Soccer Cards and chill Ep #15 -The early history of Soccer Cards in the UK

There's something magical about vintage cards, isn't there?

From the days when 'trade cards' were inserted into cigarette packs as 'stiffener' boards, James Taddy & Co., a seller of tobacco, snuff and tea, produced 'cigarette cards' from 1897, with its first football card set Prominent Footballers. releasing in 1907.

Two further sets were released in 1908 and 1913 thus providing a fascinating overview of pre-Great War football. Certainly another world before the days of VAR, huge transfer fees and pink boots!

Such is the history that Futera wanted to memorialise the Taddy brand, perpetuating the Taddy story into the future. In 2014 Futera worked with the fine detail, colours and size of the original Taddy & Co. 'Prominent Footballers.' cards to create commemorative sets featuring footballing greats from a bygone era through to legends from the 21st century.

SERIES 2 & 3: The cards were created with a die-cut aperture to allow for the inset of a 'cigarette size' printed card within it thus providing continuity of the vintage theme from the 'original Prominent Footballers.' cards created by Taddy & Co.

The intention had been to introduce Sets 2 and 3 through the Futera UNIQUE 2014 Collection, with cards being signed by a selection of the players.

Sadly, Eusebio passed away and his cards could not be signed, and the Sets were put on hold with cards remaining unsigned.

Note: to commemorate Eusebio's professional career as one of the greatest footballers of all time, that year Futera released six of the unsigned Eusebio cards, the remaining four being kept with the original set. But what happened to these Sets of Series 2 & 3 cards? Well, we lost them... 😐 During a move to a bigger Futera HQ, two of the Futera archives were consolidated and the cards were misplaced… Until now!

Mark Watson, Futera's Creative Director, recently discovered the cards in a taped-up box, and when we saw them and appreciated the thought and passion that had gone into the creation of the sets, we thought collectors might like the opportunity to secure a little piece of Taddy & Co. x Futera history through the release of these 'lost cards'.

This new release comprises a Base Set of 24 players from a bygone era # to 10, plus '1 of 1' Parallel cards with 23ct gold plated frames, together with '1 of 1' 23ct gold plated framed cards featuring 26 players from more modern times.

Insert ratio: 1:5 packs features a '1 of 1' card with a 23ct gold plated frame. You can purchase packs of Taddy x Futera 'Prominent Footballers.' from a combined Series 2 and 3 cards from our shop.

www.futera.com

Price: USD$99 per pack of 2 cards. Each pack will comprise two cards with a 1:5 chance that one of them could be an ultra-rare '1 of 1' with 23ct gold plated frame.

It sounds like you could be getting your hands on a truly spectacular collector's item! Nice.

In this episode, Adam and Mark talk about this new set and Adam interviews football historian, Peter Jones.