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How it started...

Although I left the capital as a small boy, I was born in Tottenham and it was only natural that Spurs would be the club that I would support through life.

With a wife, kids & mortgage, the opportunity to travel to White Hart Lane is an ever increasing luxury with demands, as always, on time and money so I have kept alive my interest in all things Tottenham by collecting various ephemera relating to the club. Having dabbled with various items I have, over the years, gravited almost solely now towards collecting cards.

This has been for a number of reasons: The sheer variety of styles, colours, sizes and makers of cigarette cards etc. varies hugely compared to, say, programmes and the subject matter also offers a whole range of different subjects to collect. Faces and details of players from the whole history of a club become available, not just the greats of the game but also, often, obscure players who only played a handful of games for a club before moving on elsewhere.

Importantly, the cost of cards makes it a very accessible hobby. Collecting programmes becomes very expensive once you start collecting older programmes, especially pre-war. It's true that there are many (far too many!) cards that are also of considerable value but there are also a great range that are affordable right from the beginning of card production (around the start of the 20th century) through to the present day. This allows a collection to range from up-to-the-minute cards to cards that are now well over a hundred years old without breaking the bank. It's also true that getting those really valuable cards is very agreeable when the opportunity comes along!

Importantly as well, cards and such are small items and easily storable without the wife getting huffy about the amount of space being taken up. I now have over 3000 cards (plus silks and what-not) and over 1400 stickers and still have a fair number to go!

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The Cards

I won't give a history of football cigarette card production and collecting as there are many sites and sources that offer far better narratives than I could do and this site is intended to simply show off the number of cards and stickers I have collected over the years and hopefully offer some interest and enjoyment to anyone who cares to take a look at the site whether they be card collectors themselves, fellow Tottenham supporters or simply fellow football fans.

My collection consists, in the main, of Tottenham Hotspur cards & stickers. I do not generally collect paper items although there are a number of these as well (as is my whim!). Plastic cards and metal coins are also part of the collection.

The cards and stickers must be of players either in Spurs kit or where Tottenham is the major subject of the text (recently arrived players may be in other kits if newly transferred). Players therefore in international colours where Tottenham is not the major interest of the text are not collected (with the very odd exception) - this keeps the collection within fairly tight boundaries and keeps it very much a Tottenham Hotspur collection. 

The site is sectioned into either chronological pages (Pre-Great War, 1950s, Late-2000s etc) depending on how many cards were produced during certain periods or by maker (for example: A&BC, Barratts or FKS) where certain companies have provided a great number of cards for a considerable period.

A photo of each card (front and back where relevant) will hopefully be displayed together with details of the maker and issue, space permitting.

There are a number of cards that I still have to collect that I know are out there and these will, when I can, be mentioned where I haven't got them although I am sure there are quite a few cards out there that I don't even know about.

I've enjoyed making this site which is now up to date and I hope that you enjoy looking at the site and contents as it continues to grow (new cards & stickers will be continually added as and when I get them...)