Yesterday evening, one of the most coveted Panini football sticker albums was auctioned off for €12,000 on the online auction platform Catawiki. This sale has made this particular album the most expensive Panini album in the world.
This album is the international album of the World Cup in Mexico in 1970. The 50 year old album is rare in itself, but it’s also in an extraordinary mint condition and contains all 271 original stickers. On top of this, the album has also been signed twice by the legendary Brazilian footballer Pelé. “During the World Cup, Pelé was 29 years old and was the star of the tournament. Brazil won the World Cup and Pelé managed to score 4 goals, of which one was against Italy in the finals. The fact that the album has been signed by him, makes the album even more valuable for collectors,” as Wouter Waaijers, Panini expert at Catawiki, points out.
According to Catawiki, collectors from all over Europe bid on this item. The album was offered by a Dutch collector and the new owner is from Italy. In the end, the album was auctioned off for a much higher value than first anticipated.
Panini albums as investmentThe value of rare Panini albums has increased over the last few years and the record revenue from yesterday evening supports this claim. “One can clearly see that the value of old Panini albums increases every two years during the European Cup and World Cup. This is not only the case for old albums but also for European and World Cups from more recent years. In America, sport trading cards have been generating money for some time now, but the trend is now also visible in Europe. Therefore, it makes sense to look after complete Panini albums well as the chance is high that you can sell them for a lot of money a couple of years later.”
The result of the auction can be found via: www.catawiki.com/1970
