With most forms of collecting the first decision is where do you start and this is usually followed by a few mistakes. As our knowledge of early Subbuteo increases no doubt more speciality collecting will take place but the first place for most collectors will be the players, hence the need for full sets of scans of team strips. With card players their vulnerability and the numbers sold makes them more difficult than celluloids but the relative scarcity of all flat Subbuteo items is part of the attraction to the experienced collector. The internet has also made collections possible that could hardly have been attempted ten years ago.

Just to assemble one of each team strip in celluloid and press out card is a difficult and lengthy task. For most this will run alongside collecting full teams but there are some questions the newcomer need stop and ask themselves right at the start. Are you just going to collect teams out of base or do you also want a full set of teams in base? What level of quality do you require: if you want near mint celluloids do you realise how difficult this is going to be with card players? If you want full teams in base are you going to glue them in place? Do you want mint teams in card strips and bags? One day son all this will be yours, to complete.

We have seen on earlier pages that the card players came in strips. First came cut out strips, then a cut and press out version, followed by a press out version that merely needed cutting across below the players' feet. The celluloid players came in bags, without bases. The first bags were quite a hard cellophane with a thick seam. I suspect the cellophane has hardened over time and if left in daylight these bags tend to go brown. They were followed by a softer type of bag and this tends to become opaque if left in the sun. Both types are shown below



Sometimes you will see these bags with staples through them. It may be that the commpany produced some bags in this way or that they were stapled if they came open or for ease if storage. Whatever the reason the staples are bad news. Whether genuine or not they go rusty and the collector must take a difficult decision whether to leave or remove them. I also further protect my bags with small perspex cases intended for card colletors, not only to protect from knocks and creases but also to mitigate the effects of daylight when out of their dark storage box.



Once again significant quantities of these bags were left unsold when the company closed. Some were given away to employees but many were destroyed. This does mean that some come up for sale from time to time but for a limited range of team numbers.

When a game like Subbuteo becomes a collectors item it is a two-edged sword. On the one hand prices start to rise but equally that old set stuck in the attic is less likely to find its way in to the bin, saving what can never be replaced. The collector is then faced with the question of taking the rubbbish out of circulation and should you destroy damaged items? I faced this question with sixties gum cards and readily destroyed poor examples as there are significant numbers in circulation. A key difference with Subbuteo is the lack of knowledge out there about varieties and I would urge caution. There is a significant danger that even an experienced collector will not recognise something that is rare.

So you have started your collection and realise these items may be sixty years old. Many have been stuck in an attic or cellar, played with by children and chewed by the dog or worse. Exposure to damp and heat extremes are frequent problems. Box inners tend to sag or are marked by goal keeper wires, but how many colectors want to empty all the contents from a box? Players have been stored in shallow boxes, pitches and literature folded, footballs have been stepped on. Exposure to light has faded boxes, glue and numbers have damaged players, wires have oxidised and bases are covered in glue.

Rescue and cleaning are usually the first issue and I would ask all collectors to share their successes and failures. Cleaning is difficult because if you do not know what you are doing you can do a lot more harm than good. Some collectors refuse to clean anything and you have to respect that. Personally I thnk a little TLC can go a long way. I suggest you start with common items that can be replaced and I tend to leave card and absorbent materials well alone. Celluloid players and bases tend to respond well to a gentle clean. Pitches are tempting to wash but carefully and by hand.

My first two rules are simple and go something like this. Always use something to clean that is softer than the item you are cleaning. A finger nail will wear faster than a celluloid player. Secondly avoid extremes of temperature. So a soft tooth brush and warm water will clean a base up nicely but use a pin to clean out a slot and it will scratch the base top on the first pass. I have heard stories of people using a hair dryer and even an oven to soften players to flatten them but I woud regard these, like water that is too hot, as an absolute last resort. You often see players that are a little too long or feel soft, you know they have been ruined in one of the above ways and are now worthless.

I prefer to remove all old glue whenever possible. Sometimes glue is brittle or will soften in warm water and comes away with a gentle scrape. Once you have cleaned something do not be in too much of a hurry to put it away. You can do a lot of harm drying something that will dry naturally if left somewhere safe for a few days. Putting it away damp is just as bad as the damage will spread to anything stored with it. Think days rather than hours for something to fully dry.

Many things will need to go in to temporary storage after cleaning until they can be used. It is nearly always right to keep things together that you bought at the same time. Don't just throw all your blue bases in one box and all your red ones in another, you will regret it later. I use plastic boxes intended for craft use to split items up in to compartments of whatever size you choose. The boxes also demonstrate how many shades of blue were produced.








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