Stuck On You charts the history of soccer stickers in the UK—those little bundles of self-adhesive joy that have given so much to so many since the 1970s. Immerse yourself in Panini v Merlin and the seedy underbelly of the sticker business—and wallow in the nostalgia of swapping in the school playground, shinies, and recurring doubles.
Brilliant book about the history of football cards in the UK. As a Spanish collector, I didn’t know much about British cards and stickers, but I enjoyed the read nonetheless. And, actually, I learned a lot about that hobby in the islands. It turns out collecting habits of people over there are very similar to those around here.
There are some insights to the distribution and retail business which are very interesting and make the reading experience much more enjoyable.
Excellent read which triggered a nostalgia tsunami. As well as giving an insight into the cutthroat business of producing stickers, the book also provides many anecdotes and lesser known facts about historical collections and what went in to producing them. Absolutely brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant book finished it off in two days, and went straight through mine and brothers collections over the years working out how much we and our parents have spent, doesn’t bear thinking about ...
From the opening line:"How did my life get to the point where a national newspaper photographer was coming round to my house to take pictures of a 40-year-old with his sticker albums?" to the back cover this book was a treat.
Around half of this book is focused on the business side of things, how the upstarts from Merlin took on Panini and Robert Maxwell. But there is plenty of sticker nostalgia in there too.
For all the books I have rated on goodreads, I doubt any meant as much at the time as Panini's Mexico 86, Football 87 and Euro 88. Or even Brazil 2014, stickers bought for my Godson that ended up in my own book... This book taps in to that feeling.
5 stars for sticker fans, 4 stars for everyone else.