Trying to complete the WC sticker album for free, pt 1: The Exchange Friend
Boffins say it would probably cost £883.80 to complete this year's World Cup sticker album without any trades, but we reckon it can be done for free by trading only. Are we onto something?
At the beginning of October, like many of you, we purchased the Panini FIFA World Cup 2022 Sticker Collection Starter Pack. But unlike everyone else, we decided it was the first and only amount of money we would spend to fill out the album.
You can – and should – read our logic and strategy here, but in a nutshell, the idea is that we're turning the initial 31 stickers in the starter pack into the 670 needed just through swaps. We use shinies, rosters, star players, and special stickers for leverage, and anyone who needs one of our stickers to complete a page will have to put in a lot of effort.
Ben Stewart is our man on the pitch, but how is he doing after his first month?
The Red Knapp PaniniIn the beginning, it's all about volume. I have to channel my inner Harry Redknapp and become the Panini wheel dealer.
I've found that capturing people's love for certain players or teams is an effective way to get things done. A Stoke fan needed Harry Souttar - it cost him five stickers.
After my first batch of trades, I managed to bring my total up to 39. After giving away a total of five stickers for a return of 13, that wasn't a bad start. And I also picked up a shiny Uruguay 1930 team sticker, probably the most notable item I've won of those 13.
I'm also using these early exchanges to gather information on how the packs will look this year.
I've come across a mate already halfway through completion that only picked up about 40 trades out of about 70 packages purchased. It was not good news. He also said he thought there had been a very good spread of shiny, team and special stickers - really not good - but he was struggling to find Tunisians. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but I'll take it.
A common theme, however, is that no one gets those extra collectible stickers that Panini has added. There are 80 in total and I had a Robert Lewandowski in my very first pack of the starter pack, but nobody cares! I hope I will meet hardcore collectors later and it will prove to be a valuable asset, but for now it's pretty useless.
BreakthroughProgress started to stall after my first wave of trades so I had to go back to the drawing board. A few minor exchanges here and there were helpful, but I needed to pick up the pace.
Weighing what I had at my disposal, I had to strike a big swap deal somewhere to get things going.
Fortunately for me, a big break was just around the corner. A friend of mine had started collecting the stickers on their first outing, but when the daunting task of collecting all 670 stickers became apparent, he quickly lost interest.
As it was, he was more than willing to part with 17 of his trades, bringing my total to over 50 stickers in total.
Now that I had more stickers at my disposal, I could properly set the wheels in motion.
I managed to topple this brilliant Uruguay team that I originally picked up for six stickers, which I think was okay.
While I trade with friends, I can't afford to trade with friends. I managed to land my biggest contract yet for Kingsley Coman, Christian Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes who brought 23 stickers between them. It's amazing what a famous and somewhat desperate player can do.
After a few more weeks of trading, I managed to increase the total to a total of 101. In total, that's a 3.25x increase from what I started with origin.
Over time, I foolishly managed to collect a few duplicates. If anyone is interested in a Grzegorz Krychowiak by chance, contact me. Having no stickers in an album definitely makes it harder to keep track of what you have!
Having now separated each of the maps into their national sides, I've made steady progress with a few teams so far. Croatia and Serbia are two teams in particular that have quickly started to gain momentum.
With just over two weeks until the start of the World Cup, I am quite happy with how far we have come, but there is still a lot of progress to be made. Keep checking Planet Football to see how we're doing.
By Ben Stewart
READ NEXT: An ode to Paul le Poulpe, the true star of the 2010 World Cup
Boffins say it would probably cost £883.80 to complete this year's World Cup sticker album without any trades, but we reckon it can be done for free by trading only. Are we onto something?
At the beginning of October, like many of you, we purchased the Panini FIFA World Cup 2022 Sticker Collection Starter Pack. But unlike everyone else, we decided it was the first and only amount of money we would spend to fill out the album.
You can – and should – read our logic and strategy here, but in a nutshell, the idea is that we're turning the initial 31 stickers in the starter pack into the 670 needed just through swaps. We use shinies, rosters, star players, and special stickers for leverage, and anyone who needs one of our stickers to complete a page will have to put in a lot of effort.
Ben Stewart is our man on the pitch, but how is he doing after his first month?
The Red Knapp PaniniIn the beginning, it's all about volume. I have to channel my inner Harry Redknapp and become the Panini wheel dealer.
I've found that capturing people's love for certain players or teams is an effective way to get things done. A Stoke fan needed Harry Souttar - it cost him five stickers.
After my first batch of trades, I managed to bring my total up to 39. After giving away a total of five stickers for a return of 13, that wasn't a bad start. And I also picked up a shiny Uruguay 1930 team sticker, probably the most notable item I've won of those 13.
I'm also using these early exchanges to gather information on how the packs will look this year.
I've come across a mate already halfway through completion that only picked up about 40 trades out of about 70 packages purchased. It was not good news. He also said he thought there had been a very good spread of shiny, team and special stickers - really not good - but he was struggling to find Tunisians. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but I'll take it.
A common theme, however, is that no one gets those extra collectible stickers that Panini has added. There are 80 in total and I had a Robert Lewandowski in my very first pack of the starter pack, but nobody cares! I hope I will meet hardcore collectors later and it will prove to be a valuable asset, but for now it's pretty useless.
BreakthroughProgress started to stall after my first wave of trades so I had to go back to the drawing board. A few minor exchanges here and there were helpful, but I needed to pick up the pace.
Weighing what I had at my disposal, I had to strike a big swap deal somewhere to get things going.
Fortunately for me, a big break was just around the corner. A friend of mine had started collecting the stickers on their first outing, but when the daunting task of collecting all 670 stickers became apparent, he quickly lost interest.
As it was, he was more than willing to part with 17 of his trades, bringing my total to over 50 stickers in total.
Now that I had more stickers at my disposal, I could properly set the wheels in motion.
I managed to topple this brilliant Uruguay team that I originally picked up for six stickers, which I think was okay.
While I trade with friends, I can't afford to trade with friends. I managed to land my biggest contract yet for Kingsley Coman, Christian Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes who brought 23 stickers between them. It's amazing what a famous and somewhat desperate player can do.
After a few more weeks of trading, I managed to increase the total to a total of 101. In total, that's a 3.25x increase from what I started with origin.
Over time, I foolishly managed to collect a few duplicates. If anyone is interested in a Grzegorz Krychowiak by chance, contact me. Having no stickers in an album definitely makes it harder to keep track of what you have!
Having now separated each of the maps into their national sides, I've made steady progress with a few teams so far. Croatia and Serbia are two teams in particular that have quickly started to gain momentum.
With just over two weeks until the start of the World Cup, I am quite happy with how far we have come, but there is still a lot of progress to be made. Keep checking Planet Football to see how we're doing.
By Ben Stewart
READ NEXT: An ode to Paul le Poulpe, the true star of the 2010 World Cup
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