market catering for these badge collectors.
The amount of football badges available for the collector is staggering, in fact I would defy anyone to try and collect every badge ever made for their team, the scope is that huge and if someone says they have them all I will guarantee I can find an image of one they have not got !!
So that makes the football badge probably one of the best areas to get into, you will never get bored but you might end up pulling your hair out and you will certainly end up paying out a fortune over the years,
Another attraction of football badges is that they are a really good investment with the prices of the older original badges increasing at a major rate. In saying that though there is no doubt that the majority of people would not even dream of selling their badge collection but what a great legacy to leave your kids and your kids kids.
Some of the personal football badge collections around now are worth an absolute fortune and will only increase in value as the years roll by.
An individual football badge can also fetch a major price as well, many of the original Coffers, Reeves, Miller badges etc from the 70’s and 80’s can fetch up to the three figure mark if the right collectors are after them.
As with everything though you have got to be careful when buying “originals” as there are many reruns of original badges which look identical, some of the early badges did have the makers name stamped on the back but this was not always the case and even so it has been known for unscrupulous badge makers to replicate this mark as well.
Of course in the early stages of building your badge collection you wont be too bothered whether its an original or not as long as it’s a new one to your collection.
It is nice though to have an original but again its all down to your personal choice, just be careful though you don’t go daft and end up paying over the odds for a badge that will no doubt end up being on Ebay for a couple of pound once the person whose had it made releases them in quantity, this is usually after they’ve been put up on Ebay in ones and twos to fetch a very high price as they are a new badge for collectors.
Believe me though there are some people out there who have these made in large quantities and cheaply from places like China and then move them on in this way. Once the initial rush is over you will in most cases find the same badge going for far more realistic prices. I know this for a fact as I’ve been caught out myself paying well over the odds and then seeing the same badge from the same seller over and over again in the following months.
So in summary Ebay is a good place for football badges but just be careful.
Another more localised option of course, is to buy badges from the multitude of “badge men” who set up shop around grounds at home games. These are a brilliant way of getting new designs, again though do not pay over the odds as these guys usually get their stock in the hundreds (and thousands for the bigger teams) so you should not be paying anywhere over the four to five pound mark.
You can buy badges from the club itself of course but for some reason not many clubs have that big a range which is probably why the badge men do such a roaring trade on a match day with their sometimes unofficial range, there will of course come a time when the clubs crack down on this particular outlet as they make a stand on trademark violation and the like so make the most of this option while you still can.
To see the history of a particular teams badge just use the drop down list on the main “Badge” menu and see if the team your interested in is listed, I am working my way though them but obviously its a massive job so keep checking back for updates.
I do also sometimes have badges up for auction on Ebay so please check out my Ebay shop now and again – Footybits Ebay Shop